1983 Miami Hurricanes football team

The 1983 Miami Hurricanes football team represented the University of Miami during the 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season. In their 58th season of football, the independent Hurricanes were led by fifth-year head coach Howard Schnellenberger and played their home games at the Orange Bowl.

1983 Miami Hurricanes football
Consensus national champion Orange Bowl champion
Orange Bowl, W 31–30 vs. Nebraska
Conference	Independent
Ranking
Coaches	No. 1
AP	No. 1
Record	11–1
Head coach	Howard Schnellenberger (5th season)
Offensive coordinator	Gary Stevens (1st season)
Offensive scheme	Pro-style
Defensive coordinator	Tom Olivadotti (3rd season)
Base defense	5–2
Home stadium	Orange Bowl (Capacity: 75,500)
Seasons ← 1982 1984 →

1983 NCAA Division I-A independents football records
v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 1 Miami (FL)		–		–				11	–	1	–	0
Virginia Tech		–		–				9	–	2	–	0
No. 19 Boston College		–		–				9	–	3	–	0
No. 16 West Virginia		–		–				9	–	3	–	0
No. 20 East Carolina		–		–				8	–	3	–	0
No. 18 Pittsburgh		–		–				8	–	3	–	1
Penn State		–		–				8	–	4	–	1
Southern Miss		–		–				7	–	4	–	0
Memphis State		–		–				6	–	4	–	1
Florida State		–		–				8	–	4	–	0
Notre Dame		–		–				7	–	5	–	0
Syracuse		–		–				6	–	5	–	0
South Carolina		–		–				5	–	6	–	0
Cincinnati			–					4	–	6	–	1
Southwestern Louisiana		–		–				4	–	6	–	0
Temple		–		–				4	–	7	–	0
Tulane		–		–				4	–	7	–	0
Louisville		–		–				3	–	8	–	0
Navy		–		–				3	–	8	–	0
Rutgers		–		–				3	–	8	–	0
Army		–		–				2	–	9	–	0
Rankings from AP Poll

Unranked, Miami lost their opener at Florida by 25 points, but finished the regular season at 10–1, ranked fifth, and were invited to the Orange Bowl. Playing at home on January 2, the underdog Hurricanes upset top-ranked Nebraska 31–30, denying a two-point conversion attempt with less than a minute remaining.^[1][2][3][4] They climbed to first in the major polls to win the school's first national championship.^[5]

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 3		at No. 16 Florida		Florida Field Gainesville, FL (rivalry)		L 3–28	73,907
September 10		at Houston		Astrodome Houston, TX		W 29–7	20,000
September 17		Purdue		Orange Bowl Miami, FL		W 35–0	37,150
September 24	9:00 pm	No. 13 Notre Dame		Orange Bowl Miami, FL	CBS	W 20–0	52,480
October 1	3:50 pm	at Duke	No. 15	Wallace Wade Stadium Durham, NC	ABC	W 56–17	28,750
October 8		Louisville	No. 12	Orange Bowl Miami, FL		W 42–14	30,073
October 15		at Mississippi State	No. 10	Scott Field Starkville, MS		W 31–7	29,456
October 22		at Cincinnati	No. 8	Riverfront Stadium Cincinnati, OH		W 17–7	14,163
October 29		No. 12 West Virginia	No. 7	Orange Bowl Miami, FL		W 20–3	63,881
November 5		East Carolina	No. 5	Orange Bowl Miami, FL		W 12–7	39,225
November 12	7:00 pm	at Florida State	No. 6	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL (rivalry)	WSVN	W 17–16	57,333
January 2, 1984	8:00 pm	vs. No. 1 Nebraska	No. 5	Orange Bowl Miami, FL (Orange Bowl)	NBC	W 31–30	72,596
Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll All times are in Eastern time

Personnel

1983 Miami Hurricanes football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class RB Jimmy Austin RB 16 Albert Bentley Sr OL Paul Bertucelli WR Eddie Brown OL Juan Comendeiro TE Glenn Dennison RB Keith Griffin OL David Heffernan OL Chris Hembrough RB 30 Alonzo Highsmith Fr WR David Kintigh QB 20 Bernie Kosar RFr OL Mike Moore RB Speedy Neal OL 77 Paul O’Connor RB Darryl Oliver WR Kenny Oliver WR Stanley Shakespeare OL Ian Sinclair WR John Smatana RB Todd Stanish QB 14 Vinny Testaverde Fr WR Lawrence Thompson QB Kyle Vanderwende OL Alvin Ward	Defense Pos. # Name Class DB Rodney Bellinger LB 53 Jay Brophy Sr DL Danny Brown DT 98 Jerome Brown Fr DB Ken Calhoun DL Dallas Cameron LB 99 Julio Cortes DB Dave Ditthardt DT 95 Kevin Fagan So LB Jack Fernandez DL Tony Fitzpatrick LB Bruce Fleming DL Joe Kohlbrand DL 93 John McVeigh So DL Fred Robinson LB Ken Sisk DB Reggie Sutton DB Keith Walker DB Eddie Williams	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 3 Jeff Davis P Steve Minie Jr	Head coach Howard Schnellenberger Coordinators/assistant coaches Hubbard Alexander (TE) Harold Allen (DL) Mike Archer (DB) Joe Brodsky (RB) Tom Olivadotti (DC/LB) Gary Stevens (OC/WR) Marc Trestman (QB) Bill Trout (DE) Chris Vagotis (OL) Ray Ganong (Str + Cond) Art Kehoe (GA) Bob Maddox (GA) George Halas (GA) Mike Rodriguez (Volunteer) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible   Injured   Redshirt

