Larry wasn't a sexy hire at the time, and it's rare the players have that kind of influence over who gets hired. When Miami offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski wanted a more versatile player he went with Davenport. I played with Richie Incognito with the Rams, and he told me when they saw us get off the bus at Disney [during the week], they started laughing. "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. McKinnie He was leading stuff, telling guys what to do, up and down the court with the ball in his hands, and you could just see this guy had that magical feel for how to play team games. Dorsey $400,000 was initially raised to endow the scholarship, the only undergraduate award presented by the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame. We let them drive right before the half and Ed Reed wasn't in that drive because he had dinged up his shoulder. And I am a firm believer in that team, too. You know I'm hurt, yet we let them score two touchdowns. The motivation of being upset and disappointed, that played a huge role in going to the Sugar Bowl and what we did against Florida to make a statement that we probably should've been the champs. Not a lot needed to be said. Like Portis, McGahee was a two-time Pro Bowl player and a national champion in 2001. 14 Syracuse, 59-0", "No. What I remember most, though, is the sheer dominance. That's how much we've been around each other. It was a competitive culture and accountability was huge and he built a family environment. That felt good for all of us. Gonzalez Men's Basketball . It is only now, with the perspective of history and time that those who suited up in 2001 understand -- and brag about -- what they accomplished in one magical season. All I could think as I looked on from the press box was, "I can't believe they're about to blow this," knowing full well a trip to the national championship and the Rose Bowl was on the line. McGahee ran for 4.7 yards per carry and three touchdowns in reserve duty behind Clinton Portis in 2001. Miami led 12-7 with under a minute to play, but BC had first-and-goal at the Miami 9-yard line. There is history in nearly every corner of the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame and the Tom Kearns Sports Hall of Fame Building. Guys rallied behind him. And I did that, and I was like, "Oh, man, that felt good." At halftime, Reed delivered his now famous, "I'm hurt, dog" speech and it was captured by a documentary film crew that was working on an all-access show for ESPN. 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. In all, an extraordinary 17 players from the 2001 Miami football team were drafted in the first-round of the NFL Draft (5 in the 2002 NFL Draft: Buchanon, McKinnie, Reed, Rumph, and Shockey; 4 in 2003: Johnson, Joseph, McDougle, and McGahee; 6 in 2004: Carey, Taylor, Vilma, Wilfork, Williams, and Winslow; 1 in 2005: Rolle; and 1 in 2006: Kelly Jennings). The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. That 2001 Miami team, led by head coach Larry Coker in his first season, went undefeated and had just two games finish within 20 points. Dorsey threw four interceptions. It is unreal how deep their roster was in 2001. And I'll never forget, everybody's fired up, and Larry gets up in front of the bus, and said, "Men, don't worry about that. Williams The 2001 roster was loaded from top to bottom all over the field with names like Bryant McKinnie, Andre Johnson, and Jeremy Shockey as just the tip of the ice berg. I will never forget standing on the goal line at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, when Deshaun Watson threw the winning 2-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow to beat Alabama 35-31 and finish 15-0. How deep was the 2001 Miami Hurricane roster? DC Randy Shannon When the team takes ownership of its success, you know you have a championship culture. They signed players such as two-star safety Ed Reed, out of Louisiana, and Joaquin Gonzalez, an under-the-radar offensive lineman from Miami, and overlooked junior college transfers such as Jeremy Shockey and Bryant McKinnie. We want somebody from in-house who knows us, and that's Coach Coker." Back at Miami, where he was named to the university's Hall of Fame back in 2011, Wayne helped The U to the 2001 national championship as a four-year starter, registering 173 catches for 2,510 . Adelson: 2001 Canes make case for college football's GOATs, Breaking down the latest in 2024 football recruiting, from top commits to March visits, The Turnover Luck Index: Rating every 2022 team, from USC to Rutgers, ACC boss: Rule changes backed by FBS leaders, Top draft prospect Carter charged in fatal crash, Stoops: QB Leary (pec) 'close to full go' for UK, Hall of Fame coach Ault named to CFP committee, New NCAA president readies for NIL, legal issues, Ex-Vols staffers agree to show-cause penalties, UNC hires ex-Browns HC Kitchens as assistant, Kiper's updated NFL mock draft: Who's moving up for a QB? One of the things that happened in practice, we caught a few guys in the stadium trying to record our practices, seeing how we were going to stop the triple