Victory in '85 marked Miami's arrival as college football beast

By Berry Tramel

Published: September 4, 2007

Here's when you knew tremors rippled under Owen Field during the 1985 Oklahoma-Miami game, when you knew that football history was altered right before our very eyes.

Not when Vinny Testaverde threw that 56-yard touchdown pass to Michael Irvin that sparked Miami's 27-14 upset. Not when Jerome Brown sacked Troy Aikman into a broken ankle. Not when OU's reins were handed to little Jamelle Holieway.

Football's course veered when Miami fullback Alonzo Highsmith popped Sooner linebacker Brian Bosworth and knocked The Boz to the ground. Highsmith "stood over the top of (Bosworth) and said something to him that I can't repeat,” said then-Miami coach Jimmy Johnson.

Under that October sky, America saw the birth of a football culture. The Boz was brawny and brash and blessed with great talent. But here came a whole team of Bosworths. Irvin and Brown and the Blades brothers and Highsmith and a host of other epic Miami players who commandeered college football's villain role and started a reign of terror.

"I can remember Melvin Bratton and Alonzo giving Brian Bosworth fits with all the talking,” said Bennie Blades, a great safety on those Johnson teams. "It was a fun rivalry. I'm glad they're bringing that back.”

OU and Miami resume that storied series with a game Saturday at Owen Field. The Sooners seem the likely victor; they also seemed the likely victor in 1985. You never know when history will strike.

Miami had won the 1983 national title under Howard Schnellenberger but did so almost under dark of night. Those 'Canes won the title on their home field, the Orange Bowl, courtesy of Nebraska coach Tom Osborne, who gave up a sure national title by going for a late 2-point conversion that failed.

On Oct. 19, 1985, Johnson was a year and a half into a so-far forgettable run at Miami. His record was 12-6. His victims included Cincinnati and Rice twice each, East Carolina, a Flutieless Boston College, a weak Pitt, a weak Louisville.

But starting that day at Owen Field, Miami went 84-7 over the next 7

seasons and won three national titles.

Barry Switzer's best 91-game stretch was 80-9-2. Bud Wilkinson's was 84-5-2. Bear Bryant's was 83-8. Knute Rockne's was 80-8-3. Big-talking and tough-acting and great-playing Miami joined the most elite gridiron dynasties.

"Even though we had come off an '83 national championship win over Nebraska, nobody around the country really knew who Miami was,” said Blades.

"Those schools that everybody around the country knew, if we beat those schools, we'd make a name for ourselves. It was those games against Oklahoma that validated our very existence.”

That 1985 game changed the Sooners, too. OU lost Aikman, its greatest passer ever, and replaced him with Holieway, as good a candidate as any for its worst passer ever.

But all was well. Holieway quarterbacked the Sooners to the national title that same season, with a 25-10 victory over Penn State in the Orange Bowl, coupled with Tennessee's upset of Miami in the Sugar Bowl.

Aikman's OU career ended. He acquiesced the quarterback job to Holieway and transferred to UCLA.

But Switzer dispels two long-held myths:

•That Aikman's injury allowed OU to win the national title.

"We would have won the national championship with Troy,” Switzer said. "We might not have lost to Miami. We're going to win the rest of 'em.”

OU's closest game the rest of the year was a 13-0 win in the ice at Stillwater.

The Sooner offense hummed with Aikman; in 20 minutes against Miami, OU gained 218 yards. In 40 minutes with Holieway, OU gained 144 yards, and the next two years against the 'Canes, the Sooners managed just 276 and 255 total yards.

The wishbone eventually came alive with Holieway in '85, but it wasn't bogged down with Aikman.

•That Aikman would have remained a Sooner had he not been injured.

Switzer doesn't think so. OU in spring 1985 returned to the wishbone after 1

seasons of experimentation.

Let me ask you a question. You're running the wishbone, and your options include Aikman and Holieway. You saying you're not going to at least play Holieway part-time?

"We recognized Jamelle was the best option guy,” Switzer said.

"What would we have done in the future? I talked to Troy (in the off-season), how we would use both. I know that was not the answer he wanted to hear.

"I didn't want to lose him, because he was a great quarterback.”

You know the rest. Aikman transferred to UCLA, became a great drop-back quarterback and the No. 1 pick in the 1989 NFL draft, destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Selected in that draft by the Dallas Cowboys, who by then were coached by Jimmy Johnson, whose stock ignited back in 1985 at Owen Field.

The day history took a turn.

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