Miami Resurgence Giving New Life to Great College Football Rivalry
For two decades, the Miami-Florida State rivalry was known as one of the best, fiercest and most nationally relevant rivalries in American sports.
The Hurricanes won five national titles between 1983 and 2001 and established themselves as one of college football's most dominant programs. Meanwhile, the Seminoles won two titles of their own in 1993 and 1999, won 10 or more games for 14 straight years from 1987-2000 and finished in the Top Five in each of those seasons.
"It's one of the best rivalries in all of college football," former Florida State quarterback (1992-1995) and current ESPN analyst Danny Kanell said. "It always felt like, in order to win the national championship, you had to win the state of Florida championship—which always seemed to go through Miami, Florida or Florida State."
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But after a heartbreaking national title loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl following the 2002 season, former Miami head coach Larry Coker wasn't able to replicate some of the Hurricanes' previous offensive success in later seasons. Couple that with the jump from the Big East to the ACC in 2004, and it led to Miami's regression toward irrelevance for the last decade-plus. The prolonged struggle for Miami has left a generation of fans and players in the dark about what this rivalry is and what it used to mean.
"It was epic," said former Hurricanes head coach Butch Davis (1995-2000), who is now an analyst for ESPN and SiriusXM. "People don't even know what those games were like in the '80s and '90s. They were as highly competitive and as fiercely fought as any college football games that have ever been played."
The U isn't irrelevant anymore.
First-year head coach Mark Richt has his Canes sitting at 4-0, ranked 10th in the country by both major polls and hosting the rivalry game this weekend against a reeling Florida State team that has lost two of its last three games.
"[Miami] was supposed to add a strength to the conference and hasn't even played for the conference title yet," Kanell said. "Think about that. That's insane. So because of that, this is way bigger for Miami because of what it means to them after the struggle to find an identity and a coach who people believe in."
Part of that identity is to control the clock and pound defenses with its run game. The Canes should be able to have some success against a Seminoles defense that's giving up an ACC-worst 6.98 yards per play (125th in the nation) and 35.4 points per game.
Running backs Mark Walton and Joseph Yearby have taken a ton of pressure off junior quarterback Brad Kaaya, which has made the Miami offense dangerous.
"By running the ball effectively, Miami has limited the exposure of a suspect offensive line," Davis said. "Nobody that they've played has put them in position where, if offensive line issues still exist, they can't expose it."
As a result, Kaaya is averaging 233.8 passing yards per game and 9.8 yards per attempt (tied for seventh nationally) and working off play action as well as any quarterback in the country.
While Miami escaped from its shell of anonymity this year, Florida State appears to be climbing into it, thanks to a defense that has given up 36 plays of 20 or more yards—tied for the worst mark in the nation with Rice and Syracuse, according to CFBStats.com.
"I don't know if there's a disconnect between [defensive coordinator] Charles Kelly and the players—I don't know if they're not buying in or trying to do too much, because I see way too many wide-open receivers running down the field," Kanell said. "They're just giving up way too many big plays."
Miami would love nothing more than to send the Seminoles further into the pit of despair while also elevating itself squarely into the national spotlight with a win on Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
"It might signal a changing of the guard," Davis said.
While Florida State is down, it's not out.
"It's not the talent," Kanell said. "Because when you look at them, they're always in the top five in recruiting, and they've got the athletes."
A Miami win—something that hasn't happened since 2009—would add more spice to a dormant rivalry that once was one of the country's best.
It would also signal a return to prominence for The U, which could set the stage for another epic era in the Sunshine State.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information is courtesy of Scout.com. Odds provided by Odds Shark.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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