Jan. 1, 2001
By EDDIE PELLS
AP Sports Writer
NEW ORLEANS – Miami coach Butch Davis claims a one-point win would befine and the result of the Florida State-Oklahoma game does not concern himin the least.
It’s enough to make a college football fan wonder on which planet he’sbeen coaching the past four months.
Because once all the Sugar Bowl subplots are set aside – state braggingrights, a renewed rivalry, bad blood and the Bourbon Street scuffle – No. 2Miami (10-1) has a clear goal Tuesday against No. 7 Florida: Win a share ofthe national title.
In private moments with his team, even Davis has conceded that.
“He has told us you can’t let good things pass you by,” tight endJeremy Shockey said. “He said everyone would love to have the feeling we’re having.This is a great opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime chance. There are 100other schools that would love to be in the position we’re in today.”
But it’s an awkward position at best, and again it proves the creatorsof the Bowl Championship Series have fallen short of crafting the perfectsystem.
The Orange Bowl pits the top two teams in the BCS standings, and thefolks who run the coaches’ poll will award their national title to theOklahoma-Florida State winner.
The Associated Press writers’ poll has no such restrictions. If Miamibeats Florida convincingly and No. 3 Florida State struggles to a victory over No.1 Oklahoma, several voters in the AP poll have said they would rank theHurricanes first, possibly creating the split national title the BCS wascreated to avoid.
So, a lopsided win would help the Hurricanes, and there’s no way theycan win any part of the title without an Oklahoma loss.
Listening to Davis, he might not even have the TV on when the Soonersand Seminoles kick off Wednesday night.
“I’m not concerned in the least about what happens with FSU-Oklahoma,”he said. “It’s one of those things that’s out of our control. I can’t controlother teams, I can’t control other games, I can’t control the voters, Ican’t control the computers. All we can do is play the best we can Tuesday nightand whatever happens is going to happen.”
While the Hurricanes’ motivation is clear, the Gators (10-2) come in asSoutheastern Conference champions and the week’s biggest spoiler. They’resix-point underdogs, and playing an unlikely supporting role in thischampionship drama.
“I’m just worried about winning,” coach Steve Spurrier said. “We needto beat those guys.”
The Gators haven’t been to Spurrier’s favorite bowl game since winningthe national title Jan. 2, 1997.
In the four years since, they have been humbled by losing theirstranglehold on the SEC, falling badly to Florida State three straight times and seeingSpurrier’s reputation as an offensive genius brought into question.
A lot of those issues have been smoothed over by Florida’s SEC titlethis season when the Gators were young and thought to be a year away fromreturning to their prime.
“Obviously, it’s a a whole different level with the nationalchampionship,” said freshman quarterback Rex Grossman, one of 15underclassmen to play significant time this year. “Hopefully in the future, we’ll be thereand get a shot at that. Right now we want to win a big Sugar Bowl game andget some momentum going into next season.”
Miami’s future isn’t quite as clear.
Davis’ name is associated with many NFL coaching vacancies that comeup, although he virtually guaranteed Monday that he would be back with theHurricanes next season.
Gone will be senior receiver Santana Moss and linebacker Dan Morgan,both All-Americas. Leading receiver Reggie Wayne, running back James Jackson anddefensive tackle Damione Lewis are seniors, too. Left tackle Bryant McKinnieand safety Ed Reed, both juniors, are expected to make themselves eligiblefor the NFL draft.
Their biggest games – against Penn State, Virginia Tech and FloridaState -are on the road in 2001.
Nobody at Miami will admit to thinking past Tuesday night right now.Davis claims the tunnel vision has been there since Miami sustained its only loss,Sept. 9 against Washington.
“Since Washington, our team has been in a single-game eliminationsituation, where we’ve had to take every game one at a time,” Davis said.”We’ve approached it like we can’t control a lot of the outside things andwejust have to take care of ourselves.”
The only question left is whether taking care of themselves will beenough.