1983 Miami Hurricanes football team

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
Seasons ← 1982 1984 →

1983 NCAA Division I-A independents football records
v t e	Conf			Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No.1Miami (FL)		–		–		11	–	1	–	0
Virginia Tech		–		–		9	–	2	–	0
No.19Boston College		–		–		9	–	3	–	0
No.16West Virginia		–		–		9	–	3	–	0
No.20East Carolina		–		–		8	–	3	–	0
No.18Pittsburgh		–		–		8	–	3	–	1
Florida State		–		–		8	–	4	–	0
Penn State		–		–		8	–	4	–	1
Southern Miss		–		–		7	–	4	–	0
Memphis State		–		–		6	–	4	–	1
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]

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

At Florida

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Miami (FL) at Florida

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hurricanes	0	0	0	3	3
• No. 16 Gators	13	0	12	3	28

Date: September 3
Location: Florida Field • Gainesville, Florida
Game attendance: 73,907

At Houston

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Purdue

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Purdue Boilermakers at Miami (FL) Hurricanes

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

atOrange 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

^[11]

Scoring summary

Quarter	Time	Drive			Team	Scoring information	Score
Quarter	Time	Plays	Yards	TOP	Team	Scoring information	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

Jeff Davis game-winning 19-yard field goal as time expired ^[12]

Orange Bowl (vs Nebraska)

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#1 Nebraska at #5 Miami (FL)

	1	2	3	4	Total
No.1 Cornhuskers	0	14	3	13	30
• No. 5 Hurricanes	17	0	14	0	31

Date: January 2
Location: Miami Bowl Stadium, 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 Archived 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

^[13]^[14]

1983 Miami Hurricanes football team roster

Players

Coaches

Offense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
RB		Jimmy Austin	So
RB	`16`	Albert Bentley	Sr
OL	`79`	Paul Bertucelli	Fr
WR	`40`	Eddie Brown	Jr
OL	`69`	Juan Comendeiro
TE	`86`	Glenn Dennison	Sr
RB	`44`	Keith Griffin	Sr
OL	`52`	David Heffernan
OL		Chris Hembrough
RB	`30`	Alonzo Highsmith	Fr
WR		David Kintigh	Fr
QB	`20`	Bernie Kosar	RFr
OL		Mike Moore
RB		Speedy Neal	Sr
OL	`77`	Paul O’Connor
RB		Darryl Oliver	Fr
RB		Mel Bratton	Fr
WR		Kenny Oliver	Fr
WR	`6`	Stanley Shakespeare
OL	`76`	Ian Sinclair
WR	`7`	John Smatana
RB		Todd Stanish	Fr
QB	`14`	Vinny Testaverde	Fr
WR		Lawrence Thompson	Sr
QB		Kyle Vanderwende	So
OL	`72`	Alvin Ward

Defense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
DB	`4`	Rodney Bellinger	Sr
LB	`53`	Jay Brophy	Sr
DL	`41`	Danny Brown
DT	`98`	Jerome Brown	Fr
DB	`2`	Ken Calhoun
DL		Dallas Cameron
DB	`43`	Doug McFadden	Fr
LB	`92`	Winston Moss	Fr
LB	`99`	Julio Cortes
DB		Dave Ditthardt
DT	`95`	Kevin Fagan	So
LB	`51`	Jack Fernandez
DL	`62`	Tony Fitzpatrick
LB		Bruce Fleming
DL		Joe Kohlbrand
DL	`93`	John McVeigh	So
DL		Fred Robinson
LB	`36`	Ken Sisk
DB		Reggie Sutton	Fr
DB		Keith Walker
DB	`29`	Eddie Williams

Special teams

Pos.	#	Name	Class
K	`3`	Jeff Davis
P		Steve Minie	Jr
P	`12`	Rick Tuten

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

All-Americans

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Jay Brophy, LB
Glenn Dennison, TE

Jack Harding University of Miami MVP Award

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Glenn Dennison, TE

^ "Miami topples No. 1 Nebraska". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. January 3, 1984. p. 13.

^ Smizik, Bob (January 3, 1983). "Miami claims No. 1 after beating Nebraska". Pittsburgh Press. p. D1.

^ "Hurricanes say there's no doubt". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). wire services. January 3, 1984. p. 1D.

^ Underwood, John (January 9, 1984). "No team was ever higher". Sports Illustrated. p. 14.

^ Finder, Chuck (January 1, 1987). "Miami's '83 champions: Where are they now?". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 37.

^ "For Gators, a Peace-full victory". St. Petersburg Times. September 4, 1983. Retrieved November 4, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.

^ "Devils swept away by Miami". The Rocky Mount Telegram. October 2, 1983. Retrieved January 29, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

^ "Hurricanes breeze 31–7". The Palm Beach Post. October 16, 1983. Retrieved November 3, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.

^ "Hurricanes blow past West Virginia". The Grand Island Independent. October 30, 1983. Retrieved January 29, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

^ "Hurricanes survive East Carolina, 12–7". The Orlando Sentinel. November 6, 1983. Retrieved March 5, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.

^ Gainesville Sun. September 18, 1983.

^ "100 Greatest Plays in Miami History: #9-Game Winning Field Goal vs FSU 1983". August 14, 2019.

^ Wilbon, Michael (January 3, 1984). "Nebraska Falls, 31-30, On Day of Upsets". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 21, 2019.

^ "MIAMI IS CHOSEN AS NO. 1 AFTER UPSET OF NEBRASKA". The New York Times. January 4, 1984. Retrieved August 21, 2019.

1983 Miami Hurricanes football team

Contents

Schedule

Game summaries

At Florida

At Houston

Purdue

Notre Dame

At Duke

Louisville

At Mississippi State

At Cincinnati

West Virginia

East Carolina

At Florida State

Orange Bowl (vs Nebraska)

Personnel

Awards and honors

All-Americans

Jack Harding University of Miami MVP Award

References

Languages