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1987 CANES - Undefeated National Champions

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JJ was dying to win a NC after the upset to Penn St. and to Tennessee the year before that in the Sugar Bowl which I experienced in person. Coaches were a who's who of greats and players were draft hot talent.
 
mdpcane said:
the loss to Penn State is probably the biggest head scratcher in CANES history.
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Not exactly. I fully expected a low scoring dogfight. The two key games to focus on were Penn State vs Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl national championship game the prior year, when Paterno and Co. had an incredible defensive scheme despite the defeat, and most importantly the Miami struggle to open the 1986 season at Florida. Testaverde was baited into one mistake after another in that game.

I never understood how that Florida game was being ignored, during the lead up to the Fiesta Bowl. That Gator defense had future Dolphins Louis Oliver and Jarvis Williams at safety. Florida had a disappointing season but the defense was stalwart all year long.

Testaverde was rattled all day against Florida and threw 3 interceptions while completing less than 50% of his passes. Miami survived only because the Canes defense forced 4 fumbles, often in key situations.

While watching the Fiesta Bowl it looked exactly like that season opener. Testaverde was baited time and again, with mistakes also similar to the Sugar Bowl versus Tennessee a year earlier. I think if that Gator game had been deeper into the 1986 season then Jimmy Johnson and the staff might have given it more weight, and had a more conservative game plan, allowing the running game and defense to patently win the game, as Barry Switzer understood against Paterno in 1985. Instead the Canes were absurdly overconfident and essentially threw away a national championship. Alonzo Highsmith alone could have won that game if allowed greater opportunity.

Blue collar teams like Penn State 1986 are always considerably more dangerous than it appears. That's why I was so desperate to avoid Ohio State the nightmare opponent in 2002. That Buckeye team had one desperate late escape after another. The Canes would have cruised against anyone else.
 
We talk about taking coaches with experience.we all see bb(Davis) as a great coach.If JJ had the same mindset bb would've never got his first college job at okst.butch was a high school coach in Oklahoma before he worked under JJ.fact both coaching staffs were good at okst/miami when JJ was hc.some followed him here then coaches both staffs went with him to cowboys/dolphins.
 
You know we're ******* garbage when the senile ***** on this board start pulling out the footage from before the Civil War.
 
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my favorite Cane team and the best cane season ever, not many teams can say they beast Mich, ND, FSU, UF and 2 other sec teams in the same year
 
why is penn state being discussed here , that was the 86 team, another CIS thread turned into negative bs
 
bhall960 said:
You know we're ******* garbage when the senile ***** on this board start pulling out the footage from before the Civil War.
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Excuse me that we are discussing Miami Hurricane history that you deem irrelevant. Many of us on CIS have been around and have seen more than you have. This is what sucks about CIS... a forum of anonymous people that gives members the opportunity to insult others at will. Maybe you find threads like "How do you like your steaks done" or "CIS Secret Santa" more interesting.
 
mdpcane said:
the loss to Penn State is probably the biggest head scratcher in CANES history.
Click to expand...

Wasn’t a Cane fan back then; actually started watching CFB as a young pup on accident in 87 back in November when Miami curb stomped, in cool fashion ND, and was crazy hooked on Miami football since then. But as a true, die hard fan, I love to dig deep in the program’s history (did the same thing w the Bears even though I was born in to it). Some nights as an adult, I used to watch that 86 game against PSU. I’ve probably watched it no lie 15x, expecting a different result. Lol.

How we lost that game is beyond me and those ints were thrown straight to PSU players. I still blame Vinny and 100% think he was paid off, but JJ gotta run the ball. He put too much stock into Vinny and I do feel it was b/c Vinny was striking PSU, and then every (exaggeration) drive was stalled by an int that made no sense. Never have I seen a team get that dominated, and still win.
 
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Rellyrell said:
Wasn’t a Cane fan back then; actually started watching CFB as a young pup on accident in 87 back in November when Miami curb stomped, in cool fashion ND, and was crazy hooked on Miami football since then. But as a true, die hard fan, I love to dig deep in the program’s history (did the same thing w the Bears even though I was born in to it). Some nights as an adult, I used to watch that 86 game against PSU. I’ve probably watched it no lie 15x, expecting a different result. Lol.

