12-0: Championship Perfection in 1987

ladies please stand and all the other networks realer national championship season 1987 we talked about it's a game of inches and then we put together that season what we were just just about perfect in 86 we had probably the most talented team I'd ever been around we went through the season undefeated and came up short against Penn State the Fiesta Bowl coming off to disappointment from the year prior we all had a mission you know at hand and we wanted to complete it and that was to be national champs coming out that loss against Penn State I gave us a bad taste in our mouth we're kind of bald with Penn State didn't come out with the win and I know I know it was it was devastating into Jimmy probably the most devastating loss that I ever had in my entire coaching career to come up short and Penn State the way we did our pride was on the line I think it gave our entire team some resolve to go out there and not to let it happen again there was a lot of you know wanting to make it perfect the next time we wanted to redeem ourselves in 87 you know was a matter of us pressing on that was a theme going it's 87 is about pressing Noah we knew we had nothing else to play for him but for the national championship they said what's his team gonna do without Testaverde and Jerome Brown and Jimmy was thinking it was a little bit rebuilding year going into 87 we knew we had a very talented team but you know we had to replace a quarterback and replace some other players all of a sudden half of your starters are first-year starters you just wondered that replacing that many guys you know how we were gonna be the people picking the teams and you know they didn't think that we would be up there for the national championship picture we had three guys drafted in the first nine picks and 80s it from the 86 team we were still loaded on defense I think the concern for 87 was the offense particularly the offensive line which was decimated by seniors graduating and we lost like I said so much about nucleus we were a good team we didn't have as many athletes as that 86 team but I knew we were still very competitive it's been half the summer training working together as a unit sometimes we have thirty guys going up to the hill running and working out nobody trained harder than us and nobody conditioned harder than us we practice so hard man you guys just have no idea how hard our practices were because I coaches wanted perfection as a freshman just being on the scout team I'm out I didn't travel I didn't I didn't I didn't participate in any of stuff as far as their way games but the intensity in practice was just it was second to none because of coach Johnson wanted to get that elusive national championship we weren't cocky and we were confident preparation breeds confidence I didn't mind them being cocky I didn't mind them celebrating I didn't allow him to have penalties you know I didn't allow them to have a 15-yard penalty because they knew if that happened then they were in catch my wrath discipline is not saying don't enjoy the victory after you have pushed your button all week no one worked us like Coach Johnson no one worked like we worked on that practice field there's a misconception about swagger you know some some people like to look at swag as being overconfident I'm not respecting your opponents in the game but swagger is obtained from Sunday to Friday you just wanted to make sure your guys were taking part in doing the right things to again to get us to win them all we have 15 yard rowdy was a 15 yard route that's the discipline that we show if you had get that buck you got that buck it was a commitment each man a promise made each man one to the other I will get my job done today that's discipline there was nobody else in the country practicing or going after each other the way we did so we knew that nobody was sad they could compete with us we had a chance to play and practice every day against the best offensively we had great receivers with Michael Irvin and Brett Perriman and Brian blades good talented senior running backs and Melvin Bratton and Warren Williams we had a lot of athletes a lot of a lot of talent on the defensive side we had Dan Stubbs who would scare any quarterback out of their out of their jersey Bennie blades was outstanding and a guy named rod Carter who hit so hard he actually broke one of our players jaw and practice we were competing in practice to to not only get a job but to hold your job and there were so many good players that the competition was fierce and and what we didn't know is that when those guys left they had worked so hard and been so tough that they created a you know the guys that were there were ready ready to fill in the gaps a lot better than we thought they were gone to the fun part about the season was I'm thinking I'm going in to be a defensive end we had some defensive tackle issues Jimmy one day comes to me and tells me asked me actually do you think you can play defensive tackle and I'm thinking well I'm not gonna say no to Jimmy Johnson okay you don't you just don't say no but we were concerned about quarterback and there was a battle I think in camp that year most people thought how could they find another port about after winning the championship with Bernie Kosar he left getting to that Penn State championship game with Vinny Testaverde and then he leaves and everybody was wondering who's next we were wondering if the skinny kid from Minnesota was gonna do any good I always tell people my biggest concerns was my teammates because I didn't want to let them down I knew how talented we were and heck these guys were big and mean and and I didn't want to let him down I wanted to make sure that I did everything I could to the best of my ability to put us in a position to win I spent that whole summer