1984 Orange Bowl
| 1984 Orange Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 2, 1984 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1983 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Miami Orange Bowl | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Miami, FL | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Jimmy Harper (Southeastern Conference) | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | NBC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Don Criqui and John Brodie | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1984 Orange Bowl was the 50th annual Orange Bowl Classic, played on January 2, 1984, between the unbeaten Nebraska Cornhuskers and the once-beaten Miami Hurricanes, for the national championship. After leading 31-17 in the fourth quarter, Miami held on for a 31-30 victory. Nebraska pulled to within one with :48 left to play, but a two-point conversion attempt by Nebraska failed when quarterback Turner Gill's pass was tipped away by Miami safety Ken Calhoun. It was also the last game for Howard Schnellenberger as he left the team in pursuit of a USFL team in Miami.
Nebraska came into the game ranked #1 in both major polls, with a 12-0 record, having steamrolled just about every opponent on the 1983 schedule, except for close road wins at Oklahoma State (14-10) and at Oklahoma (28-21). Led by "Triplets" Heisman Trophy winning I-back Mike Rozier, future NFL #1 draft pick Irving Fryar at wingback and with All-American quarterback and Heisman finalist Turner Gill calling the signals, the Huskers of 1983 were a formidable outfit, averaging 52 points a game and having rolled up tallies of 84-13, 72-29, 69-19, 67-13 and 63-7 against Minnesota, Iowa State, Colorado, Kansas, and Syracuse, respectively. In the third quarter against Colorado, Nebraska managed to score seven touchdowns in 12 minutes. They did have notable weaknesses, however. They had a fairly mediocre defense that was vulnerable to the pass, especially across the middle of the field, owing to the fact the Big Eight was dominated by run-oriented offenses, notably Oklahoma's wishbone. Nebraska also had a fairly average kicking game. Both of these weaknesses would haunt the Cornhuskers on the night.
Miami, coached by Howard Schnellenberger, came in the quiet achiever, having been blown out 28-3 by Florida in their opening game and thought by many to be not much of a challenge to the much higher-fancied Cornhuskers. Nevertheless, they had won 10 straight games following their opening defeat, to emerge as a solid #5 in the Associated Press poll, while ranked one spot higher in the UPI poll. They were led by freshman quarterback Bernie Kosar, who had completed 61.5 percent of his passes for 2,328 yards and 15 touchdowns and had started all 11 games. Miami had a very good defense. In fact, their defense was the 2nd best in the nation, in scoring defense (9.6 points per game) and in total defense (259.4 yards per game).
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