Which was the best Miami team that DIDN"T win the National Championship?

In my humble opinion, our ‘86 team was THE GOAT. The talent on that team was unreal. While I loved JJ, I still think he was a major factor in our losing that game to Penn State. Ball inside the 7 and throw it three times?
 
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1981 Team without any doubt....Beat 5 Ranked teams (including FSU...UF...ND) and #1 Penn St....would have Dusted Clemson in NC Game....Easily most underrated UM team ever...

Absolutely the most underrated team. Got jobbed in Austin and Starkville. Best team in the country at the end of the year. I vote the 1988 team however. Beat Big Ten champ Michigan, destroyed #3 FSU, beat SWC champ Arkansas, rolled Big Eight champ Nebraska, embarrassed SEC co-champ LSU and then the ultimate ***** job in South Bend.
 
The 86 team, who simply needed to hand the ball to Highsmith every time to win, is our best team to never win it.

Instead of Jimmy doing the obvious, he got thoroughly out coached by Joe Pa, while Vinny gave us a preview of his upcoming NFL career in a mind numbing loss.

Most frustrating Canes game ever..


Agree completely. Coming off an injury from crashing his small, Vespa-like scooter, Vinnie played a lousy game. He tried to do too much rather continue what was working (Alonzo running wild). But, it was Jimmy who lost the game. He let Vinnie loose rather than run Alonzo over and over.

Most frustrating loss ever. We had the superior talent but called a terrible game. Interception after interception killed our opportunities.
 
The 86 team, who simply needed to hand the ball to Highsmith every time to win, is our best team to never win it.

Instead of Jimmy doing the obvious, he got thoroughly out coached by Joe Pa, while Vinny gave us a preview of his upcoming NFL career in a mind numbing loss.

Most frustrating Canes game ever..
He got thoroughly outcoached by that child rapist Jerry Sandusky that day, not JoePa. Sandusky designed his new umbrella defense for Vinny to **** up and that's exactly what he did.
 
Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
89498
 
1981 Team without any doubt....Beat 5 Ranked teams (including FSU...UF...ND) and #1 Penn St....would have Dusted Clemson in NC Game....Easily most underrated UM team ever...
81 should be on our nc ring.somebody needs to show this to those central Florida clowns who think they were champs couple years ago.
 
1986, all day—every day. That team was just loaded—as proven by how good the 1987 was, winning it all with "less" and beating some highly-ranked teams along the way.

That 1987 Fiesta Bowl loss will go down as the worst in Miami history because of just how good that 1986 team was.

The 2000 team not getting a crack at that national title, after beating Florida State head-to-head was another tragedy for this program.

1992 and 2002 were similar, in my opinion—not the way both lost their title games, but how both were defending champs that took big time hits on the offensive lines, which ultimately crippled both teams at the end.

Yes, Ohio State won on a bogus call—but the Buckeyes pushed around Miami's 2002 offensive line all night the same way Alabama did the 1992 Hurricanes.
We didn't bring our A game .2002 wasn't as good/strong as long 01 team.like 81,86,88,93, as well as 2000 didn't take care of our business lost games we shouldn't have .history proves it when we /Miami brings their A game even the good teams best effort isn't close to beating us.
 
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I say it's a toss up between 86 and 88. People refuse to realize how dominant this program was. Between the ***** jobs in 81 and 88, not running Alonzo more in 86, a bad first half against uw in 2000 and the biggest ***** job in history In 03 we would've four peated and won 9 titles in 20 years.
 
Not saying it was the best team, but the 2005 Canes statistically had the best defense of any Miami team after 2002.

Best team overall not to win the NC was 1988.

That defense wasnt that great. They feasted on weak opponents and got absolutely destroyed when they finally played a competent offense.
 
Vinnie and bowl games did not make a good combination. 86 was probably the worst I think. 2000 was close, but that was lost more by the stupid system and Bowden lobbying.
 
The 86 team, who simply needed to hand the ball to Highsmith every time to win, is our best team to never win it.

Instead of Jimmy doing the obvious, he got thoroughly out coached by Joe Pa, while Vinny gave us a preview of his upcoming NFL career in a mind numbing loss.

Most frustrating Canes game ever..

That loss was on gary stevens, not jimmy, ... at least not entirely.
 
Absolutely the most underrated team. Got jobbed in Austin and Starkville. Best team in the country at the end of the year. I vote the 1988 team however. Beat Big Ten champ Michigan, destroyed #3 FSU, beat SWC champ Arkansas, rolled Big Eight champ Nebraska, embarrassed SEC co-champ LSU and then the ultimate ***** job in South Bend.

All true.

But to answer the OP question, in order:

1986
2000
2002
1981/1988 (tie)
 
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I say it's a toss up between 86 and 88. People refuse to realize how dominant this program was. Between the ***** jobs in 81 and 88, not running Alonzo more in 86, a bad first half against uw in 2000 and the biggest ***** job in history In 03 we would've four peated and won 9 titles in 20 years.
Literally insane how dominant we used to be
 
Agree completely. Coming off an injury from crashing his small, Vespa-like scooter, Vinnie played a lousy game. He tried to do too much rather continue what was working (Alonzo running wild). But, it was Jimmy who lost the game. He let Vinnie loose rather than run Alonzo over and over.

Most frustrating loss ever. We had the superior talent but called a terrible game. Interception after interception killed our opportunities.

Seemed like Penn State had 6 defensive backs playing at the same time. Also think Testaverde’s prior success / ego got the better of him when he kept trying to thread the needle on some of his passes.

For sure a frustrating game to watch.

PS. Good recall on the motor scooter thing; I think it happened very close to the Hecht Center on San Amaro Drive (or whatever that street is called).
 
Has anything ever leaked out about Vinny throwing that game? It looked pretty obvious from the highlights.
 
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