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By knocking the pulp out of Virginia Tech, Miami moved into the national title chase By Tim Layden
Miami's Butch Davis decorates his office with a coach's typical accoutrements: pictures of his wife and son (to show visitors he's a family man), keepsakes from his playing and coaching careers (to show he has a proper football pedigree), a row of motivational books (to show he wants all the latest know-how on leading young men) and various Hurricanes trinkets (to show he bleeds orange and green). His suite overlooking the on-campus practice fields in Coral Gables is also filled with empty moving boxes, as Davis waits for construction to begin on Miami's $8 million weight room and football offices and he's asked to temporarily relocate. "I'll start packing when I see bulldozers outside my window," Davis says. "That's when I'll believe it's going to happen."
In the week leading to last Saturday's game against Virginia Tech, Davis aimed his frustration at the ground that hadn't been broken for the weight room and football facility. (Athletic director Paul Dee says that the city of Coral Gables, which has strict construction codes, is delaying the project.) "The money's been raised, a lot of it from former players," Davis said. "Edgerrin James [now of the Indianapolis Colts] wrote a check for $250,000." Last week Davis also repledged his allegiance to Miami, though he said his salary (at least $700,000, according to sources) "isn't even in the top 30 among college coaches." Dee blanched at that assertion. "At the start of this season, he was clearly in the top 10," said Dee. "I'm afraid Butch is a little bit given to overstatement." Davis doesn't speak like a coach who has brought a program back from embarrassment but like a man who has become accustomed to complaining. It's a habit he must break, because the crying game is over. Miami is mighty Miami again. Though the rebuilt Hurricanes proved their mettle in a 27-24 upset of then No. 1 Florida State on Oct. 7, their 41-21 throttling of Virginia Tech, which was 8-0 and ranked second in the nation, was just as significant. In that game Miami rediscovered its identity. The Hurricanes scored five touchdowns from at least 42 yards out; smacked around the Hokies, who had spent the week whining about Miami's dirty play in the teams' 1999 game; and in general partied with an Orange Bowl crowd of more than 77,000 as if it were '89. "I've been coming to this place my whole life," said senior free safety Al Blades, whose brothers Bennie and Brian starred for rough and raucous Hurricanes teams in the '80s. "Today was the way it's supposed to be. Crowd going crazy, us playing hard-nosed football." Beating Virginia Tech was cathartic for Miami, whose long afternoon of intimidation included two personal fouls and one unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. As the Hurricanes stammered through probation and its aftermath, the Hokies blossomed into the premier program in the Big East. They beat Miami five consecutive times, including a 43-10 thrashing in Blacksburg a year ago. This season the Hurricanes had a theme. "Enough is enough," said senior cornerback Leonard Myers after Saturday's game. "That's what the seniors kept telling the young guys on the team." One of those seniors, wideout Santana Moss, was at the center of the victory. He caught four passes for 154 yards, including two of Ken Dorsey's three touchdown throws. The first came from 42 yards, when Moss crossed through the middle of a blown coverage and gave the Hurricanes a 7-0 lead. Early in the fourth quarter Moss ran a deep route and scored on an 80\!yard play, stretching Miami's lead to 35-7. Few careers have begun less auspiciously than Moss's did in the fall of 1997. He had won two state triple-jump championships while at Carol City High in North Miami and came to Coral Gables on a track and field scholarship, though he intended to play football too. After the second game of his freshman year, a 28-17 loss to West Virginia at the Orange Bowl, Moss was arrested after a fight at a nightclub and charged with battery on a police officer, a felony. Moss says he simply put his arm on a policeman's shoulder, trying to help a friend, but that explanation didn't keep him from having to spend a night in jail. His parents visited him, as did Davis. Frightened and embarrassed, Santana wept openly. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, served no jail time and returned to the Hurricanes late in the fall. "It was humiliating," Moss says, "but it taught me that there are things you just can't do and places you shouldn't be." Moss has grown from a wiry, 160-pound freshman to a wiry, 180-pound senior. After making 14 receptions for a team-leading 19.2 yards per catch in his first season, he caught 30 balls and scored eight times as a sophomore and had 54 catches and eight touchdowns (six receiving, two returning punts) as a junior. This year he has scored twice on reverses, three times on pass receptions and three times on punt returns. His eight touchdowns average more than 65 yards. It is no coincidence that in Miami's only defeat, at Washington on Sept. 9, Moss was limping with an ankle injury. In the complex computer voodoo of the Bowl Championship Series rankings, the Hurricanes are ranked third, one spot behind Florida State, whom Miami beat. (Likewise, the Hurricanes are ranked three spots in front of Washington, which beat Miami. Go figure.) The Hurricanes must run the table with impressive wins over Pitt, Syracuse and Boston College and then hope. There are plausible scenarios in which Miami is ranked No. 1 in at least one poll and doesn't play in the national title game in the Orange Bowl. Nothing is guaranteed, except the restoration of a team's image. Midway through the fourth quarter on Saturday, with the outcome long decided, Miami junior strong safety Edward Reed turned to Blades in the huddle and told him, "I'm going to get a pick here, and if I do, I'm going to house it." Reed intercepted quarterback Dave Meyer's next throw at the Tech 44 and ran it in for the Hurricanes' final touchdown. His score came in the same end zone where Miami players ripped off their helmets and leaped into the stands, before the NCAA legislated such behavior into oblivion, at least theoretically. Reed snapped off his helmet two steps across the goal line and was mobbed by teammates. The obligatory 15-yard penalty was assessed for excessive celebration, with another 15 tacked on when fans littered the field with oranges. It was vintage Miami. Issue date: November 13, 2000
For more Inside College Football see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, November 8. Click here to subscribe to SI.
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