How we lost that game is beyond me and those ints were thrown straight to PSU players. I still blame Vinny and 100% think he was paid off, but JJ gotta run the ball. He put too much stock into Vinny and I do feel it was b/c Vinny was striking PSU, and then every (exaggeration) drive was stalled by an int that made no sense. Never have I seen a team get that dominated, and still win.
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Great post Relly. I have heard more than one person say that the INTs were too easy and looked like they were thrown to
Penn State players on purpose.

JJ himself said that this game was the hardest loss in his whole coaching career. Miami should have won the game easily.
The CANES running game was the right way to go, especially on the last drive. No way could Penn State have stopped the run.

one thing for sure, CANES seemed to always have problems in Fiesta Bowls for some reason.
 
gruntking said:
Excuse me that we are discussing Miami Hurricane history that you deem irrelevant. Many of us on CIS have been around and have seen more than you have. This is what sucks about CIS... a forum of anonymous people that gives members the opportunity to insult others at will. Maybe you find threads like "How do you like your steaks done" or "CIS Secret Santa" more interesting.
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too bad there are morons that can't follow a simple rule .... DONT LIKE IT ? DONT READ IT.
also I still think the board could get cleaned up real easy ... add a BLOCK feature like Twitter has. the trolls, morons, and the
downvote dip****s could be eliminated if they didn't stop their annoying behavior.
 
Awsi Dooger said:
Not exactly. I fully expected a low scoring dogfight. The two key games to focus on were Penn State vs Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl national championship game the prior year, when Paterno and Co. had an incredible defensive scheme despite the defeat, and most importantly the Miami struggle to open the 1986 season at Florida. Testaverde was baited into one mistake after another in that game.

I never understood how that Florida game was being ignored, during the lead up to the Fiesta Bowl. That Gator defense had future Dolphins Louis Oliver and Jarvis Williams at safety. Florida had a disappointing season but the defense was stalwart all year long.

Testaverde was rattled all day against Florida and threw 3 interceptions while completing less than 50% of his passes. Miami survived only because the Canes defense forced 4 fumbles, often in key situations.

While watching the Fiesta Bowl it looked exactly like that season opener. Testaverde was baited time and again, with mistakes also similar to the Sugar Bowl versus Tennessee a year earlier. I think if that Gator game had been deeper into the 1986 season then Jimmy Johnson and the staff might have given it more weight, and had a more conservative game plan, allowing the running game and defense to patently win the game, as Barry Switzer understood against Paterno in 1985. Instead the Canes were absurdly overconfident and essentially threw away a national championship. Alonzo Highsmith alone could have won that game if allowed greater opportunity.

Blue collar teams like Penn State 1986 are always considerably more dangerous than it appears. That's why I was so desperate to avoid Ohio State the nightmare opponent in 2002. That Buckeye team had one desperate late escape after another. The Canes would have cruised against anyone else.
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Horse ****.... that game was one of Jimmy's worst moments as a head coach. Testaverde had a bad game and Jimmy had many opportunities to replace him with a solid backup.
 
mdpcane said:
Great post Relly. I have heard more than one person say that the INTs were too easy and looked like they were thrown to
Penn State players on purpose.

JJ himself said that this game was the hardest loss in his whole coaching career. Miami should have won the game easily.
The CANES running game was the right way to go, especially on the last drive. No way could Penn State have stopped the run.

one thing for sure, CANES seemed to always have problems in Fiesta Bowls for some reason.
Click to expand...

Brotha, u ain’t neva lies.

I can recall very vividly during the 2002 season that I told my girlfriend, at the time, (who’s ENTIRE FAMILY are $uckeye fans) that I have a bad feeling about this game b/c of where it’s being played.

Honestly one of the most embarrassing moments of my life as a Canes fan, as I’m watching this game w her ENTIRE family (literally), the only Hurricane in the room, going from talking mucho chit, telling them to hold this 6, and then the flag. Literally fell on my face and moments later, they poured Gatorade on me saying this how it feels to be a champion. Lol but so angry. Yeah something bout that desert do us wrong.
 
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