Penn State Football: Top 10 Iconic Penn State plays Part I
By Joey Lovell
#8 1986 Penn State-Miami Fiesta Bowl
Sometimes when we are young, we might take things for granted. As a young teenager, I just assumed that Penn State would play for a National Championship about every 3 years because of the amount of success they had in the middle part of the 80s. I’ll admit I didn’t truly appreciate the amount of hard work, and luck, that went into deep runs for the Natty. I certainly didn’t appreciate how difficult joining the Big Ten would be for our program.
I was just a young, naive boy who thought National Championships grew on trees and that JoePa was a master arborist.
Youth.
In my defense, Penn State football made it easy for a kid to become delusional. Four Top 3 finishes in six seasons went a long way toward furthering the delusion. So, when the Nittany Lions squared off against the Miami Hurricanes for the National Championship in 1987, I couldn’t possibly comprehend that would be their last National Championship appearance for the next 36 years.
1986 Nittany Lions finished the regular season 11-0 for the second year in a row, highlighted by a thorough demolition of #2 Alabama 23-3, in Tuscaloosa.
Awaiting Penn State after their second consecutive season of perfection was the undefeated Miami Hurricanes, led by the Heisman Trophy-winning QB, Vinny Testaverde and coached by Jimmy Johnson.
Unlike the Georgia team that featured only one superstar, Miami had so much NFL talent they looked as though LeBron James had constructed it. They had Michael Irvin, a future NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver, and Jerome Brown, a future NFL Pro Bowler that probably would have made the Hall had he not tragically died in a car accident. Brett Perriman and the Blades brothers all went on to have successful NFL careers.
The game was so big that NBC decided to move it to January 2nd instead of the traditional New Year’s Day to highlight this epic battle between these two powerhouses of college football.
Miami entered as a 6 1/2-point favorite because Penn State had a few close games throughout the season (three of their games were decided by a touchdown, whereas Miami’s closest game was a 23-15 win at Florida).
The game was a defensive struggle all evening, with each team trading touchdowns in the second quarter. A few minutes into the 4th, Miami kicked a field goal to go up 10-7. The Hurricanes were looking for more when Shane Conlan grabbed his second interception of the game and rumbled 39 yards to Miami’s 5. Penn State fumbled the next snap but recovered and D.J. Dozier followed that with a 6-yard run to give the Lions their first lead of the game.
Both teams stalled and Miami began their last drive on their own 23 with 3:07 remaining. Miami converted on one 4-and-6 play early in the drive when Testaverde hit Blades for an 8-yard pickup and then Brian ran for another 30 yards. The Hurricanes eventually drove the ball down to Penn State 5 with 40 ticks on the clock. On 2nd and goal, Penn State defensive lineman Tim Johnson sacked Testaverde in a play that probably would be a penalty in today’s game. Vinny’s third-down pass was incomplete, setting up a 4th-and-goal from the Penn State 13-yard line.