PASADENA, Calif. The Rose Bowl scoreboard told the whole story: No. 1 Miami 37, No. 4 Nebraska 14.
With 93,781 looking on, Miami roared out to a 34-0 halftime lead before allowing the Cornhuskers to go home to Lincoln with at least some dignity intact.
Miami, which won its fifth national title since 1983, completed its stunning return to the elite from NCAA sanctions in the mid-1990s. The Hurricanes have won 22 straight games.
“There’s a reason why only one team in the country is undefeated right now,” Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. “It takes a special team to get that done.”
For the fourth straight year the Bowl Championship Series produced a champion with a perfect record.
And for the second straight year it arguably paired the wrong teams in its title game.
A year ago the Hurricanes probably deserved to go instead of Florida State, which Miami had defeated. FSU managed but a safety in a 13-2 loss to Oklahoma.
“Last year we didn’t get a chance to play for it,” Miami offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie said. “This year we were determined to win it.”
This year the second-ranked Oregon Ducks thought they deserved a spot opposite the Hurricanes. Coach Mike Bellotti, who attended the Rose Bowl, believed his team would have made a better showing than the Cornhuskers.
“I think Miami’s a very, very talented team,” Bellotti said. “But certainly we would have liked to have a shot at them.”
Without Big Ten and Pac-10 teams for the first time since 1946, the Rose Bowl had a different feel. But it looked a lot like one of those Rose Bowls when a slow-footed Big Ten team would wander out here and be sliced to ribbons by a faster Pac-10 outfit.
In this game, Nebraska played the role of Iowa and Illinois. Miami was USC and Washington.
“You know, college football’s all matchups,” Bellotti said. Could we have matched up better? Possibly, yes.”
“When we hit on all cylinders, we’re a very, very good football team,” said Coker, who became the first rookie head coach since 1948 to win the national title.
After two fruitless possessions the Hurricanes jumped ahead 7-0 when Ken Dorsey found Andre Johnson all by himself down the right sideline for a 49-yard strike. The touchdown came one play after Eric Crouch, who beat out Dorsey for the Heisman Trophy, fumbled on an option keeper.
Nebraska shut out Miami for the rest of the first quarter. But then the football equivalent of an earthquake hit the Cornhuskers.
First Hurricanes tailback Clinton Portis bolted up the middle for a 39-yard touchdown to make it 14-0. Then Miami strong safety James Lewis picked off a Crouch pass and returned it 47 yards to put the Hurricanes ahead 21-0.
“Nebraska’s strength is not to come from behind,” Coker said.
Two more Dorsey touchdown passes another to Johnson and one to Jeremy Shockey sent Miami into the dressing room leading 34-0.
The Hurricanes’ 34 points at halftime were one shy of a Rose Bowl record.
At that point Nebraska had been outscored by a combined 96-36 in its last six quarters dating to the calamity in Colorado.
“It was a very unpleasant feeling,” Solich said. “We did not play great football in the first half.”
The Cornhuskers, as they are wont to do, dominated both the rushing yardage, 197-110, and time of possession, 34 minutes to 25. But the decisive numbers were passing yards Dorsey had 362, a school bowl record, while Crouch threw for 62, completing only 5-of-15 attempts.
Dorsey’s prime target was Johnson, who made seven catches for 199 yards, the second-highest total in Rose Bowl history.
Miami’s stats were gaudy. But the only numbers that matter are 12-0.
Few would have thought it possible back in 1997. But Butch Davis rebuilt the program’s foundation, and when he left for the NFL last winter Coker and his players did the rest.
“Maybe they’ll talk about this as being the best team ever,” said Coker, a soft-spoken Oklahoman. “I told this team that they had the potential for greatness all along.”