option. Maybe Alabama last year. Miami took a 34-0 halftime lead before cruising to a 37-14 victory, winning the school's fifth national championship. To win a national championship, you have to win some you're not supposed to win. "I'm willing to line our 2001 team up against any collegiate institution, anytime, anywhere," center Brett Romberg said. It was unreal, just to see the trophy come out. Cleveland scored . If you didn't put in the work, there was somebody behind you ready to take over. Soldinger What set those guys apart was what was inside of them -- in their heads and in their hearts, how they competed and how they prepared and how they loved and how they were passionate about playing the game. As the 2001 Miami Hurricanes celebrated a fifth national championship in the . Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer Buy Now. As a matter of policy, Sports Reference only reports the results of games as played on the field. The scholarship recipient is chosen each year by the football coaches . All rights reserved . Miami followed up the victory with wins over Rutgers,[5] Pitt,[6] and Troy State.[7]. I'd agreed to a contract before Thanksgiving and my plan was to stay at the University of Miami for decades. He was right. He basically announced to everybody, "This is our guy.". Miami may have cost themselves an ACC title with their first home loss of the season. I think they added extra bleachers so now they had the biggest stadium in college football. Internships Williams; and defensive backs Ed Reed, Mike Rumph, and Phillip Buchanon. And whenever you do stuff like that, you believe you're going to win. 1 defense. That served as motivation. Dorsey 1 in both polls -- was sitting at No. Williams That off-season, the team resolved to take the matter entirely out of the discretion of the computers by going a perfect 120. Going into the locker room after the win at Virginia Tech, it was special. Download Our App, Achong, Harden & Hedley Earn ACC Postgraduate Scholarships, Newport News, Virginia/Hampton Roads Academy, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada/Vanier Academy, Windsor, Ontario, Canada/Belle River District. The deck was loaded. Among the numerous stars on the 2001 Miami squad were: quarterback Ken Dorsey; running backs Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, Najeh Davenport, and Frank Gore; tight end Jeremy Shockey; wide receiver Andre Johnson; offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie; defensive linemen Jerome McDougle, William Joseph, and Vince Wilfork; linebackers Jonathan Vilma and D.J. Williams, Antrel Rolle, Vince Wilfork, Frank Gore, Willis McGahee, Chris Myers, Andre Johnson No other team is even in the conversation. Years later in the NFL, I'm hearing people like, "Man, I listened to that song.". And to stand up at the podium with guys like Andre Johnson, who was my suite mate since my freshman year, and hold up that trophy -- that was special. Less Than 24 Hours to Renew Your Tickets. Eventually producing a record 38 NFL Draft picks, the 2001 Hurricanes are considered by many to be the best college football team of all time.[1][2][3]. I said to our athletic director Barbara Hodges, "Let's reschedule that game for another year," and she was like, "No, We have to go." You were getting into a street fight when you went and played those guys. Like you knew in your bones that we were going to pull it out. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. 1.". It gives us extra incentive to go out and perform well every week.". 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. I'm gonna run out of bounds." The Hokies, ranked No. We let the country know what this whole season was going to be about. It was intense. I turned around, and the next thing you know, the ball is floating to me in slow motion. Both teams were ranked in the top 15 at the time they played. Though Miami dominated nearly every team it played, it had to survive a close one at Boston College in November. He made good decisions and he made everyone around him better. 2001 Football Rosters. The Panthers had six first-round draft picks on its '01 roster while Miami's '01 team eventually MIAMI, Fla. - Matthew Cleveland scored a last second three-pointer of the game to lead the Seminoles to an 85-84 victory over the top ranked Miami Hurricanes at the Watsco Center. I tried to display that my senior year, 'cause I could have left my junior year. You had Sean Taylor behind him. So the following year was definitely a salt-in-the-wound, chip-on-the-shoulder type of season where we wanted to obviously take no prisoners and rectify what happened the year before. We just hope that this train just doesn't go off the track. I don't know how General Custer felt, but I felt like General Custer. It started as a joke first, but it just went to like, no matter what you put us through, we can't be hurt. If you weren't doing all the right things, if you weren't going to class, making your grades, if you weren't showing up to work out or something like that, you could easily be cast out. I had to make it tough tough. Schumann returning to Georgia, Adelson: 2001 