Miami football: 5 best seasons in program history

Ranking the five best Miami football seasons ever for the Hurricanes, which is basically, ranking the best national champions at The U.

Though the Miami Hurricanes began playing college football in 1926, they were an irrelevant football program until Howard Schnellenberger arrived in Coral Gables in 1979. From the early 1980s to the early 2000s, Miami football was one of the best programs in the country. This is when the Canes became “The U”, becoming the East Coast version of the USC Trojans.

Since 1983, Miami has claimed five national titles, been a national finalist seven times and won its conference championship nine times. While on-field success has largely evaded the Canes since they left the old Big East for the ACC in 2004, college football is better when Miami is “The U”. Under second-year head coach Manny Diaz, maybe the Canes get back to greatness here soon?

So what we’re going to do today is look at the best seasons in Miami football history. Given that the Canes have won five national championships, we’re nitpicking through greatness. Many top programs in the country don’t have five national titles and Miami’s all came within 20 years of each other. That’s pretty remarkable if you sit down and actually think about it.

Here are the five best seasons in Miami football history.

Dennis Erickson may have only coached at Miami for six seasons, but he holds the distinction of being the only Hurricanes head coach with multiple national championships. After Jimmy Johnson went to the NFL to coach the Dallas Cowboys, Erickson was pried away from the Washington State Cougars to keep a national powerhouse going. He did so magnificently in year one.

Miami went 11-1 during Erickson’s first season as head coach. The national independent team beat three ranked teams en route to national title No. 3 in program history. The Canes beat No. 14 Pittsburgh at Pitt convincingly in mid-November. Two weeks later, Miami handed the No. 1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish a 17-point loss at home in the Orange Bowl.

In the Sugar Bowl, the Hurricanes beat the No. 7 Alabama Crimson Tide to be named consensus national champions in both the Coaches and AP Polls. The best player on this Miami team was future Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy. He spent his entire 11-year NFL career with the team that drafted him No. 3 overall in the Seattle Seahawks.

The reason this team is the weakest of the five national championship teams in Miami history is simple. They didn’t play a ranked team in their first six games. When they did play their first ranked team, the Canes lost by multiple scores at No. 9 Florida State. Though they rebounded well after the Florida State loss, they didn’t beat any team of note on the road which knocks them down a peg.