From: lein@cat.bae.bellcore.com (John Leinaweaver)
Subject: Re: Sugar Bowl and Candy Canes
Reply-To: lein@bae.bellcore.com
Organization: Bell Communications Research
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 93 18:33:25 GMT

In article <1993Jan4.174440.23335@b11.b11.ingr.com>, guy@mspe5.b11.ingr.com (Guy D. McConnell) writes:
>     Well, you were all right.  The Sugar Bowl was a blowout.  The best team in
> the nation did indeed manhandle the pretender.  It was ugly to watch, unless
> you were a fan of the best team in the nation.  That same team has beaten the
> previous year's co-national champion in two consecutive bowl games and this
> year took the "mythical" out of the MNC.  Alabama dominated and systematically
> dismantled the "unbeatable" canes.  And some of you had the gall to say that
> no college team could give them a game and that they should be playing a pro
> team in a bowl.  A century of championship tradition met a young upstart and
> capped off the centennial season with an undisputed, unanimous national title.
> They did it one game at a time, winning the first conference title ever decided
> in a playoff.  They beat an unprecidented 9 SEC teams to win that crown.  Then
> they took on the consensus #1 team in the nation and blew them out.  A great
> many things were settled over the New Year's holiday.  The best team in the
> country is Alabama.  The toughest conference in the country is the SEC which
> went 4 - 1 in their bowl games.  Alabama beat all of these SEC bowl teams 
> except the one that we didn't play, Georgia.  Texas A&M was shown to be over
> rated, in spite of claims to the contrary, and that they couldn't handle the
> "lesser" team they got in the Cotton Bowl.  Corky Simpson, the Arizona
> sportswriter who cast the sole #1 vote for Alabama from the preseason all the
> way to the Sugar Bowl, was shown to have great foresight.  He was the only 
> person, aside from Alabama fans, who knew The Truth.  Now, everyone knows and
> everyone is on the bandwagon voting Alabama #1.  The Heisman trophy was shown
> to have been awarded based on career achievements by an entire team rather than
> the individual achievements of the awardee.  And finally, Gene Stallings has
> settled the issue of whether he is a winning coach or not.  What an incredible
> dose of humility all around.  And that Sugar Bowl, sweetest of the sweet.
> 
>     The National weather service has, with egg on its face, issued a retraction
> of the hurricane forecast so boldly put out.  The Tide rose and totally wiped
> out the hurricane before it even caught sight of land.  In the aftermath of
> the High Tide, not even a zephyr remained of that once windy tropical 
> depression.  It was shown that, while the winds made a lot of noise, they had
> no teeth, no weapons potent enough to overcome The Tide.
> 
>     The trash talking, strut-walking canes were put in their place.  The back,
> whose name escapes me now (I wonder why) who brashly stated that he would run
> for 100 yards against Alabama's defense, got only a fraction of that amount.
> In fact, the whole team could only manage 48 yards rushing.  Awe inspiring.
> The Heisman trophy awardee, who stated that he had "many times" played against
> players the caliber of Copeland and Curry and that he wasn't worried about them
> was reduced to an inept, ineffective, terrified mess playing on a true freshman
> level.  The defense, that thought (along with many others) that they were
> better than Alabama's and could stop the running game, had Alabama's line
> blowing them off of the line of scrimmage while the backs, led by Derrick "I'm
> coming Elizabeth" Lassic, ran at will through the gaping holes.  They were 
> going to shut down the run and make Alabama pass.  Alabama only needed 18 yards
> passing in the blowout.  The wide receivers were jammed, jolted, and punished
> all night and reduced to non-factors.  As Keith Jackson put it, they weren't
> used to being treated like that.  Ah yes, Lamar Thomas.  The self-proclaimed
> "best player in the nation".  The one who stood in front of the Alabama fans 
> before the game preening, strutting, and blowing kisses.  The one who said that,
> in the second half, Alabama would still be out there busting their butts while
> he sat on the sideline sipping his Gatorade.  He was right about that.  First,
> Tommy "T.P." Johnson slapped his hand like an errant schoolboy and knocked the
> ball loose for an Alabama recovery down near our goal line.  And then, the play
> of the evening.  The one that symbolized concisely the thrashing that Alabama
> administered to the unbelieving canes.  Thomas had our true freshman cornerback
> Willie Gaston beaten by two steps down the left sideline.  Gino "Jelly-Roll"
> Toretta again lofted one up on a wing and a prayer, self-preservation utmost in
> his mind, and Thomas was able to run under it.  Oh no, Thomas is a speedster
> and no one can catch him, right?  Wrong!  Like a crimson and white streak,
> number 13 George Teague runs him down like a Cheetah running down a lame
> Gazelle and robs him in front of everybody.  He snatches the ball away from
> Thomas like taking candy from a baby and turns back upfield leaving the totally
> humilated mouth of the team eating astro-turf.  Of course, as happened all
> night, the officials stepped in feeling pity for the fallen heroes and called
> it back.  Even though it didn't officially count, you can bet that Lamar 
> Thomas will carry that one to his grave.  Yes, that "high-powered" cane offense
> could_not_manage_even_one_touchdown against Alabama's dominating defense.  Not
> even late when we were playing everybody on the depth chart and Curry and
> Copeland were leading cheers on the sideline while Miami's first string was
> trying desperately to score just one TD.  It was during this time that miami
> got half of its total 48 yards rushing.  Yes, Alabama gave the canes a good
> scare in the 1990 Sugar Bowl and set them up for this one.  There are a lot of
> people around the nation choking down their words over this one.  This was, by
> far, the best and most enjoyable game I have ever seen.  Thanks to Miami and
> their blowhard fans (they know who they are) for setting this one up so that
> the fall from glory could be so complete and so total.  Hell, I hear Erickson
> didn't even show up for his weekly TV show this weekend.
> 
>     Oh yeah, Gino Who?!
> 
> --
> Guy McConnell  guy@mspe5.b11.ingr.com  or  ...uunet!ingr!b11!mspe5!guy
>    *** A hurricane is a seasonal thing, The Tide is forever ***
>


Thought I would re-post it in case a few Miami fans missed it   :)


John L 
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college