1) We tied running the nearside option against a team full of future NFL players for a half, then started running right at them and blocking them. That and Dan Conley's interception turned the game around.
2) We got the ball with about 5 minutes in our own territory and took so long to get plays in and off that Keith Jackson and Bob Griese in the booth kept wondering why we were taking so much time.
3) Here's the biggie: Marvin Graves pulls a McNabb and loses his lunch after a scrambled in the final minute. The referees offer Pasqualoni an official's time out for a medical player but Coach P declines and instead uses our last time out to try to get graves ready for the next play because he's have to take him out for a play if he used the official time out.
4) So they keep Graves in and run...the near-side option, a play that Graves' back-up Kevin Mason could probably run as well, (and Doug Womack, the best I've ever seen in the option, was still on the squad). It's a play that hadn't worked all day and makes no sense against a last minute defense because the defenders are already spread out to cover passes- an option needs them sucked into the middle of the field. The play, of course, goes no where. Fortunately it winds up out of bounds.
5) DeLeone calls his other favorite play, the tight end throw back. But Chris Gedney doesn't get to the end zone and is covered by a Miami guy who was actually out of position, which put him in Gedney's way. Chris catches the ball but is tackled immediately and the clock runs out because we have no time outs left.
6) We lost 16-10. If we'd won 17-16, we'd be 10-1 and, having been ranked #8 and now beaten the #1 team, might have jumped up far enough to play Alabama for the national championship. I don't think we would have won but we'd at least have had a shot, which the '87 team did not because Miami and Oklahoma were both unbeaten and more highly ranked that year. After that the goal of all SU fans was to get back to that position and have a shot at a national title. But we didn't get it because of all the bungling getting plays in, the bad plays we used and the burning of our last time out before we needed to. It was the beginning of the criticism of Pasqualoni and DeLeone that eventually brought them down.
Graves was sacked a ton of times in the first half, and their DL was so dominant that Vermeil opined that the only thing he could think of was to have the OL line up in some special way, where (I think) the center stood at a 45-degree angle or something, and then we come out in the second half and there it is, exactly as Vermeil said.
Heisman winner Torretta hadn't thrown an interception in about 10 million passes that season, and Conley intercepted him near the goal line on their first drive. We ended up picking him 3 times that game, a week after picking BC's Foley 3 times. We also picked Kordell Stewart 3 times in the Fiesta.
Warren Sapp might have won the game for them. On our penultimate drive, we were near the red zone, and Graves had Gedney open in the end zone. He turned to throw it, and an instant before he threw, Sapp burst through and drilled him. The ball went almost straight up, and came down in Rohan Marley's arms for the INT. One of the Miami players afterward said that he had an "oh " moment when Graves was getting ready to throw because he saw Gedney was open, and that was likely the game.
Imagine if we'd had time to run one more play at the end. Which we should have had, because our TD came later than it should have. Our FB (Wooten?) plowed down to the goal line, and it looked like he got in. Refs said no, and we had to run more clock getting into the end zone.
Most intense football game I have ever seen that involved us. That Miami team had 9 players drafted that year, including their entire starting LB group - Darrin Smith, Michael Barrow, and Jesse Armstead. And we were pushing them methodically down the field all 4th Q.
EDIT: talk about "those were the days" - the previous week we had the same broadcast team, Musberger/Vermeil, calling our game @BC, who was ranked in the top 25. They were looking forward to the Miami game - the #1 team in the country at the time - and Musberger asked if we had the horses to run with them. Vermeil said yes, emphatically.
Oh Lord
