Best Miami football players: Modern-era Mount Rushmore – From Michael Irvin to Ed Reed

The best Miami football players of the last 40 years, including Michael Irvin and Ed Reed, make up the Miami football modern-era Mount Rushmore.

The modern era of Miami football began with the hiring of Howard Schnellenberger in 1979. In five seasons in Coral Gables, Schnellenberger led the Hurricanes from the brink of the football program being discontinued to a national championship in 1983. Four Miami football players had more impact than anyone else.

This list is not the four best players in Miami football history or the four most awarded players. These are the four players who in the criteria of the original Mount Rushmore “were chosen to represent the nation’s birth, growth, development, and preservation.” The birth of modern Miami football came under Schnellenberger.

The 1983 National Championship Miami football team was a true team. No one player would fit the above criteria. The closest would likely be quarterback Bernie Kosar, but two Miami quarterbacks accomplished more than the future Cleveland Brown during their Hurricanes careers and meant more to the success of the program.

Thirty-five seasons later, Kosar still holds the single-season record for passing yards with 3,642 during an 8-5 season in Jimmy Johnson’s first year in 1985. In two seasons with Kosar as the starting quarterback, Miami went 19-6. Two Hurricanes quarterbacks exceeded that record and brought back more individual and team accomplishments.

In addition to Kosar, several other Hurricanes would be considered on most lists of the best modern Hurricanes but did not have the accomplishments either individually, as a team or both to make the final cut. Nothing matters more for the Miami football program than their five national championships.

Ultimately two Hurricanes greats were cut from the list because of that. Warren Sapp and Ray Lewis went on to Hall of Fame careers in the NFL. Sapp was a redshirt on the 1991 Miami National Championship team. Sapp and Lewis played on the Hurricanes 1994 team that lost to Nebraska in the 1995 Orange Bowl