The Road Game Journal feature will detail our excursions to various Miami Hurricanes road games over the years. Hide the children, because when you wear orange and green to an opposing team’s stadium, well, they tend to not take to it kindly. The below article details our trip to Pasadena to see the Canes win thier fifth national title in the Rose Bowl vs. Nebraska.
2002 Rose Bowl – Miami 37, Nebraska 14 (January 3, 2002; Pasadena): Finally. After getting screwed over by the BCS in 2000 (I will never get over that as long as I live…what a travesty…you know, there are few certainties in life. You have death….taxes….the fact that all fat girls like Sarah McLachlan. And you have the fact that Miami would have beaten Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl that year). Anyways, I digress. Miami was loaded and some say the 2001 Hurricanes were one of – if not the – best college football teams ever assembled. Hard to argue that…check this out…running backs? How ‘bout Clinton Portis…Willis McGahee…and Frank Gore. What?! Those are NFL All-Pros. Jeremey Shockey AND Kellen Winslow at tight end? Andre Johnson. Jonathan Vilma. Ed Reed. Sean Taylor. Antrel Rolle. 16 mother f**kers were drafted in the first round off this 2001 team. SIXTEEN! That is just an obnoxious group of talent. Still, I had my concerns that Eric Crouch might be able to run the option on us. Hahaaaa. How silly was I? Crouch is probably managing a Denny’s now.
So, I get my tickets to the game and look at a seating chart to see where they are. Um, 2nd to last row in the end zone. F’n Hurricane Ticket Office. Anyways, I was living in Atlanta at the time, and had booked my flight for the morning of January 3rd – the day of the game. Uh, I will not be doing that ever again. Atlanta was hit with a snowstorm the day prior and the airport was shut down overnight. I started to wet my pants the night before and slept all of 3 hours as I feared missing my flight to see Miami’s first trip to the national title game since ’93. I flipped on the news at 5 am and they said that only about 10% of the flights out of Hartsfield Airport were leaving. Further, they urged everyone to stay off the roads. Stay off? F**k that. Do you realize what is at stake here? So, I ducked out of my girlfriend’s apartment while she was still sleeping and started walking to the nearest subway station (she would later tell me that she got in her car to go look for me and couldn’t even get out of her complex as the roads were all iced). With snow falling, I trudged through the ice in the dark, rockin my Canes sweater and Adidas track pants (I don’t do coats or umbrellas). I get to the station and find out that there are only two trains running. 45 minutes later, I’m able to hop on one and head to the airport.
I get to the airport and look at the ‘Departures’ board and want to cry. Everything is delayed. I get to my gate and they tell me that they ‘hope’ to get the plane de-iced and are able to depart by mid-afternoon. That would make me late for the game, at best. Then, I overhear that there is another flight to LA about to take off from a different concourse and that they might have some stand-by spots open. With suitcase in tow, I sprint to the tram to Terminal C. The airport is eerily empty. The only other person on the tram with me is a 40-something Nebraska fan, rocking his red v-neck Cornhuskers sweatshirt. Uh oh, he must’ve overheard the same conversation I did. As we pull up to the terminal, we make eye contact. I squint, to let him know I mean business, as we wait for the tram doors to open. And…..they’re off!! There very well could be only one seat available, and if that’s the case, I want to make sure I outrun this overweight – yet deceptively fast – Husker fan. This dude outweighs me by at least 50 pounds of pure lard, yet is keeping up with me? What the f**k? Is he on ‘roids or something? We frantically climb the escalator and as I turn the corner I’m about a body length ahead. It was then that my soggy shoelace (from walking in the snow for a couple of miles) unravels and starts to trip me up. But, I use my agility and maintain balance (much like Portis did later that night on his TD run)…and reach the counter first! I raise both arms and start dancing around like Rocky when he climbed all those steps. Woo!! Sweet victory!!
Turns out there were 5 seats left and neither of us had to sprint like we were Andre Johnson, but a win’s a win. I got on the plane and…just fyi, I HATE flying. Can’t stand it. Well, it’s not really the flying part that gets me. It’s the crashing part I don’t like. Anyways, I get on and see that a 6’8″ dude is in my aisle seat. Oh hayll naw!! I was ready to throw down so I started to get into the Ralph Macchio Crane Kick pose, but then he explained that he had a window seat and asked if I minded switching with him so he could have the extra leg room. Eh, sure, who cares. Never before have I been so at ease to fly. As I watched them de-ice the plane, I frankly couldn’t care less if they got the icicles off or not…I just wanted to be airborne. Then, I get to LA and it is f’n paradise. 72 degrees and hardly a cloud in the sky.
My buddy Franz and I hit up Pasadena for some eats and head to the shuttle to the game. I remember seeing Senator Bill Bradley as we were walking to our seats. Dude had not one, but two bodyguards (it was just a few months after 9/11). Still, I thought that was odd, as who the hell wants anything to do with Bill Bradley? We settle down in our seats, which are surprisingly not that bad (guess there’s not a bad seat in the house at the Rose Bowl). I am literally under one of the big screens in the end zone.
Game starts and it is all Miami. Andre Johnson sheds a cornerback like he’s a fly on his shoulder and takes off for the game’s first score. This team not only dominated the game, but most of the stars for Miami went on to dominate at the NFL level. That tells you something. My most vivid memory is of the two de-cleaters that Jonathan Vilma had late in the game. When they showed the replays on the big screen, the entire crowd collectively went “ohhhhh!” And remember, the crowd was probably over 90% Nebraska fans. Gotta hand it to them, they were quite polite for the most part. It’s like they realized that they were a sh*ttier team and didn’t have much of a chance. After getting blown out by Colorado, it seemed like they were just glad to be at the national title game.
Miami won and the team took over the ESPN GameDay set in the corner of the end zone. As we headed out of the stadium, one thing I do recall is that the line for the shuttle back to our cars was perhaps the longest line I’ve ever waited in. This line literally wrapped around the entire stadium and was moving at a snail’s pace. It took hours to leave. Seriously, this line would make a DMV employee blush.
Anyways, we got back and hit up Johnny Rocket’s for some celebratory greasy food (followed up by some celebratory diarrhea the next day). I remember that c**ksucker Steve Spurrier tried to steal our thunder the next day by announcing that he’s leaving Florida. Eh, who gives a rat’s ass, we just took down our 5th title in 19 years!
