Team of the 80s
By Christy Cabrera Chirinos
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – For Dennis Erickson, it was a matter of building on tradition.
For Leon Searcy, there was the revenge factor. And for Russell Maryland, it was about proving that even while coaches and players might come and go, Miami was still a force.
Thirty years ago, the Hurricanes cemented themselves as the “Team of the 1980s” by winning their third national championship in seven years after storming through the 1989 season.
They opened the year with a resounding 51-3 win over Wisconsin. Bounced back after a loss at Florida State by beating three ranked opponents during a five-game stretch. Avenged their gut-wrenching 1988 loss to Notre Dame by dominating the top-ranked Irish on a magical night at the Orange Bowl and then, capped the year with a 33-25 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
And they did it all with a new quarterback under center and a new coach at the helm.
“It was a transition year and in a lot of people’s minds, there were a lot of unknowns about us,” said former Hurricanes defensive lineman Greg Mark, who won two championships at Miami and was a first-team All-American in 1989. “I’d like to think that that championship year, at least that run, our mentality, our work ethic and our focus for that 1989 year began in South Bend during the 1988 season when we had that opportunity for a national championship taken from us. … Then we had [former coach] Jimmy Johnson go to the Cowboys, a new staff came in and there was a lot of adjustments and a lot of getting-to-know-yous.”
Added Maryland, “The thing that made it so special is that we were supposedly a team that was in transition and had to get to know our first-year head coach. People were counting us out because they said that transition would hurt us. I think the beauty of that coaching staff, as well as the beauty of the guys on the team, was that we knew where we stood, on both sides. The coaches knew they inherited a good team and they didn’t have the egos a lot of other coaches would have had to come in and change things. They left well enough alone and on the other side, the players weren’t so closed-minded that they weren’t willing to listen. We knew we were a good team and we knew what we could do.”
This weekend, the Hurricanes will be all about celebrating that memorable season.
Over the course of the next two days, more than 70 players, coaches and staffers from that 1989 team will descend on Coral Gables for a reunion that will connect them with their past and hopefully, inspire the players presently wearing orange and green.
And Saturday afternoon, when the current Hurricanes take the field at Hard Rock Stadium for a crucial Coastal Division showdown with Georgia Tech, that 1989 team will be in attendance, with Searcy serving as an honorary captain.
Current Miami coach Manny Diaz – who remembers sneaking into the Orange Bowl to watch those 1989 Hurricanes convert a 3rd-and-43 in their 27-10 win over Notre Dame – says he hopes his players can appreciate what a rare feat their predecessors accomplished 30 years ago.
Many outside of Miami counted the Hurricanes out after that loss to Florida State. But the team refused to fold, even after being humbled in Tallahassee.
“Any time any of these former greats get a chance to talk to the team, you want our guys to feel like they belong in that fraternity and that the initiation into that fraternity is not just wearing the uniform. It’s the work you put in and the way that you compete,” Diaz said. “That’s been pretty much the message from everyone who’s had a chance to speak to our team. What we’ve seen is that as we work and as we compete, we play better. … The toughness that team played with, the resiliency that in my mind, all the great Hurricanes team played with, there have been some great comebacks, some great feats by these teams and it’s all because of the mental toughness that was trained out here on Greentree or in that weight room.”
In the years since that memorable season, the Hurricanes have, understandably, gone their separate ways.
Erickson returned to the West Coast and now lives in Washington. Mark, who would return to Miami and win another national championship as an assistant coach with the Hurricanes, still lives in South Florida and is in education these days. Maryland, meanwhile, lives in Texas and is a motivational speaker.
Some of the members of the 1989 team have been able to keep in touch with each other and others have been limited by geography or other factors.
But this weekend, when they’re together again, the coach and his players expect there will be a lot of laughs, a lot of stories told and a lot of memories shared.
“That team made me part of them. That was the bottom line. They were a team that had success with Jimmy Johnson and Howard Schnellenberger and then I came in as the third coach and they accepted me and brought me right into the fold,” Erickson said. “That’s what made it very, very special. There was great leadership on that team, just great leaders and a great work ethic. I learned so much about coaching from them that I carried with me for the next however many years. I’m looking forward to seeing all those guys that I went to war with, guys that spilled blood for that program and for that football team and for the University of Miami. Those kinds of memories are unforgettable and that’s what the game is all about.”
Added Searcy, “That 1989 team was special to me because it was my first year starting and it was a great experience, especially all the guys who taught me and made me the player I was. They taught me what the Miami way was all about – dedication, working hard, studying film, staying out of trouble, doing the right things and just being a dog, nasty, when you played on the field. It’ll be good to see those guys. There’s going to be a lot of clowning around, a lot of cracking of jokes, just like in the dorms. Nothing’s changed.”
