OPINION: UM has allowed 143 points, 1,828 yards in last 3 games, all losses
Jim Martz • CaneSport
Editor
In doing research prior to Saturday's opening game against Alabama, I dug out files on how the Miami Hurricanes have fared against top-ranked teams, how they've done in big games to start the season, their results against SEC foes, and their record on the road against ranked teams.
And, because miracles can happen, I pulled out the lists the biggest victories and greatest upsets in the program's history.
Those will be saved for another day.
Instead after this game I dug out the list of worst losses. The 44-13 setback at the Chick-fil-A Game in Atlanta belongs there, and obviously that's not the way you want the season to start if you're the Hurricanes or their beleaguered fans.
This is reality: The Canes have given up 143 points and 1,828 yards in their last three games, all losses to North Carolina, Oklahoma State and now the top team in the nation.
Also reality: Do you see any signs that they are closing the gap between themselves and the elites of college football?
Saturday's debacle started and ended like the last two games against Clemson: no contest. Over and out quickly.
Alabama proved that it can replace nine starters and still be great everywhere on the field. Miami returned 19 of 22 starters and didn't prove it can be competitive even for a half against a powerhouse.
Many fans and analysts think if you return all that experience as Miami does, you'll be improved. Not necessarily. The same players means more of the same if they're limited in talent to begin with.
Nobody left on the regular season schedule comes close to the talent Alabama has, so there's always the possibility the Hurricanes could win out and play, likely, Clemson, in the ACC championship game. That's another opportunity to see if they're closing the gap.
The biggest game will be the one at North Carolina on October 16. The Tar Heels, who were upset at Virginia Tech on Friday night, embarrassed the Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium in the final regular season game last year 62-26, piling up 770 yards total offense and 554 on the ground, both figures the most Miami has ever allowed. They kept the starters on the field deep into the fourth quarter.
That was something to remember for this year. But if your defense hasn't improved, you're doomed again.
Last season the Hurricanes also opened against Alabama, the one that's called University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Miami won 31-14.
Should the Canes be playing UAB to launch a season on a positive note? Or maybe Bethune-Cookman or Florida A&M or Florida Atlantic as they have in recent years?
No. They need to continue to see if there is progress in a program that's been stuck on a treadmill for about 18 years. The way you do that is open against Alabama or another SEC team as they did against Florida and LSU.
Saturday the goal was to start fast, move the chains on offense, not allow the Crimson Tide to drive for a touchdown on first possession, don't make a stupid penalty.
The Hurricanes failed on all three, and the penalty, as it seems to be in every big game, was costly as safety Bubba Bolden was ejected from the game for targeting.
Miami hasn't won a big game since the 41-8 victory over third-ranked Notre Dame in 2017 at Hard Rock Stadium.
HURRICANES VERSUS NO. 1
Miami and Alabama are the national leaders in victories against the top-ranked team, The Hurricanes' 9 successes are surpassed only by the Crimson Tide's 10.
In the wake of Saturday's game, the Canes are now 9-9 against top-ranked teams.
Beginning in 1981, the Canes defeated the No. 1 team eight consecutive times, an unprecedented feat in major college football.
It started with the 17-14 victory over Joe Paterno's Penn State Nittany Lions at the Orange Bowl. Then came the 31-30 victory over Nebraska to win Miami's first national title. And in the very next game, the 1984 season opener against Auburn in the Kickoff Classic at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, the 20-18.
That was followed by a pair of victories over Oklahoma 28-16 at Norman in 1986 and 20-14 in the 1988 Orange Bowl for the 1987 national championship.
And, lo, their next game also was against No. 1, this time a trash-talking Florida State team in the 1988 opener at the Orange Bowl as the Canes had the last words in a 31-0 manhandling.
Mid season that year Miami's reign atop the polls ended in the controversial 31-30 loss at No. 4 Notre Dame, which went on to win the national title.
A year later revenge: Miami knocked off the No. 1 Irish at the Orange Bowl 27-10.
The eighth in a row over a top-rated team came in 1991 at Tallahassee when the second-ranked Hurricanes won 17-16 in Wide Right I.
