Rankled Over Rankings : Johnson Thinks Miami Win in Orange Bowl Should Be Worth National Title

In a word, Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson was asked Sunday, how would he feel if the Hurricanes beat Nebraska tonight in the Orange Bowl, but still finished No. 2 in the voting for college football’s national champion?

Johnson paused before answering in his silken Texas drawl.

“Bitterly disappointed but happy,” Johnson said at a news conference with Tom Osborne, his Nebraska counterpart.

“Oh, is that four (words)?” Johnson added. “At Arkansas, I didn’t take math.”

The Fayetteville-educated Johnson may not have majored in calculus, but he remains convinced that any way you calculate it, a victory over the Cornhuskers would offer final proof that the Hurricanes deserve to repeat as No. 1.

“That’s the only way I can say it,” Johnson said of his conflict of emotions. “I’m extremely happy with the success of the team and for being in a position that no one, including the coaches, ever sincerely felt we’d be in that position.

“So, I’m happy in that way, but bitterly disappointed because I know we could have been higher, and maybe should be higher.”

Among the Hurricanes’ 10 wins, as Johnson never tires of repeating, are victories over six bowl teams and three conference champions: Michigan (Big Ten), Louisiana State (Southeastern co-champion) and Arkansas (Southwest Conference). A victory over Nebraska, the Big Eight champion, would make it four.

Their only loss came against Notre Dame--31-30, in South Bend, Ind.--and only because a 2-point conversion failed.

The Irish, of course, are unbeaten and ranked No. 1 entering their Fiesta Bowl showdown against unbeaten and No. 3 West Virginia, but Johnson--who would never win a popularity poll in South Bend, anyway--tweaked the Irish when he said that Nebraska (11-1) is the toughest team on Miami’s schedule.

And if Nebraska beats Miami decisively tonight, Johnson said, he would give his No. 1 vote to the No. 6 Cornhuskers in the coaches’ poll, regardless of the Fiesta outcome.

“Again, don’t get me wrong,” he said, “I think West Virginia and Notre Dame are two of the best teams in the country. They’re two of that half-dozen I think could lay claim to being the best.

“I would say this. If Nebraska beats us decisively--no one else has beaten us decisively--that’s why I would think they’re the best team.”

Is that an affront to Notre Dame?

“I’m just stating my feelings,” Johnson said. “We haven’t played the game yet. I’ll have a different opinion maybe after we play the game, or I might come back after the game and say, without question they (Nebraska) were the best team we played all year long.

“I don’t know. Right now, on film, their style of play as opposed to our style of play, for playing us, they give us more problems totally than a lot of other teams.

“You brought up Notre Dame. We threw for 424 yards against Notre Dame. We felt like we could throw the football. Four hundred twenty-four yards, that’s a pretty good number.

“Seven turnovers, and we still scored 30 points. I think Notre Dame has a great team--don’t get me wrong--but I think we played half a dozen great teams.”

If Osborne had an opinion on the subject, he kept his own counsel, other than to note that being voted No. 1 doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best team. If it wasn’t for a 41-28 loss to UCLA in the third game of the season, a game in which the Bruins went ahead 28-0 in the first quarter, the Cornhuskers would also be No. 1 contenders. They were contenders in their last Orange Bowl appearance, in 1984, when they lost, 31-30, to Miami on a failed 2-point conversion.

“We can’t play that one quarter over,” said Broderick Thomas, Nebraska’s All-American linebacker, referring to the first 15 minutes at Pasadena.

“If so, we could have a chance to play for the national championship. We came out flat in that game. They beat us, and we can’t take that away.

“I still think some good came of it. After all, we didn’t lose another game and we’re here, at the Orange Bowl.”

And while here, Thomas and the rest of the Nebraska defense will be put to a test they probably haven’t faced since encountering Troy Aikman at UCLA. Aikman, along with USC’s Rodney Peete, finished ahead of Miami quarterback Steve Walsh in the Heisman Trophy voting, but the Hurricane junior was selected ahead of his Southern California competition to the All-American team.

Asked to compare Aikman with Walsh, Osborne not only sounded more impressed with Walsh, he also reminded people not to forget Nebraska’s quarterback.

