1984 Orange Bowl 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 . The win gave Miami its first national championship , it was also the last game for Howard Schnellenberger as he left the team in pursuit of a USFL team in Miami . Setup . 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 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 , and 67 - 13 against Minnesota , Iowa State , Colorado , and Kansas , 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 , and they 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 . Also , earlier in the day second - ranked Texas had been upset in the 1984 Cotton Bowl Classic by Georgia by the score of 10 - 7 ; third - ranked Auburn Tigers squeaked out a 9 - 7 win over Michigan in the 1984 Sugar Bowl ; and fourth - ranked Illinois fell to UCLA 45 - 9 in the 1984 Rose Bowl . This combination of upsets gave Miami the chance to leapfrog to No . 1 , should they defeat the Cornhuskers . The game . Nebraska came into the game as a 10½ point favorite , and early on it looked very much like the blowout many people anticipated . On their opening drive , the Huskers moved downfield rather easily . However , the Hurricanes got an early lift when they forced Nebraska to attempt a field - goal , which they then blocked . It was a huge early momentum swing and they would capitalize very quickly . Kosar ' s two touchdown passes to Glenn Dennison along with a 45 - yard Jeff Davis field goal would give Miami a stunning 17 - 0 lead at the end of one quarter . Nebraska didn ' t panic . Early in the second quarter , Osborne reached into his bag of tricks , running a trick play known as the fumblerooski . Nebraska quarterback Gill intentionally “ fumbled ” the snap from center by effectively setting it on the turf . The ball was picked up by All - American offensive guard Dean Steinkuhler , who ran the ball 19 yards for a touchdown . While it is neither the first nor the last time this play has been run , it is arguably the most famous incidence of this play , which is now illegal . A touchdown run by Gill later in the period made the score 17 - 14 at halftime , and Nebraska would kick a field - goal early in the third quarter to tie the game at 17 . It was at this point that the familiar script everyone expected had again appeared . And it was at this point that Miami again decided not to cooperate with it . Two long touchdown drives of 75 and 73 yards took the score back out to 31 - 17 , behind the passing of Kosar ( who would pass for exactly 300 yards on the night ) and the running of backs Alonzo Highsmith and Albert Bentley , who each contributed rushing touchdowns to cap each drive . Things would get even bleaker for Nebraska when Rozier left the game with an injured ankle , after having rushed for 147 yards on 25 carries . Backup I - back Jeff Smith came off the bench and scored on a 1 yard run early in the 4th quarter which brought the margin back to 31 - 24 . Then Nebraska caught a break , when Davis missed a 42 - yard field goal attempt that would have made the margin 10 points in favor of the Hurricanes . Then the Huskers went to work . Gill completed a long pass to Fryar which took the ball inside the Miami 35 with under 2 minutes to go . On 1st and 10 from the Miami 26 , Gill found a wide open Fryar all alone in the end zone and threw a perfect pass , which Fryar dropped . This play would later be forgotten in the midst of what would come soon after , but it may have taken on a much greater significance in Husker lore had they not eventually scored . A running play and an incomplete pass followed , setting up a 4th down and 8 from the Miami 24 - yard line with the clock running down inside a minute . Osborne called an option play , which Gill ran to his right , initially keeping the ball and running into the grasp of a Miami defender before pitching the ball at the last second to a streaking Smith , who sprinted in the rest of the way , making the score 31 - 30 Miami , with the extra point pending . The decision . A successful kick would have tied the score . Instead , Osborne went for the win , and with it , risked everything ( the NCAA had not introduced overtime in 1984 ; thus , the game could have ended in a tie ) . Miami ' s Kenny Calhoun broke up the conversion pass from quarterback Turner Gill to I - back Jeff Smith , leaving the inspired Hurricanes with a 31 - 30 upset victory over the top - ranked Cornhuskers . " We were trying to win the game , " Osborne said . " I don ' t think you go for a tie in that case . You try to win the game . We wanted an undefeated season and a clear - cut national championship . " A tie would most likely have been enough to give the Huskers the national championship with a 12 - 0 - 1 record , since second - ranked Texas also lost earlier in the day to Georgia in the Cotton Bowl Classic and third - ranked Auburn had won unimpressively . Coincidentally , Osborne had been asked earlier in the week by a reporter if he would ever consider going for two in just such a situation . " I hope it doesn ' t come up , " Osborne said . " I ' ll be crucified one way or another on that one . " When it did occur , Osborne had his mind made up . " I don ' t think any of our players would be satisfied backing into it with a PAT , " Osborne said . " I don ' t think that ' s the way to do it . " Legacy . The game has widely been listed among the most memorable college football games by various sources , including " ABC Sports Online ' s " five " classic Orange Bowl moments " . An ESPN survey once voted this as the greatest college football game ever played . The game almost overnight established the University of Miami as a football power , and it would go on to win two more national championships before the end of the decade , under coaches Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson . The school would win a fourth with Erickson in 1991 , and would again beat Nebraska for a fifth in 2001 under Larry Coker . Nebraska coach Tom Osborne eventually would win three national championships of his own ( he defeated Miami in the 1995 Orange Bowl for his first ) , and retire in 1997 as one of the winningest coaches in college football history . But it would be his decision to go for the win , rather than to tie , and his willingness to risk the national championship on one play which has come to define his legacy more than any single achievement . It has become a textbook case in game theory . A simple extra point conversion would have tied the game and arguably given Nebraska the national championship . Economist Avinash Dixit and Business Strategy Expert Barry Nalebuff argue that Osborne would have had more options had he gone for two earlier in the fourth quarter : " Tom Osborne would have done better to first try the two - point attempt ( at the score of 31 - 23 ) , and then if it succeeded go for the one - point , while if it failed attempt a second two - pointer . " The game was placed in NCAA Football video games as a " College Classic " , challenging players to recreate the ending . The scenario begins with Nebraska with the ball , with the decision to either go for the tie or the win entirely up to the player . Due to the game using modern rules when it was developed , it is entirely possible to take the game into overtime .