Miami lost the next four against the nation's top team, twice to the Seminoles in years they went onto with the national title, 1993 and 1999, And their bid to win the 1995 championship came up short when they lost to No. 1 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl Classic24-17.
In 2000 in an all-time classic the beat FSU 27-24 at mid season at the Orange Bowl.
Until Saturday the Canes' only other encounters with No. 1 came against Clemson, a pair of lopsided losses, 38-3 in 2017 in the ACC championship game at Charlotte and 42-17 last year at Clemson.
HURRICANES VERSUS SEC
Though the Hurricanes have not fared well against SEC teams in the handful of meetings the last 18 years, they have a winning record of 16-13 in what can be called the modern era - since 1980.
They are 8-5 against Florida and 8-8 against the seven other programs they've played against.
Saturday's game was the first meeting with an SEC team since the 2019 season opener against the Gators at another neutral site, Camping World Stadium in Orlando. It was the first game of the Manny Diaz era and the Canes were competitive through most of the game but failed to score on their final possession and lost 24-20.
In another season opener at a neutral site, they meet LSU in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys, in a contest that showed pre-season rankings often are off base. Miami was ranked No. 8, LSU No. 24. The Tigers won 33-17 and went onto a 10-3 season while the Canes finished 7-6 in Mark Richt's third and final season as coach.
Early in 2013 Miami posted what seemed to be a big upset over Florida, winning 21-16 at Hard Rock Stadium. But that was misleading as the Gators slumped to a 4-8 record.
In 2008 at Gainesville, Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow dominated in the second half of a 26-3 Florida triumph.
The 2005 Peach Bowl encounter with LSU, was a precursor of the Miami mediocrity to follow. The 10th ranked Tigers dominated in a 40-3 rout against the 9th-ranked Hurricanes and one year later Larry Coker was fired after a 7-6 season.
A year earlier in the Peach Bowl the Hurricanes whipped the Gators 27-10.
Prior to that, Miami played one or two SEC teams almost every season - Tennessee and Mississippi State three times each, Vanderbilt twice, Auburn in that 1984 Kickoff Classic, and Arkansas in its first year in the conference, 1991, a 31-3 romp by Miami at Fayetteville.
ON THE ROAD VERSUS RANKED TEAMS
Since 2004 the Hurricanes have not been road warriors they were in the previous 23 seasons. Against ranked opponents on the road or at neutral sites they are 5-26. They used to thrive on playing in front of hostile crowds,
Only twice in this era have they prevailed in what could be called a significant victory against a ranked opponent on the road. In 2005 they looked like the Canes of old in a 27-7 triumph at Virginia Tech, and in the 2016 Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando they seemed to be setting the table for a successful run under Mark Richt as they defeated No. 12 West Virginia 31-14, to close the season with a five-game winning streak.
When they won at Tallahassee 38-34 in 2009 the Seminoles were only rated 18th. And edging No. 22 Duke 30-27 in 2015 was meaningful only because of that incredible 8-lateral kickoff return on the final play, with Corn Elder being credited with a 91-yard run for the winning touchdown.
WORST LOSSES
Do you create such a list based on lopsided scores, or listless efforts such as in the North Carolina game last year? And what about losing a game in which the national title is on the line. I think it's a combination of all three.
Losing the national championship game to Penn State 14-10 in the 1986 season when Vinny Testaverde was intercepted at the goal line in the closing minutes is a bad loss. Seven turnovers.
So is the double-overtime 31-24 loss to Ohio State on the bad call in the 2002 season finale. Yes horrible call. Also five turnovers.
And there was the 35-7 loss to Texas in the 1985 season at the Sugar Bowl when Miami was ranked No. 2.
Others: 38-3 at home against Florida State in 1982, 66-13 at Syracuse in 1998, 48-0 to Virginia in the final game played in the Orange Bowl, and 34-13 to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to decide the 1992 national title.
Oh, and the 30-24 loss to Florida International at Marlins Park in 2019, a game that shouldn't have been scheduled.
