Columnist Dean Juipe: Miami finds its way back to the top

Dean Juipe

Monday, Aug. 30, 1999 | 9:54 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Their own fans loved them.

But for many years outsiders looked at the program and despised what they saw.

The players were flashy, mouthy and confident to the point of arrogance. Sure, they played with a quick, exciting style and could back up most of the trash talk and swagger they used to intimidate the opposition, yet they were thought to be despicably pompous.

Respected for their accomplishments yet reviled for their collective attitude, they were perceived as hooligans and renegades, albeit ingrates blessed with athleticism.

They seemingly won game after game, year after year, and were perennial contenders for the national championship until crossing paths with the NCAA. Eventually investigators were able to pin enough misdeeds on the program that it came tumbling down, much to the general public's amusement.

UNLV basketball?

No, Miami football.

The parallels between the two collegiate programs have been -- and, perhaps, remain -- in place. Just as the Rebels were basketball's bad boys in the Jerry Tarkanian era and peaked with a 1990 national championship, the Hurricanes have held an equivalent reputation in football and have followed a similar stormy path.

But Miami may one-up UNLV based on Sunday's tense 23-12 victory over Ohio State in the Kickoff Classic at East Rutherford, N.J. In the first game of what appears to be a difficult schedule that also includes Penn State as well as each of their Big East opponents, the Hurricanes pulled off a mild upset and reinforced the belief that they're back as a legitimate top-10 team.

As was the case with UNLV basketball, Miami football fell hard after NCAA sanctions cut into scholarships and peripheral opportunities. But before taking their comeuppance in 1995, the Hurricanes were swarthy and sometimes unstoppable.

They won national championships four times under three coaches, taking titles in 1983 (under Howard Schnellenberger), 1987 and 1989 (under Jimmy Johnson) and 1991 (under Dennis Erickson).

The typical college football fan didn't like it and was only too happy to see the NCAA impose two year's worth of restrictions following an extensive inquiry four years ago. But Miami, with Butch Davis now calling the shots as head coach, showed signs of bouncing back last year by knocking UCLA out of the national championship race on the last weekend of the 1998 season. That 49-45 win, followed by a 46-23 victory in the Micron PC Bowl, allowed the Hurricanes to finish a healthy 9-3 in spite of an earlier 53-point loss to Syracuse.

Miami looked strong Sunday in disposing of Ohio State in a game ABC televised, although its announcers chose not to belabor the Hurricanes' colorful (and sometimes off-colored) past and barely mentioned it until the game's final moments.

There's a lesson here for UNLV if basketball coach Bill Bayno elects to see it: Play a strong schedule and not a series of cream puffs, and when you get back to winning big games the present will overtake the past.

Miami is back and, strangely enough, UNLV would be wise to emulate the route the Hurricanes exploited in regaining their lost prestige. If the parallel is to continue, the Rebels need to be a little more fearless in their scheduling.