|
|
'Canes accomplish their mission
By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
NEW ORLEANS -- With the outcome of the game Tuesday all but finalized at the three-minute mark of the fourth quarter, two Nokia Sugar Bowl representatives crawled underneath a table behind the Miami bench, dragging out a pair of giant cardboard boxes.
|  | | Miami defensive back Phillip Buchanon had trouble hanging onto the ball after nearly intercepting this pass, but all the Hurricanes are hoping to get their hands solidly on some sort of national title.
|
Inside them were T-shirts, hats and towels, the typical promotional tools passed out in every locker room celebration. But nowhere on these garments did it say, "No. 1," "National Champions" or "Best of the Best."
Instead, it read, "Sugar Bowl Champions." And, at least for now, that's all the University of Miami is.
After dominating Florida 37-20, making a statement to voters in The Associated Press poll that they deserve consideration for the national championship, the Miami Hurricanes have been reserved to the roll of spectators.
All they can do is wait for the outcome of the Orange Bowl game Wednesday night between Oklahoma and Florida State and then wait for the 3 a.m. ET release of the AP football poll. Maybe then, a celebration can officially begin.
With a victory in the Orange Bowl, Florida State is guaranteed the top ranking in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, but no such restrictions exist in the AP writers' poll and several voters said this week they would rank the Hurricanes No. 1 should Miami and Florida State both win.
Miami coach Butch Davis, who just one day earlier said he had little interest in the Orange Bowl outcome, said after the victory that it now mattered and his team deserved consideration.
"We had to take care of our business first," he said. "But winning 11 games, beating the No. 1 team in the nation, tonight beating the No. 6 team in the nation, plus beating six teams in our conference with winning records, I think that says something."
It was a bit of an awkward situation after the game Tuesday, with Miami fans chanting "We're No. 1" and essentially celebrating a national title, while the players and coaches were left feeling like things were still in limbo.
Quarterback Ken Dorsey is one of many Hurricanes who said they didn't want to watch the game Wednesday out of both superstition and nerves.
"Hopefully I can stay away from watching it," Dorsey said. "I'm usually jinxing the team I want to win. Every time I want somebody to win and I watch the game that team loses."
Such was the case earlier this year when Oklahoma and Kansas State met in the Big 12 Championship. A Kansas State victory would have put Miami in the Orange Bowl to face the Seminoles themselves, but a late rally gave the Sooners the victory.
Just like Dorsey, such past incidents will keep Clinton Portis away from the television Wednesday as well.
"I might glance at it a few times, but I'm not going to sit there and study it by any means," Portis said. "The Kansas State game taught me that was a bad idea. I'd rather just have somebody come up to me and say, 'Hey, you guys are national champions.' And besides, my season is over."
Though many believe Miami would get the nod over the Seminoles in the AP poll, based largely on the Hurricanes' 27-24 victory over FSU in September, nothing is certain. If Florida State were to demolish top-ranked Oklahoma like many have predicted, it could leave voters with quite a quandary on their hands.
"I think a 17-point win over Florida, I think that should do it," said Miami linebacker Dan Morgan, who will watch the game at his South Florida home. "We deserve a piece of the national championship."
And if not?
"It would be a big injustice if we were kept out of the picture," he added. "But I wouldn't be mad or upset. We had a great season and everybody knows who the better team was and we would just settle for that."
The opinions of wide receiver Santana Moss are similar.
"Coach Davis told the team after the game that no matter what happens, we are champions regardless," Moss said. "And he's right. We are state champions. We are champions as far as we went out and did everything people said we could do.
"Regarding the national championship, I wish we could be champions there too, but it's like a big wish."
The Hurricanes can only be helped by the fact that they defeated Florida by such a large margin. Florida State defeated the Gators 30-7 in October, so a squeaker by Miami on Tuesday night quite possibly might not have been enough to get the votes.
Lucky for Miami, that wasn't the case.
"We feel like we should have been resting tonight, getting ready to play tomorrow," Portis said. "But we dealt with that and did everything we could here tonight. We left it all on the field. And hopefully we'll be rewarded."
|
|
|
Hurricanes prove they're worthy of being champs
Davenport makes the catch that counts
No celebrating, especially by the 'Canes mascot
Sugar Bowl notebook: Brown says he'll return to Gators
|
|
