In a short period of time, The Miami Hurricanes became a national power in college football. Prior to 1980, The City of Miami was known for hosting Super Bowls and the annual Orange Bowl. Howard Schnellenberger became The Hurricanes head coach in 1979 and by 1983 Miami had won it’s first college football national championship. Schnellenberger left after the 1983 season, but over the next two decades, The ‘Canes would win four more national titles and they would send a plethora of talent to The National Football League. When you think of Miami’s rivals, most people will immediately think of The Florida State Seminoles while The Boston College Eagles are forgotten about.
Miami’s rivalry with Boston College erupted in 1984 when Eagles quarterback Doug Flutie was able to outduel Hurricanes quarterback Bernie Kosar. Flutie hit wide receiver Gerard Phelan for a Hail Mary pass in the end zone as time expired to give Boston College a 47-45 victory. Then there was the contest in 2001 where The Eagles were on the verge of a monumental upset over The Hurricanes. The Hurricanes came to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts with a record of 9-0 and they had their eyes set on playing in The Rose Bowl for The Bowl Championship Series Championship. Late in the fourth quarter, Eagles quarterback Brian St. Pierre was leading Boston College down the field for the potential game-winning drive until his pass was intercepted by Hurricanes defensive end Matt Walters. Hurricanes safety Ed Reed proceeded to take the football out of Walters’ hands and he scampered 80 yards for a touchdown to give Miami the 18-7 victory while quieting the fans in Chestnut Hill. Miami would ride this wave of momentum to their fifth national championship.
Both teams left The Big East Conference in the mid-2000s in favor of The Atlantic Coast Conference. The ‘Canes have never won The ACC Championship while The Eagles qualified for the conference title game twice under former head coaches Tom O’Brien and Jeff Jagodzinski respectively. Now these two rivals are set to square off tomorrow in their conference opener and unfortunately this has just become another game on the schedule.
The Hurricanes are in year two under their head coach Al Golden while The Eagles are in their fourth year under head coach Frank Spaziani. Miami hasn’t won a bowl game since 2006 while The Eagles haven’t won one since 2007. Miami is currently awaiting the ax by The NCAA for possible violations regarding the involvement of convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro who was a Miami booster. The Hurricanes have not been able to have the assembly line of talent that they once had that produced NFL players such as Ray Lewis, Michael Irvin, Warren Sapp, and Jeremy Shockey. The aspect that made Miami inviting to players was the “us against the world” mantra which allowed them to dominate national powerhouses Notre Dame and The Nebraska Cornhuskers. Now Miami has just become a middle of the road program that would be thankful for a record of 8-4 while hopefully cracking the top 25.
Boston College has always been a middle of the road program that will step up periodically and give us some thrills. There was Flutie’s Hail Mary in ’84. In 1993 led by head coach Tom Coughlin and quarterback Glenn Foley, The Eagles went to South Bend, Indiana and upset The Notre Dame Fighting Irish who were ranked number one in the country for a shocking 41-39 victory. In 2007 led by ACC Player of The Year quarterback Matt Ryan, The Eagles climbed to second in The BCS standings after an 8-0 start to the season. The Eagles finished the season at 11-3 which was their last double-digit victory season.
The Hurricanes were -4 in turnover margin last season which resulted in a 6-6 finish. Golden will be looking at junior quarterback Stephen Morris to lead this team to greener pastures in 2012. In limited action in his first two seasons, Morris has thrown seven touchdowns to eleven interceptions. The Eagles offense had tough sledding last season as they only averaged 18.2 points per game while only scoring over 20 points twice in conference play. Now we are seeing two victims of conference expansion as these two teams that were successful in The Big East have fallen out of sorts in The ACC. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side when school presidents look for a bigger payday. Now unfortunately, Miami vs. Boston College is just another game on the schedule.
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