Greatest Miami “What If” Games (Part 1)

Everytime we hear the chant, “Its great to be a Miami Hurricane,” we say it as loud as we can, because we flat out love the Canes. Though, there have been several games where we’ve been let down, and have hindered the program from reaching insane heights.

Now it hasn’t always been the fault of a Canes player. though sometimes it has (cough cough Brian Monroe) sometimes we can blame the ref, yeah, you know what game I'm talking about.

By the way, this is no particular order.

Here’s part 1.

Miami vs Ohio State: 2003 Fiesta Bowl (31-24)

Has there been a more domoralizing defeat in the past 20 years? I’d say absolutely not. Not only were the Canes the far better team, we were the defending National Champions and winners of 34 consecutive games.

My father still to this day apologizes to me that he kept me awake long enough to see this disaster unfold.

Obviously we know what happened in the end, a pass interference in overtime against Miami’s Glenn Sharpe, when the game should’ve been over, gives the Buckeyes a second chance. We know that part.

Though we can’t forget the fact that Miami played far below their limits this night. Miami turned it over five times, Ken Dorsey threw two picks, and the Hurricanes only totaled 65 yards of rushing on the night.

Miami wins that game and thats back-to-back national championships, a full-blown dynasty is on our hands, and extra swagger going into 2003.

The worst part about that night? It was the last time Miami was really relevant in college football, and we haven’t been back since .

Miami vs Washington: 2000 Week 2 (34-29)

You know the story if you’ve the seen “The U Part 2” 30 for 30, or unless you’re just a true Canes fan. Miami lost this game after mounting a comeback, they just ran out of time.

Miami was clearly the better team, due to the fact that they pretty much had the entire 2001 national champion roster, only difference was that Santana Moss and Reggie Wayne was on the 2000 team.

We all know what happened following the Washington loss, Miami would go on to win every game that year, including wins over number one FSU and number two Virginia Tech.

Though a Sugar Bowl victory over Florida was a good way to end the year, is there any doubt Miami would’ve whomped on Oklahoma in that years National Championship?

Miami vs Pitt/Wisconsin: 2017 (24-14, 34-24)

Let me take you back all the way to last season. The Canes as we know had a magical first ten games of the year, including wins over Florida State, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.

Now, were we the second best team in the country? Any honest Canes fan will tell you no way. Even when we entered the Pitt game ranked second, I knew we weren’t that good.

However, no way in heck should we have lost to Pitt. It was definitely a trap game, day after Thanksgiving, some people like myself saw a disaster like this coming. But Pitt was playing with a true freshman quarterback, and Miami was vastly superior to the Panthers, but we lost.

Orange Bowl against Wisconsin is another game we should have never lost. We had a 14-3 second quarter lead, and then we were mounting a comeback in the 3rd/4th quarter, until Malik Rosier and the referees cost us the game.

If we win those two games, we’re looking back at 2017 as a 13-1 historic year, instead of an also impressive 10-3 mark. 13 wins would’ve given Miami even more creditability going into 2018.