2001: The Miami Game

The success of the Trojans against Nicholls State worked as a salve to heal the wounds of the previous two losses. The 2001 team finally showed its mettle by winning the NSU game.

To keep that momentum, the Trojans would need to play absolutely flawlessly in their next game.

Their opponent? The 2001 Miami Hurricanes.

While this series is about the Troy side of these games, I would be remiss if I didn’t put this Miami team in proper perspective. This was one of the greatest assemblage of talent the college football world has ever seen.

The Larry Coker-coached Hurricanes would end the season in the Rose Bowl facing Troy’s first FBS opponent, the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Six players were All-Americans and another six were finalists for national awards, including Ken Dorsey’s third place finish in Heisman voting.

The 2001 Miami team set the record with 38 players selected in the NFL Draft the very next year. Those players selected went to 43 Pro Bowls, and six of them won Super Bowls. Well-known Hurricanes from this team included players like Clinton Portis, Ken Dorsey, Willis McGahee, Frank Gore, Jeremy Shockey, Andre Johnson, Bryant McKinnie, Vince Wilfork, Jonathan Vilma, Ed Reed, Sean Taylor, and Antrel Rolle.

To add to the gauntlet Troy was facing, Miami would end the season scoring 512 points to 117. That averages out to 42.6 – 9.75, or a 43-10 score each game. Their defense led the nation in scoring defense, pass defense, and turnover margin.

Suffice it to say, this would be the toughest game Troy had ever played. Ever.

While this was undoubtedly a great Miami team, the Trojans were nothing to scoff at, especially on that defense. You had two time All-Southland Jimmy McClain, All-Southland and All-Independent Osi Umeniyora, a terrific safety in Rayshaun Reed that we will talk about more in later stories, and some dude named DeMarcus Ware. This defense came together to put up a performance that did their best to slow down the Miami offense.

At 11:00 on that October Saturday morning, the Trojans ran on the field to face their biggest Goliath yet. Nearly 37,000 fans were in attendance to watch what they expected to be a tune-up game for the Canes’ bigger matchup with FSU looming the week after.

The Trojan Spread offense came out trying everything to slow down and outsmart the Miami defense. The vaunted Hurricane behemoth was seemingly caught off guard by the upstart Trojans. Troy outgained the Canes 80 yards to 68 and had the eventual National Champions tied at 7 after the first.

Miami rebounded in the second quarter, adding a field goal and a Ken Dorsey passing touchdown to drive the score to 17-7. At the half, they had driven for 262 yards of offense compared to the Trojans’ 175.

Troy however had dominated the time of possession by a roughly 16:00 to 14:00 margin. Down by just 10, the game was not yet out of reach for the Trojans. Then the second half started.

Miami’s defense began to swarm QB Brock Nutter, leading to critical mistakes during the final two quarters. Troy’s first play of the second half was a play action pass over the middle that would’ve netted a first down, but the Miami secondary caused an incompletion.

On the next play, both Cane defensive ends brought heavy pressure which forced Nutter into throwing the ball toward defender Eric Felton. The ball was tipped right into the hands of future NFL Legend Ed Reed.

Reed returned it 27 yards untouched for the touchdown, extending the Miami lead to 24-7. 

Troy tried to keep pace with the Hurricanes, but honestly, there’s a reason this Miami is considered one of the greatest of all time. The Trojans couldn’t match the conditioning and wore down over the course of the second half.

After the game, Coach Blakeney was asked what happened and his response echoed this. 

“I think we got tired a little bit,” he said. “I know (Heyward Skipper) got tired and I know Demontray (Carter) got tired. It looked to me like our offensive linemen were wearing down too.”

The Canes would add two more touchdowns to bring the final score to 38-7. Troy would have more first downs (24-23), more time of possession (35:56-24:04), and outrushed the Canes (155-101). That however was the good side of the stat sheet.

Miami dominated almost every other metric, most notably having no fumbles, while the Trojans had four. Thankfully Troy only lost one. 

DeWhitt Betterson and Demontray Carter carried the rushing load for Troy with 96 and 78 yards respectively. Brock Nutter went 14-for-25 with 152 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. On the other sideline, Heisman finalist Ken Dorsey went 18-for-30 with 299 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Heyward Skipper was responsible for the brunt of the receiving yards for the Trojans, grabbing 5 passes for 63 yards.

No one wants to lose a game, but if there was any game on the 2001 schedule, or really any Troy schedule from the early 2000s where dropping a game was understandable, it was this one. If you needed to classify it as a moral victory, then take Miami’s margin of victory.

Troy only fell by 31 points, which was the 6th lowest total of the season. The margin of victory showed that Troy performed better against Miami than even #15 Syracuse (59 points) and #11 Washington (58 points). 

The Trojans were just one score away from matching the performance of its own opponent Nebraska in what ended up being the national title game: The #4 Huskers lost 37-14.

Over the first quarter of the season, Troy had gone 1-3 and had been outscored 134-64. From this point forward, however, the resolve and grit of this Troy team set the foundation for Troy’s ascent into FBS.

The games to come set a standard of toughness for the next generation of Troy Football, especially the very next matchup. The Trojans were taking on an SEC team for the first time.