Vilma played for the 2001 Hurricanes; Bush played for the 2004 Trojans, widely regarded as two of the most talented teams ever assembled. They were cracking jokes at us, and they thought that they were gonna just drag us all over the football field and just pound us. As cliche as it sounds, Miami wanted revenge. Every team has to go through that, because that's how you get calloused to know that no matter what happens, you're going to find a way to win. The loudest game. Yea I've been hurt. They were invited to the Rose Bowl, which served as the BCS National Championship Game, and defeated Nebraska, 3714, to win the school's 5th national championship. I just remember on that play that the offensive lineman tried to cut my knees, and I remember finally getting it right. You can make the argument it's the most talented team to ever play. Find out more. / Frank Gore was also on the 2001 national title Hurricanes roster. To go and win the game was quite an experience. If you look at the film, at the last second as he's falling to the ground, he looks up to see if it's Ed, and he lets the ball go. Rumph LB D.J. I remember Ed coming up next to me. Miami needed one more win to clinch an undefeated regular season and a spot in the BCS national championship game: On the road, against Big East rival Virginia Tech. But in the moment, as I wrote my recap of that game in January 2002, I was very much like the players. / Take Ed Reed. "I mean, football, no question, I don't think anybody in college football could play with us. There's going to be some tremendous 3- or 4-yard runs. We [were] truly a team. Dorsey And I felt like I was a chess piece to that. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. The Hurricanes began the season with a nationally televised primetime win over Penn State in Beaver Stadium. There will be unsung heroes picking up blitzes. 2001 Miami Hurricanes Record: 12-0, national champions Players: Bryant McKinnie, Jeremy Shockey, Ed Reed, Clinton Portis, Phillip Buchanon, Sean Taylor, Jonathan Vilma, D.J. We never got worried. 1 Hurricanes Stomp West Virginia, 45-3", "No. As one of the younger players on the team, that competition only made me better. We let the country know what this whole season was going to be about. 13. Williams We've got one goal in mind. Chudzinski They're wearing hoodies and sweatshirts and jackets all up underneath their shoulder pads and the coaches were like, "How are you going to function and play football?" Rankings from AP poll. They should have gone back to high school where they do the running clock. Some school's results have been altered by retroactive NCAA penalties. McGahee single handedly beat the Florida Gators in 2002 rushing for over 200 yards in the contest. "But it was crucial to never show how much pain we were in. We let them drive right before the half and Ed Reed wasn't in that drive because he had dinged up his shoulder. They pushed each other to the limit, and the one thing that separates that group, they were super, super competitive. Before we even went to the game, we made "Ballin Boys." The University of Miami is known for producing excellent professional football players. The 2001 Miami Hurricanes football team represented the University of Miami during the 2001 NCAA Division I-A football season. They had no chance of winning that game. You could feel the crowd; you could feel the anger that we had, and how bad we wanted to beat them. Fitzgerald In 2002, Miami again played for a national title, losing in overtime to Ohio State. / Payton ran for 985 yards and 7 touchdowns as a senior and averaged 5 yards per carry over his career. It was the Hurricanes' 76th season of football and 11th as a member of the Big East Conference. Our physicality wasn't good. I'd feel good about our team against anybody. That served as motivation. Overall, 38 members of the team would be selected in the NFL Draft. Like you knew in your bones that we were going to pull it out. It's one of those weird ones you can't explain, but you've got to get through. Romberg But I remember a few days before the game we did a two-minute drill, our No. "We had that mentality of, 'You may get a run, but I promise you for the next 60 minutes, we're gonna kick your ass. Larry Coker knew that once that baton got handed off, he wasn't changing anything. They were driven by the snub they all felt the previous year, after Florida State got into the BCS national title game instead of Miami -- even though the Hurricanes won their regular-season matchup. After suffering a gruesome injury in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, McGahee entered the 2003 NFL Draft knowing he would have to sit out a season to rehab. Being from California, playing in the Rose Bowl was special for me. I helped cover that team, too. It was one of those things where it was kind of like inevitable for us, you know what I mean? And that kind of stuck with me. Three trades in a chaotic top five, The new law changing service academy football, and the coaches pushing back, Realignment chatter: How the Pac-12 holds the key to it all. They had confidence. That's how comical it became. When I look back at our workouts, and the pressure that we put on each other of not letting each other down, there was so much pressure that I would think twice about skipping a workout, I would think twice about skipping a rep, I would think twice about letting my brother down because there was so much invested into it. We were confident. A lot of us were going into our senior year, and we didn't want to have to risk playing a little slower, still trying to learn something. To solidify going to a national championship without having to worry about if somebody else was going to lose -- that was special. Download Our App. I wanted to win the national championship -- we wanted to win the national championship. It was intense. The way we were able to play, come out firing on all cylinders, was huge. But the defense came through, as Mike Rumph, Matt Walters and Reed combined to save the day with one of the most iconic plays in Miami history -- a Walters interception, deflected off Rumph's knee, that ended up in Reed's hands for the defensive score. Given all the challenges associated with the 2020 season, the Crimson Tide could easily make their case. They were all self-directed. or thought they had just unlocked legendary status. Fitzgerald We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. This team, who kept us out of the national championship, beat us our freshman year slammed the quarterback in the goal post that's what that was all about. "We felt like we couldn't miss on anyone in recruiting," said Andreu Swasey, who was the strength and conditioning coach at Miami in 2001. In interviews with players and coaches, here . I grew up in South Florida, and watched the previous four Miami national champions closely. A lot of people doubted if they should have made the championship. Nevertheless, Miami was left with a bitter sense of disappointment, believing they had been deprived of a shot at a potential national championship. . The Canes became arguably the greatest team in CFB history 20 years ago, finishing 12-0, winning the national title and producing 38 NFL draft picks. Ed was somebody that would really talk to players. We'd been through so much pain. They beat us 47-0, and I remember walking off the field and everyone was celebrating and he said, "As long as I have something to do with it, I will never be embarrassed by Florida State again." 1 in both polls -- was sitting at No. Strength coach Andreu Swasey A jersey worn by late Hurricanes great Sean Taylor. Players lobbied then-athletic director Paul Dee to elevate offensive coordinator Larry Coker to become head coach. '", Added former Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni: "That team was so talented, so explosive, so good on defense. That goes for everybody. Everybody's fired up. Everything that we put into this, everything lined up when it needed to. Davis It is unreal how deep their roster was in 2001. Like, literally none. [17] The offense set the school scoring record, while the defense led the nation in scoring defense (fewest points allowed), pass defense, and turnover margin. The nearly hundred-year-old Hurricanes pennant once waved by a member of Miami's original freshman class. They were so dialed in on winning a national championship, so focused on leadership, accountability and -- as ridiculous as it sounds now -- proving themselves that it became impossible in the moment to assign this team a place in college football lore. Gonzalez Payton spent time in NFL Europe as well as the Canadian Football League. DC Randy Shannon Miami clinched a spot in the national title game against Nebraska at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., and felt confident this game would be its crowning achievement. Led by twelfth-year head coach Jim Larraaga, they play their home games at the Watsco Center on the university's campus in Coral Gables, Florida as members of the Atlantic . I remember the doctor saying he couldn't really throw the ball. The 2001 Miami Hurricanes are considered the greatest college football team in college football history. 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