I moved to Minnesota with the quarterback Steve Walsh I said we would train all summer long prepared for this season you know I was sick as a dog I throw up before every game and and I remember sitting under the tunnel leaning over the fence between the two locker rooms and you know a towel around my neck and just not feeling very good and melvin bratton coming up putting his arm around me and say come on Walsh you'll be okay as we found out in that very first game against Florida we had nothing to worry about a shuttle ps4 by the third year sophomore quarterback Steve Walsh I still recall Benny standing up in the locker room saying okay we got our quarterback there this is all free baby Scoob his 31st career suit and man then we went out and just started winning games and and said hey man this is kind of fun these guys are good they're getting it this game is over when it was silent played when the lights came on we were ready there was no doubt about us being ready for coaches made sure that there was no opponent that we fear when sad became because we knew that we were well prepared and well prepped to play anybody in college football I think University of Miami back during that period of times really misunderstood number one from the haters because they didn't like us winning so many games but number two but cause of our swagger the mistake they were making was they were calling having fun being undisciplined we had a group of guys that were very eclectic to say the least they knew what they were getting into and they were bringing us into the University of Miami they were really trying to change a culture to do something that hadn't been done before to put the university on the map some inner-city kids some from broken homes some without parents he knew we were guys that were at risk guys and they took a chance on us and we did not want to let him down nor the other teammates down they were good individuals you know they got their degrees they were going to class they were doing things the right way I wanted our guys to grow into being men with college degrees to get ready for the rest of their life Jimmy did a good job of not trying to change or take that edge off but he embraced that edge and he was able to harness that and use that energy that could have been a disaster for the University and I wasn't going to keep my thumb on him to restrict you know their flamboyance and restrict you know their swagger taught us to be disciplined he didn't talk down to us he wanted us to come up to a standard that he has set for us and that was huge because no one else had ever done that for us I told him I said listen we're gonna do it the right way we're not going to have penalties we're gonna work hard we're gonna do it the right way but I don't mind you being yourselves he was the guy that brought all of that together and helped us understand that that we could be special and we can do something that's never been done before now I think because we had so many players from so many different walks of life I think it kind of molded them into a team and so our guys embraced the swagger they embraced being the best one ways we got some practice thinking of dances in and high fives and who can do the smoothest move and it helped us to compete against one another in practice and and they carried over into the game it could be a great ballgame number seven Miami again defense ranked Arkansas what a great team Miami has been on the road over the year but you have to remember that their sophomore quarterback D wolf has never started a game on the road before they were winning games not only were they winning games they were beating teams decisively and then I caught a lot of prison criticism for that because they said I ran up the score we went out and we played as well as we could play and we play as well as we could play for the entire 60 minutes so that meant we probably ran up to score on not only were our players misunderstood our approach was misunderstood offensively and defensively and this was got to be one of the most lopsided victories you could ever expect Arkansas came in undefeated and ranked 10th and Miami simply blew them away going against the schedule that we had and it was brutal some of the teams that we had to play on the road the Florida State game was a defining moment it's going to take all of us to beat that team in garnet and gold dirt or as good as it gets and we get we're gonna have to fight them and fight them and there's no way we're losing the atmosphere was incredible we'll have a crowd in excess of 63,000 watching today in a game that will carry ramifications as far as the national championship is concerned we were into the fight of our lives they sweet crap he cannot get the beyond sandals the was there the whole name they exchanged word he was all-american but he has been great Oh number fifty-four they had a great game plan on the offensive side of the ball so they were controlling the clock we weren't getting a lot of opportunities in that first half I really struggled we struggled running the ball there wasn't a whole lot we could do pullback has been the short yardage first man for the Seminoles here he comes we got down in the game and we could have quit then no but there was no quitting these guys I was pissed off at halftime I kind of got up in halftime in and kind of gave gave the the defensive feed and say man you guys let's get it going I was psyched I was pumped up and they Powermatic 46 yard line was sewn Brown bringing it down and now tempers starting to flare down on the field Evan flow is important to any football game while the momentum has switched over to Miami side between the third and the fourth quarter interesting that every player on the Miami sideline put up four fingers and saluted every other player they and I asked them what it