Miami Is Still Talking No. 1

Maybe it’s Miami’s supreme cool, an ability to rob you unaware with a who-me? look, that makes it so convincing a college football team. Coach Jimmy Johnson doesn’t want much. “Just vote for the best team,” he said, in his smooth rock-a-bye voice, trying to make you forget that the team he is referring to, of course, is his own.

In the normal course of conversation with the Hurricanes, up becomes sideways, a loss becomes a tie, and No. 2 isn’t second-best anymore, it’s almost No. 1. Another team might have faded from the heights of the polls by now, but the Hurricanes have refused to slip quietly into also-ran status, dickering loudly for what they see as their due. Despite a loss to Notre Dame, they continue to make a case for No. 1 that sometimes can seem impossibly right.

Their otherwise unbeaten season turned on a single failed moment at midseason, when Steve Walsh’s two-point conversion pass fell incomplete and saved the Irish a 31-30 upset. That made Notre Dame top-ranked and sentenced the Hurricanes to catching up. Gradually, they almost have, negotiating the rest of an at-times difficult schedule to finish the regular season at 10-1 and earn a berth in Monday’s Orange Bowl against sixth-ranked Nebraska.

If they beat the Cornhuskers, as they are expected to, an unlikely but not impossible sequence could give the Hurricanes their second straight national championship. No. 3 West Virginia must upset Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl game of undefeateds, and then the pollsters must elect the Hurricanes No. 1 over a Mountaineers team that would have its own strong claim to the title with the only 12-0 record extant.

“I don’t even like to talk about it,” running back Cleveland Gary said. “How can you say Miami doesn’t deserve it?”

The Hurricanes make several strong points in this round of what-ifs before the bowls. They open by discussing their schedule that included three conference champions: Southeastern co-titlist Louisiana State, the Southwest’s Arkansas, and Michigan of the Big Ten. Big Eight winner Nebraska will be the fourth. Besides, right at the outset, by 31-0, they decimated pre-season No. 1 Florida State, which has not lost since.

Of Miami’s 11 games, six were against bowl teams, yet the Hurricanes managed to win by an average score of 36-10. After Florida State and Michigan, there was a cushion of five opponents -- two before and three after Notre Dame -- that would total a meager 13 wins. But, by the time it got through a final stretch made up of LSU, Arkansas and Brigham Young consecutively, Miami was worn to the bone.

“I think the people upstairs went a little crazy with the schedule,” offensive lineman Mike Sullivan said. “It got to the point where your body was crying, ‘Please, stop this.’ ”

The Hurricanes’ record begs comparison with West Virginia, which has pointed to its own scoring margin of 43-16 as an argument for No. 1, should it defeat Notre Dame. But the Mountaineers played a weak Eastern schedule, and just two of their opponents ended with winning records. This has caused some public friction between the Mountaineers and Hurricanes, and a look at their two common opponents provides little evidence as to who may be right.

West Virginia beat East Carolina by 30-10; Miami beat the Pirates by 31-7. Cincinnati fell to the Mountaineers by 51-13, and to the Hurricanes by 57-3. “I can’t see it, that they’d rank West Virginia ahead of us,” Sullivan said. “Sure they’ve had a great year, but look at who and where they played.”

Less convincing but just as stridently argued by Miami is the Notre Dame upset. If the schedule wasn’t evidence enough, the Hurricanes say, consider the circumstances of that loss. They played at Notre Dame, a notoriously difficult environment. On their worst day of the season, they turned the ball over seven times, and were victimized by a controversial call late in the game. And still managed to come within a point. Had they chosen to go for the tie instead of a win, they could very well be No. 1.

“I hate to see this team penalized just for turning down a tie,” Johnson said. “If we kick the point we’re No. 1. But we have to go for the win, because we’re the defending national champions.”

The real sore point with the Hurricanes was not the make-or-break play, but the still-argued flag on the series before, when they had driven into scoring position. A Walsh completion to Gary inside the Notre Dame 3-yard line was first ruled a fumble when Gary stretched for the goal line, and then an official said the Hurricanes turned the ball over on downs. Miami claimed an error was made, and Gary still is beside himself. “It’s so hard,” he said.

The Hurricanes belabor the recollection of that game because it ruined what otherwise might have been a miracle of a season. They were highly regarded in pre-season, but after losing 17 seniors to the NFL (15 drafted, two signed as free agents) from last year’s title team, they were not necessarily expected to make so serious a run at repeating. Junior quarterback Walsh represented the only veteran among the offensive skill players; the entire backfield and receiving corps were first-timers, many of them sophomores. Walsh directed them with aplomb, making new stars out of previously unheralded players such as receivers Dale Dawkins and Randal Hill, Gary out of the backfield, and a monstrous tight end in Rob Chudzinski.

The youth factor may have been a telling one, the only thing that kept them from being a complete team, as they had almost as many turnovers as touchdowns, 37 to 47. Even with those hitches in their usually smooth offense, however, they still averaged 454.5 yards a game and 35.9 points.