University of Miami - Ibis Yearbook (Coral Gables, FL)

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On one of the rare occassions that the Miami offense did not easily penetrate the Cornhuslier defense, Cleveland Gary is turned back at the goal line on a scoring opportunity. After sprinting 42 yards down the sideline, Leonard Conley dives over the goal line with the Hurri- canes ' second touchdown of the game. The score put Miami up 17-0 shortly before the half. 122 Orange Bowl

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M I A M I 2 3 NEBRASKA3 ICanes blitz . . . ' ' for what might have been the most painful loss of one yard since the Battle of the Bulge of World War II. Defensively, we pretty well ihad them zeroed in on every- ; thing that they did, said Mia- mi Coach Jimmy Johnson. I j think that we dominated the line of scrimmage more than anything else and made some nice adjustments to their differ- ent alignments. Nebraska ' s only points came early in the second half after cornerback Tahaun Lewis inter- cepted a Steve Walsh pass and returned it 3 1 yards to the Mia- mi 37. After Clark broke away for a 16-yard dash, Nebraska only went backward and sophomore kicker Gregg Barrios snuck a 50-yard field goal attempt over the crossbar for the longest field goal of his career and the pre- vention of a shutout. Nebraska had not been shut out since 1973 and was held without a touchdown for the first time in 10 years. Cornhusker Coach Tom Os- borne, who had come to the Orange Bowl only a month ear- lier to scout Miami when the Hurricanes downed Brigham Young, seemed frustrated about his lack of offense throughout the game. ; We would find anything that would work a little bit but we couldn ' t find anything that would work for us consistently, he said. You ' ve got to give jMiami a lot of credit. We just igot beat by a better football team. Our big problem was that we couldn ' t generate enough of- fense to keep the pressure off of 3ur defense. Walsh, voted the game ' s Most Valuable Player, did his part in keeping the pressure on Nebraska ' s defense by taking Miami into the endzone on its second offensive series. After a 21 -yard punt return by Darryl Spencer put the Canes in great field position, Miami drove to the Husker 22 when, on third and 10, Walsh sailed a scoring strike down the middle of the zone defense to tailback Leonard Conley, giv- ing the Miami defense all the margin it needed. However, the Walsh-Conley connection was not ready to be totally upstaged by guys named Crum, Carter, and Maryland and put together an impressive encores midway through the second quarter. Did someone hear the word impressive Walsh, who was under con- stant pressure all night from the Husker defensive front, evaded a rush, stepped up and fired a six-yard flat pass to Conley who then broke two tackles, got a couple of great downfield blocks and sprinted down the sideline past Lewis for a 42- yard touchdown with more flash than even the crowd of 79,480 could produce with their halftime flashlights. The touchdown was a simple pass play designed to get 1 or 1 2 yards, said Conley, but I felt the defense on my back, so I cut inside and got good blocks from Rob Chudzinski and Randal Hill and I took it in. Even though it was 17-0, Mia- mi wasn ' t through with its text- book first half quite yet, and with Nebraska lining up to punt deep in its own territory late in the half, Miami was going for the block it had missed by inches ESPN CNN COLLEGE FOOTBALL TOP 20 1. Notre Dame 2. MIAMI 3. Florida State 4. UCLA 5. Michigan 6. West Virginia 7. use 8. Nebraslta 9. Auburn 10. Clemson 11. Oklahoma State 12. Syracuse 13. Oklahoma 14. Arkansas 15. Washington State 16. Georgia 17. Alabama 18. North Carolina State 19. Houston 20. Indiana Michael DtBart In the final seconds of the last unsponsored Orange Bowl Clas- sic, Miami fans cheer an impres- sive victory and an 11-1 season. Beginning in 1990, Federal Ex- press becomes sponsor of the New Year ' s Day game. Orange Bowl 121

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M I A M I 2 3 NEBRASKA3 Canes blitz . . . earlier. Miami ' s senior safety and punt-blocking specialist Bubba McDowell streaked in from the right side and deflected John Kroker ' s punt for the tenth punt block in his collegiate career. Derek Golden recovered on the Husker 11, and, after a personal foul pushed the Hurri- canes away from the endzone, kicker Carlos Huerta nailed a 37-yarder to make it 20-0 and all but the end of the half, the game, and an 1 1-1 season. We knew we were able to block one, said McDowell, and on that play, Robert Bailey and I switched sides and that con- In completely dominating the Ne- braska offensive line, the Miami defense was able to sack quarter- back Steve Taylor six times and hold him to 12 yards rushing on 17 attempts. fused them. Walsh finished the game with 277 yards passing and Orange Bowl records for completions, 2 1 , and attempts, 44, along with two touchdowns and three inter- ceptions, the Orange Bowl MVP trophy and fielding nu- merous questions about wheth- er or not he will return next season or declare himself eligi- ble for the National Football League draft. I ' m just going to take the next few weeks and take a look at the big picture and talk to my parents, Walsh said. I have to think about all my options and see what (NFL) teams are inter- ested in me. When asked about how this season ' s number two status would affect his decision, Walsh showed some disappointment. Beth Keisei I would really like to come back and win another national championship. We came a bit short this year and that is just something else Fll have to con- sider, he said. Nobody ex- pected us to be even number two this year, but because we didn ' t execute on one play, we didn ' t win the title and that ' s what ' s frustrating. After the game. Coach John- son had high praise for his 1988 football squad and a final word about finishing behind Notre Dame in the polls. I told my team that we prob- ably gave Notre Dame the ranking of number one by not kicking the extra point. We ' re not normally that generous. That ' s a great football team and they beat us up in South Bend, but we ' ve come a long way since then and we ' re not the inex- perienced team now that we were at that time, Johnson said. If Jimmy Johnson feels that he gave us the national champ- ionship, said Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz, then I can say that on behalf of every- one here at the University of Notre Dame, we accept it and thank you. Todd Wnghl Orange Bowl 123