Almost twenty years later now, visions of this game are still etched in my mind. A copy of the Washington Post Sports section still hangs in my man cave to this day. The headline reads, ‘Alabama Makes Sure of 1 Thing: 34-13. It was the 1992 National Championship game, played in the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 1993. The combatants on that day were the Alabama Crimson Tide and the heavily favored and number 1 ranked Miami Hurricanes.
Most experts did not give the Tide even a puncher’s chance of knocking off the Hurricanes. They came into the contest holding a 29 game winning streak. They were led by the Heisman Trophy winner, Gino Toretta and his high powered offense. Their defense was also quite nasty as you can imagine out of those Miami teams back in that era. They were brash, bold, and cocky. They thought they were invincible, but they were not immune to a Tide wave!
In some ways, I guess I had bought into the hype a little bit. Sure my Alabama team was playing for the title, but we had played several close games all season and did not look to have the high powered offense to score with a team like Miami. I suspected we would have to rely on the defense and that we did. The defense, which was led my names like George Teague, Eric Curry, and John Copeland, battered Miami’s vaunted attack from the opening whistle.
Though the box score would later show that they outgained us yards wise, Miami was never really in this game. For a majority of the contest, the Miami rushing attack gained a total of six yards. Talk about a pride smasher. With no running game, Gino Toretta was forced to try and win it against a ferocious pass rush. He could simply not get the job done. He had gone the whole season throwing only seven interceptions. Alabama would get three on this night.
Perhaps the biggest of these were accomplished by safety George Teague. After Derrick Lassic had expanded the Tide’s 13-6 halftime lead to 20 with a touchdown run, Gino Toretta came out determined to drive Miami. Unfortunately for him, his first attempt went right to Teague, who raced his way into the end zone for a 27-6 Bama lead. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes because I felt the miracle was going to come true.
It would be Teague that put the exclamation point on the victory though later in the game. If Miami had any chance of coming back, they needed quick strikes. Gino Toretta thought he accomplished this task when he hit a streaking Lamar Thomas down the sidelines. Thomas was on his way when he got a big surprise. George Teague ran him down from behind and simply stole the ball out of his hands!
Alabama had taken every bit of swagger out of a team that laughed at them in warm-ups. They smashed them in the mouth with a running attack that amassed 267 yards rushing to 48. The defense mauled the mighty Hurricanes and gave them not one offensive touchdown. Most importantly, they took away two things that Miami valued most: their 29 game winning streak and the National Championship. It was a simple perfect night for Tide fans and one that I will never forget!
Sources: allstatesugarbowl.org/site99.php
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nytimes.com/1993/01/02/sports/college-football-roll-tide-alabama-dethrones-no-1-miami.html washingtonpost.com