Rankings

See also: 1983 NCAA Division I-A football rankings

Season summary

at Florida

See also: 1983 Florida Gators football team and Florida–Miami football rivalry

at Houston

See also: 1983 Houston Cougars football team

Purdue

See also: 1983 Purdue Boilermakers football team

Purdue Boilermakers at Miami (FL) Hurricanes

	1	2	3	4	Total
Purdue	0	0	0	0	0
Miami (FL)	7	21	7	0	35

at Orange Bowl • Miami, Florida

• Date: September 17
• Game attendance: 34,557

Game information
Purdue Everett 16/22, 186 Yds, 2 INT Hawthorne 12 Rush, 37 Yds Griffin 5 Rec, 64 Yds Miami (FL) Kosar 12/20, 182 Yds, 3 TD, 2 INT Bentley 15 Rush, 78 Yds Shakespeare 4 Rec, 68 Yds, 2 TD

^[6]

Scoring summary

Quarter Time Drive Team Scoring information Score Plays Yards TOP PUR MIA 1 Miami (FL) Kosar 1-yard touchdown run, Davis kick good 0 7 2 Miami (FL) Shakespeare 35-yard touchdown reception from Kosar, Davis kick good 0 14 2 Miami (FL) Vanderwende 1-yard touchdown run, Davis kick good 0 21 2 Miami (FL) Shakespeare 12-yard touchdown reception from Kosar, Davis kick good 0 21 3 Miami (FL) Griffin 17-yard touchdown reception from Kosar, Davis kick good 0 28 "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. 0 28

Notre Dame

See also: 1983 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

at Duke

Louisville

at Mississippi State

at Cincinnati

West Virginia

See also: 1983 West Virginia Mountaineers football team

East Carolina

at Florida State

See also: 1983 Florida State Seminoles football team and Florida State–Miami football rivalry

Jeff Davis game-winning 19-yard field goal as time expired ^[7]

Orange Bowl (vs Nebraska)

#1 Nebraska at #5 Miami (FL)

1 2 3 4 Total Cornhuskers 0 14 3 13 30 • Hurricanes 17 0 14 0 31 Date: January 2 Location: Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida Game start: 8:05 p.m. EST Game attendance: 72,596 Game weather: 66 °F (19 °C), partly cloudy, Wind N 10 mph (16 km/h) Referee: Jimmy Harper (SEC) TV announcers (NBC): Don Criqui and John Brodie Source: Box Score 2019-08-22 at the Wayback Machine

Scoring summary Q1 9:18 MIA Dennison 2-yard pass from Kosar (Davis kick) MIA 7–0 Q1 4:51 MIA Davis 45-yard field goal MIA 10–0 Q1 1:08 MIA Dennison 22-yard pass from Kosar (Davis kick) MIA 17–0 Q2 8:54 Neb Steinkuhler 19-yard fumble return (Livingston kick) MIA 17–7 Q2 2:17 Neb Gill 1-yard run (Livingston kick) MIA 17–14 Q3 13:09 Neb Livingston 34-yard field goal Tied 17–17 Q3 9:37 MIA Highsmith 1-yard run (Davis kick) MIA 24–17 Q3 4:44 MIA Bentley 7-yard run (Davis kick) MIA 31–17 Q4 6:55 Neb Smith 1-yard run (Livingston kick) MIA 31–24 Q4 0:48 Neb Smith 24-yard run (Gill pass to Smith failed) MIA 31–30

Main article: 1984 Orange Bowl

See also: 1983 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team and Miami–Nebraska football rivalry

^[8][9]

Awards and honors

All-Americans

• Jay Brophy, LB

Jack Harding University of Miami MVP Award

• Glenn Dennison, TE

References

1. "Miami topples No. 1 Nebraska". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. January 3, 1984. p. 13.
2. Smizik, Bob (January 3, 1983). "Miami claims No. 1 after beating Nebraska". Pittsburgh Press. p. D1.
3. "Hurricanes say there's no doubt". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). wire services. January 3, 1984. p. 1D.
4. Underwood, John (January 9, 1984). "No team was ever higher". Sports Illustrated. p. 14.
5. Finder, Chuck (January 1, 1987). "Miami's '83 champions: Where are they now?". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 37.
6. Gainesville Sun. September 18, 1983.
7. "100 Greatest Plays in Miami History: #9-Game Winning Field Goal vs FSU 1983". 14 August 2019.
8. Wilbon, Michael (January 3, 1984). "Nebraska Falls, 31-30, On Day of Upsets". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
9. "MIAMI IS CHOSEN AS NO. 1 AFTER UPSET OF NEBRASKA". The New York Times. January 4, 1984. Retrieved August 21, 2019.