MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami is flying home on Friday from the Fiesta Bowl. It’ll be the last flight for the Hurricanes this season.
They’ll get to the next game — the last game — by bus.
For the fifth time, Miami will be playing for a national championship on its home field. The first four of those games were at the now-demolished Orange Bowl; this one against either Oregon or Indiana in the College Football Playoff title game on Jan. 19 will be at Hard Rock Stadium, the Miami Dolphins’ home field, where the Hurricanes have played their home games since 2008.
“We’re back in Hard Rock,” quarterback Carson Beck said after he produced the go-ahead touchdown — with his legs, not his arm — in Miami’s 31-27 win over Mississippi in the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday night. “So, I think that’s all that needs to be said.”
Miami is 3-1 in its other national-title-game appearances at home — though it should be noted that in the Bowl Championship Series and now CFP era when there has been a designated “national championship game,” the Hurricanes have not gotten this far.
“This team knows they are the team and the time is now,” coach Mario Cristobal said during the on-field celebration Thursday night.
Other teams have won national championships close to home over the years. For example, Southern California claims national titles in the 1931 and 1932 seasons after winning Rose Bowls (it wasn’t USC’s home field, but not exactly a long road trip for the Trojans, either). Those came before The Associated Press began awarding a national championship trophy with the 1936 season.
In recent years, LSU won a BCS title (but not the AP title) for the 2003 season by winning the Sugar Bowl in nearby New Orleans — about 80 miles from Baton Rouge. LSU secured national championships for the 2007 and 2019 seasons by winning in New Orleans as well.
Being at home — or near home — hasn’t guaranteed titles, though. Texas beat USC in the Rose Bowl to win the 2005 season’s national championship. Alabama faced what might have been considered road games in the 2011 and 2017 seasons and won both, topping LSU in New Orleans and Georgia in Atlanta for national crowns.
And Miami’s most recent home title game was a loss as well, when the Hurricanes fell to Oklahoma 24-17 to end the 1994 season.
Here’s look at Miami’s previous home title-game appearances.
1983 season: Miami 31, Nebraska 30
The Hurricanes ran out to a 17-0 lead over the top-ranked, unbeaten and heavily favored Cornhuskers, who clawed within 31-30 with 48 seconds left. Nebraska coach Tom Osborne decided to try a 2-point conversion instead of playing for the tie; the pass fell incomplete and Miami finished atop the AP poll. “We’re No. 1,” Hurricanes coach Howard Schnellenberger said. “No doubt about it.” He was right, and Miami had its first national title.
1987 season: Miami 20, Oklahoma 14
Oklahoma came in undefeated and ranked No. 1, Miami came in undefeated and ranked No. 2. The teams were tied 7-7 at halftime, but the Hurricanes scored 10 points in the fourth quarter and held on to win their second national championship.
1991 season: Miami 22, Nebraska 0
Miami’s fourth national title, and third won at the Orange Bowl, was no contest. The Hurricanes led 13-0 after just 11 minutes of play and the defense never let Nebraska — a double-digit underdog — get on track.
1994 season: Nebraska 24, Miami 17
In the final year of the short-lived Bowl Coalition era, the Hurricanes ran out to a 10-0 lead after the first quarter. But the Cornhuskers wouldn’t go away, and Cory Schlesinger ran for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to cap the comeback and lead Nebraska to the win.
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