Irish Do Their Best to Make Miami No. 1 : Sugar Bowl: Hurricanes blow hard about their claim to a third national championship in eight seasons after getting past Alabama, 33-25.

The Miami Hurricanes beat Alabama, 33-25, Monday night in the Sugar Bowl, but were they looking out for No. 1?

“Ain’t no doubt in my mind,” said linebacker Bernard Clark, who led a revamped Hurricane defense in the second half and had nine tackles. At night’s end, he led his teammates in a sarcastic chorus of the Alabama cheer--”Roll, Tide”--as they walked through a tunnel toward the dressing room.

The wire service polls will reveal college football’s national champions today, but it seems likely--at least to the Hurricanes--that they are the clear choice. Coupled with No. 1 Colorado’s 21-6 loss to fourth-ranked Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, second-ranked Miami feels it is the only choice to ascend to the top spot.

“I don’t want to make anyone mad, but there’s not a doubt in my mind who’s No. 1, and that’s us,” said quarterback Craig Erickson, who was named the game’s most valuable player after passing for 250 yards and three touchdowns.

If Erickson is correct, the national title would be Miami’s third in eight seasons and could propel the career of first-year Coach Dennis Erickson to another level.

However, Erickson, the coach, was cautious in predicting his team would be voted No. 1.

“People still have to vote,” Erickson said. “There are a lot of good football teams in the country, but I think we are the best.”

Alabama Coach Bill Curry was more direct: “Miami has got to be No. 1.”

Miami (11-1) didn’t establish its superiority over Alabama (10-2) until it came up with a stifling defense in the second half and solved what had been a baffling Crimson Tide offense.

The Hurricanes blew up and down the field for 477 yards of total offense (Alabama had 252), and were stifled only by their own mistakes. But Alabama’s game plan confused them in the early going.

“They caught us off-guard a lot,” Clark said. “They passed when we thought they would run. But we got straightened out at halftime. We just decided to play with reckless abandon.”

With Alabama quarterback Gary Hollingsworth operating most of the time from the shotgun, Miami’s tacklers seemed out of position many times, especially in a wild first half.

Fullback Stephen McGuire led Miami’s 227-yard ground game with 80 yards in 17 carries and scored a touchdown. The Crimson Tide gained only 38 yards rushing in 29 attempts.

Hollingsworth completed 27 of 43 passes for 214 yards and three touchdowns, the last a nine-yard scoring pass to split end Prince Wimbley with 2:53 left. That closed a 33-17 Miami lead, generated largely by Erickson’s two second-half touchdowns.

The 6-foot-2 junior quarterback completed 17 of 27 passes, including an 11-yard touchdown pass to tight end Rob Chudzinski and an 11-yard scoring pass to tight end Randy Bethel.

“We won the game we needed to win,” Erickson said. “And we did it with a hostile crowd.”

The vast majority of the Superdome crowd of 77,452 wore the red of Alabama and cheered loudly for the Crimson Tide. Most of their noise came in the first half.

The Hurricanes do most of their business in the air, but a second-quarter scoring drive that covered 62 yards--all on the ground--gave Miami a 20-10 lead. Alex Johnson’s three-yard scoring run with 5:08 left in the half should have been more than enough breathing room for the Hurricanes, but that’s not the way it turned out.

Alabama moved 80 yards against the nation’s best defense to come within 20-17 with only 40 seconds left in the half. Hollingsworth’s seven-yard touchdown pass to Lamonde Russell covered the final steps.

That should have ended it, but Alabama got a turnover and another chance to score. It didn’t.

Loping into the locker room at the half, the Hurricanes were undoubtedly pleased to realize that Notre Dame had just scored and that Alabama had not.

The Hurricanes led, 20-17, and knew they should have been a lot farther ahead. However, they were the self-inflicted victim of an error-filled half that included:

--Mike Azer giving holder Tim Kalal a bad snap and enabling Alabama’s Brent Welborn to block a conversion that kept Miami’s lead at 13-7.

--Pee Wee Smith fielding a punt off his chest, and Alabama’s Antonio London recovering at the 34-yard-line, resulting in a series that finished with a 45-yard field goal by Philip Doyle that trimmed Miami’s lead to 13-10.

--Erickson badly overthrowing Dale Dawkins by about 10 yards, the pass intercepted by Alabama’s Lee Ozmint and returned 23 yards.

A facemask penalty by Dawkins on Ozmint gave the Crimson Tide a chance to tie or go ahead of shell-shocked Miami with only 26 seconds left in the second quarter, but, after three plays, Doyle missed a 40-yard field goal (his second miss of the half) and the Hurricanes were lucky to escape with their 20-17 lead.

Smith got the ball rolling backwards for Miami. With the Hurricanes leading, 7-0, on a three-yard touchdown run by McGuire, Smith fielded an Alabama punt on his six-yard line instead of letting it bounce into the end zone.

He wouldn’t have been in that position, but regular punt returner Wesley Carroll is recovering from a separated shoulder. Pee Wee’s big adventure put the Hurricanes in such bad field position that Alabama got the ball back three plays later at the Miami 36.

Given an unexpected first down when Miami tackle Russell Maryland jumped offside on third and three on the seven, Hollingsworth aimed a low pass to flanker Marcus Battle, who slanted over the middle and caught it for a four-yard touchdown play that tied the score, 7-7.

Carroll, whose shoulder is still fine for catching passes, caught three of them for 60 yards the next time Miami got the ball. The last was an 18-yard touchdown pass from Erickson to give the Hurricanes a 13-7 lead.

That lasted until Smith’s fumbled punt and Doyle’s field goal made it 13-10.

But when Miami managed to hold its lead in the spite of all its problems, the Hurricanes were on their way toward staking their claim to No. 1.

Dawkins, wearing a black leather cowboy hat, spoke his team’s case: “We just have to hope and pray--we deserve to be national champs.”