“Steve Walsh impresses me as a very intelligent player, a player who has great command of what he wants to do on the field,” Osborne said. “He’s in an offensive scheme that fits him well and he is able to orchestrate who he’s going to throw the ball to, he checks off (audibles) well.

“I think he’s a very, very complete player. I’ve been impressed with his presence on the field. He knows what he wants to do. He’s kind of hard to get at--he reads blitzes very well, he gets rid of the ball quickly, and his height (6 feet 3 inches) helps him get rid of the ball.

“As far as Aikman is concerned, Aikman had a lot of help the day we played. He got a lot of credit, he played very well, but in their game against us they had a couple of long runs where they just pitched the ball back to the I-back and we had people hit the guy at the line of scrimmage and missed tackles and the guy ran for 80 yards.

“He threw a 6-yard completion to the tight end, we had a guy hit him as soon as the ball got there, and two other guys split through the blocks, and the tight end ran 70 yards up the middle.

“So, he ended up with I think a little over 200 yards passing. I think Steve Taylor threw for 125 and rushed for 100, I thought Steve Taylor--as far as performance--was very equal.”

It doesn’t make sense to Osborne that college quarterbacks are measured on their projected abilities as a pro, thus diminishing the appeal of a Taylor, who is equally dangerous as a runner--he has 32 touchdowns rushing, 30 as a passer.

Walsh, of course, has to live with constant comparisons made to his predecessors at Miami, all of whom have advanced to the pros. The line of succession started with Jim Kelly (Buffalo) in 1980, continued with Bernie Kosar (Cleveland) in 1983, and on to Vinnie Testaverde (Tampa Bay).

Walsh, who received only passing interest from college recruiters--Louisville, Iowa State and Northwestern besides Miami--coming out of Cretin High School in St. Paul, Minn., doesn’t draw the raves for his physical abilities that his predecessors did.

But he must be doing something right. Besides leading Miami to a national title and 12-0 record last season, Walsh threw for more touchdowns (29), yards (3,105), and had more completions (233) than Aikman, Peete or West Virginia’s Major Harris, another Heisman candidate.

Walsh set a school record for touchdown passes, three more than Testaverde. He finished second in single-season completions to Kosar’s 262 in 1984; attempts (390 to Kosar’s 416), and total offense (3,082 to Kosar’s 3,412). He set a single-game school record with 33 completions against Arkansas, and tied Kosar with 5 touchdown passes against Notre Dame, although that statistic was diminished by 3 interceptions and 2 fumbles.

Even before that game, however, Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz had offered this assessment of Walsh:

“He’s the best college quarterback Miami ever had. He’s better than Jim Kelly. He’s better than Bernie Kosar. He’s better than Vinnie Testaverde.

“He’s better in college because he is so cool--he’ll beat you on third down so often you wish you’d never seen him.”

Being voted an All-American did less to change his life, Walsh said, than that of his girlfriend’s best friend, who happens to be the only “S. Walsh” listed in the Miami telephone directory and thus the recipient of a lot of wrong numbers.

Now, Walsh, a fourth-year junior majoring in finance--he spent last summer as an intern at a Minneapolis bank--is keeping Miami guessing about whether he will drive off to the pros or return for his final season of eligibility.

“I’m comfortable with that position, no matter what I decide,” Walsh said.

He says he’ll make that decision after the Orange Bowl, but the educated guess is that he will return next season, when he will be the odds-on favorite for the Heisman as well as the No. 1 quarterback drafted by the NFL, a position generally conceded to Aikman this year.

How does Miami keep producing such successful quarterbacks, especially when none of the four was highly recruited out of high school?

Some give the credit to Gary Stevens, the team’s quarterback coach and offensive coordinator. He, in turn, defers the praise to former Miami Coach Howard Schnellenberger, who implemented the same offensive system he used as an assistant with the Miami Dolphins.

Johnson said that at Miami, the quarterback is the focal point of the entire team, and given commensurate responsibility.

“We not only recruit for people who fit into our system, we have the people on our campus now who are pro-style players--the receivers, the pass blockers, backs who can catch the ball and backs who can block,” Johnson has said.

Of course, with their history firmly established, it’s becoming increasingly easier to attract blue-chip quarterbacks.

Now, if they could only attract No. 1 votes as easily.