Canes make case for college football's GOATs, Miami's turnover chain set a celebratory standard across the college football landscape. As one of the younger players on the team, that competition only made me better. Happy to be here, want to high-five everybody, and from the moment I walked into the locker room, it was you're gonna work. We thought we had a great team, but you don't know until the bullets start flying. Women's Basketball. Walters Do you have a blog? We could see with our own eyes what made that team go. As a coach and players, you don't want to talk about it too much, but it's hard not to. To solidify going to a national championship without having to worry about if somebody else was going to lose -- that was special. ACC Network FAQs The same standings that kept Miami out of the 2000 national championship game. After a blocked punt returned for a touchdown cut Miami's lead to 26-24, Virginia Tech lined up for a 2-point conversion to tie the game. Reed has been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "I just think our mental toughness was just as impressive as our physical and athletic ability. A jersey worn by late Hurricanes great Sean Taylor. 15 Washington 3429 on the road, while the Seminoles' lone loss was on the road to the #7 team in the country by 3. And then on the practice field, he had that voice. Can the Lions fix their defense? I think it was kind of a weight off everybody's shoulders at the end. Some school's results have been altered by retroactive NCAA penalties. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? But we were a great team. Rumph 1. I went to the University of Florida, where as a freshman in 1995, the Nebraska Cornhuskers staked their claim to the greatest-of-all-time throne after dismantling the Gators in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. I thought to myself, "Oh my gosh, do not drop this." The same standings that kept Miami out of the 2000 national championship game. We liked what we had already, and we really wanted to just keep what we had. Mission Statement That's how it goes in those games. I started running at an angle toward the sideline. Given all the challenges associated with the 2020 season, the Crimson Tide could easily make their case. They knew he was the straw that stirred the drink. But I remember a few days before the game we did a two-minute drill, our No. Chudzinski .mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}. A stacked defensive backs room, with Sean Taylor and Antrel Rolle as backups. That 2001 season, it was like the season was already written. OL Joel Rodriguez It really set the stage -- to not only win but be a dominant team like we were. It was the perfect storm for us. Washington had beaten Miami the year before, but in 2001, it looked as if the Huskies wanted to be anywhere but playing in prime time in the Orange Bowl as the Hurricanes gleefully kept their foot on the gas to prove a point. Williams Chudzinski They embraced it, and that's when I learned the great ones want to be driven. But in the moment, as I wrote my recap of that game in January 2002, I was very much like the players. Payton spent time in NFL Europe as well as the Canadian Football League. The 2001 team featured six All-Americans, and Dorsey was a Heisman Trophy finalist. Chudzinski The season began on the road against Penn State, a matchup Miami viewed as a "statement game.". I would have got drafted higher and everything. Jump inside of it. The dominance on the field and at the next level was unparalleled throughout the. That [last] interception was by Ed Reed. I knew this. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. Its game at Florida State on Oct. 13 took on even greater meaning after what happened in 2000. Butch did a great job recruiting and developing and building the culture. Take Ed Reed. Renew Now Close Topbar. They dominated nearly everyone on their schedule, culminating in a resounding 37-14 win over Nebraska in the BCS National Championship Game in the Rose Bowl. They thought that we looked like a high school team. [17] Additionally, the Hurricane defense scored eight touchdowns of its own. 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 . A stacked defensive line room, with Vince Wilfork as a backup, too. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. It's Ed!". They had no chance of winning that game. I never experienced that, just to sit there and say, "I'm the best, and that was a product of all our work." That drive starts with where this team started: in 1997, when Miami was at its lowest point as a football program, in the midst of NCAA sanctions that reduced its scholarship total to 15 in that signing class. To go and win the game was quite an experience. Vilma got into a debate several years ago with former USC running back Reggie Bush when the two played for the New Orleans Saints. Sponsorship Opportunities In 2002, Miami again played for a national title, losing in overtime to Ohio State. Romberg The Hurricanes began the season with a nationally televised primetime win over Penn State in Beaver Stadium. 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