meant they say we win in the fourth quarter or the state with the wind at their back McManus to put it out intercepted intercepted by Danny Stubbs the big man comes up with the key turn over the play deck everybody thinks about it's one it might down the sad Steve lines up I go wide right you got a 10 yard out the clock 10 yard all we were looking is another first down all those moments I spent with Steve Wallace in Minnesota but all the times we had worked on those hand signals it was for the moment like this Ervin's got it urban spray Colvin's gone touchdown Miami and I remember the coaches running down to that with Mike it was that kind of a signature game you know for the Miami Hurricanes we were bound and determined we weren't going to get beat and now it comes down to this you will watch the play and you'll see what happened no good the gamble fails in Tallahassee it was when we knew that you know sometimes it may take a lot but if you keep fighting good things will happen for you so Mel button and the Hurricanes staged a dramatic comeback here in Tallahassee it was divine a moment that basically portrayed us all season we persevere we counted on one another we never gave up and in the end we came out victorious that set the precedent for our season and anybody else that got in our way doing that season didn't have to just didn't stand a chance it's now time for the big one the battle for the national championship between Oklahoma and Miami high drama at the Orange Bowl they're in the Orange Bowl against Oklahoma you know we were probably as confident as we've ever been in any big game the coaches did a great job all week because I had no clue that they were the necessarily the number one defense because the way the coach has talked about him you know they had never seen an offense like Dawson and they pointed it out very very well on film about the teams that they played look at this they don't know how to protect they don't know how to throw concepts even though out there all the things that we had accomplished they put that team ahead of us it really wasn't named out in my mind that we were gonna win that ballgame against Oklahoma and win the national championship for the simple reason I knew how prepared our team was I knew how hard they had worked and I knew that we were the better team we were brainwashed if you will that there was no way they were gonna stop us hurricanes are on the drive first down and here's what I think the end zone on the field that touchdown counts Walsh again is well taken care locked in a ball orphan is open if they don't make it on third down clonic at Thompson hits his L American tienda Jackson loves that with 47 seconds to play Miami 20 Oklahoma 14 this is history national champions Jimmie Johnson SCOR doesn't really properly reflect how badly we beat them more than anything else it was relief that we got it done to do it with a perfect season is special and that was the first one at the University of Miami we brought along the way you brought it home with the third quarterback from there no one thought to happen a winning that championship brought the city closer together of 87 team it meant the world to me I think the legacy was to carry on the tradition of excellence and that fight it's the fight inside the player and when you come together you don't have to have the superstars to have success you just need to fight as a team there are a lot of people around the country that didn't want to like Miami they didn't want to give us credit we started a fan it was pretty much us against the world we knew that we had to win the title in order to be respected I don't think anybody anybody can understand the abuse that we took even though the country didn't like it we change a complete culture kids now want to be like that 87 championship team we danced we showboat it and college football wasn't used to seeing that the whole country looked at a bunch of misfits we're able to come together and do something special to not only change college football but to give a vision a larger vision to kids out of the communities in which we came out of a vision to say okay if those guys can do it we can do it our guys were student-athletes and when I say student-athletes they got their degrees and so I think that's one reason why there was a lot of misconception about those Miami teams they gave high school kids in that area an opportunity to say hey I want to go to the you there special if the University of Miami had not taken a chance on kids out of the hood you know how many kids would have been lost in the trenches part to me of the fabric of what the U was all about you created something special by the way you practice by the way you compete and by your team unity and you can go go accomplish something like 12 and old stacking that on top of the 80 83 season really kind of set Miami up as a power to be reckoned with through the eighties and nineties it's that as a part he gave us a bragging right to keep kids in South Florida and to come all over the country to a special University the game a lot of kids hope to say wow if those guys could come out of my neighborhood and do something like that and make it to the next level then I have a shot III really think we had a huge impact on a lot of kids that wherever they went whether they came to the universe moment they did want to emulate who we were I think when you look at University of Miami during that period of time it's one of the great football games in the history of college football you

Channel: Canes All Access

Views: 50,564

Rating: 4.8742137 out of 5

Keywords: +Miami Hurricanes, +1987, +Jimmy Johnson, +Michael Irvin, +National Champions, +Steve Walsh, +Orange Bowl, +Art Kehoe, +Greg Mark

Id: eEDVBJECWWE

Length: 22min 31sec (1351 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 25 2013