The 50 greatest college football teams throughout history

44. Best college football teams of all-time: 1987 Miami

This team comes on the heels of one of the best teams in their program’s history—the 1986 Hurricanes team that featured star quarterback Vinny Testaverde, Jerome Brown and so many other offensive talents. The Canes looked to be surely headed into a rebuilding year

“Not so fast,” is what I imagine stars like Michael Irvin, Brian Blades and Steve Walsh would’ve said immediately to the faces of anyone that suggested a rebuild. Head coach Jimmy Johnson and coordinator Gary Stevens’ pro-style offense roared to life, with the team defeating five top-25 teams on the season, four of which finished in the top-10.

The Canes’ defied all expectations and triumphed their way to a perfect regular season, putting them on a crash course for an underdog matchup against the top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners had only lost two games in the past two seasons and both were to the Miami program that had defied expectations in ’88.

Just as the Sooners were determined to make the third time the charm? They didn’t. The Hurricanes would go on to defeat Oklahoma 20-14 in the Orange Bowl, capturing the all-hailed perfect season, which ended in one of the most unexpected National Championships in college football history.