Statement Games—

“Statement Games” are games where a team “Lays down the Law” on another team… It could be a surprise, a once-and-done moment, or the beginning of a new trend… The 1987 Fiesta Bowl matchup of #2 Penn State and #1 Miami was all of that and much more… This game would “lay down the law” on college football, the bowl system of the era, and even the TV networks… The CFP Championship as a primetime spectacle that exists now was actually born on a January evening in the Arizona desert in 1987; and you can thank Penn State and Joe Paterno… and, NBC, too…

1987 Fiesta Bowl vs. Miami—The game that changed the future!

The 1987 Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona was the first real National Championship Game in that the two top-ranked teams in the country faced-off on the field for all the marbles—no need for a post-game vote on the matter (of course, AP & UPI voted anyway)… The game wasn’t played on a New Year’s Day like traditional bowls… It wasn’t played in a dome or at one of the classic shrines of college football like the Rose Bowl… It was played on the campus of Arizona State University… It was a simple neutral location in a bowl game that was just turning Sweet 16…

This was the closest thing to a playoff that Division 1 football had ever seen… Thanks, in large part, to the key players not being tied into conferences, and therefore, not being tied into bowl contracts that might prevent a “1-2 matchup” (as sadly would be seen in 1994 with PSU and Nebraska)… NBC worked with the Fiesta Bowl (which did not yet have the cache of the Rose, Sugar, Cotton and Orange Bowls) to create the “1 vs. 2 national title game” that the bowl structure/conference tie-ins of the era typically blocked…The game then moved from daytime on Jan. 1 to “Primetime” on Jan. 2 (6pm MST/8pm EST) to become the final game of the season (game tickets were printed far ahead of time, so they remained dated for Jan. 1 at the original kick time of 11:30am MST/1:30pm EST)… The NCAA was reportedly not pleased by this, but it happened… NBC committed to the game by cancelling a Friday primetime lineup that included the very popular Miami Vice and Crime Story programs… The network added a pre-game show with Bob Costas and Ahmad Rashad, and scheduled a live interview with President Ronald Reagan for halftime… NBC decided to stand pat with its regular Fiesta Bowl broadcast team of Charlie Jones, Bob Griese, and rookie color analyst Jimmy Cefalo (who played flanker at Penn State 1974-77)… NBC would get 70 million viewers for its gamble in primetime—the largest college football TV audience in history… The record still stands… And this would be the basis for the “1 vs. 2” Bowl Championship Series (and later CFP) formula that would finally take hold for good in 1998…

PSU’s defense would become the story of the game as they would put Miami in a vise… The Lions offense was outgained by the Canes in rushing and passing… (John Shaffer QB was 5 of 16 passing for 53 yards and an INT on the night)… Penn State could only manage a single sustained drive on offense, but that, and an interception by Shane Conlan LB, set up two short TD runs by John Shaffer and DJ Dozier RB that had the Lions on top 14-10 late in the fourth quarter… At this point in the 4th, Miami QB and Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde is having his second straight major bowl nightmare… He’s been sacked 3 times and picked off 4 times by Penn State (2 by Shane Conlan) which was disguising coverages and heavily using linebackers in passing situations… A year earlier in the Sugar Bowl, Tennessee sacked Vinny 8 times and picked him off 3 times in a Canes loss…

This game would effectively come down to one final drive by Miami… A Penn State punt set the Canes up at their 22-yard line… Alonzo Highsmith of Miami was having a solid night rushing 18 times for 119 yards, and his running-mate Melvin Bratton had the Canes lone TD… But, for the final drive, the two backs were largely in the game for “max” pass protection… They never touched the ball… A 4-yard gain on a 1st down scramble by Testaverde to the 27-yard line would be the last Miami run of the evening with about 3 minutes to go… The Hurricanes came to the dance as a passing team, and they would dance with the girl they brought… In other words, live by the pass, die by the pass… 2nd down brought a near interception by linebacker Trey Bauer followed by an incomplete pass on 3rd down… On 4th and 6 though, Vinny got rolling as he hit Brian Blades for the first down and more on a dash along the left sideline to the PSU 41 with 2:24 remaining in the game…

Vinny Testaverde and Michael Irvin would then combine to move the Canes all the way to the shadow of the PSU goalposts… The Nittany Lions defense was bending but would it break? A Vinny to Irvin pass would give Miami a 1st and goal just inside the Penn State 10-yard line… From there it’s Vinny to Irvin to just inside the 6-yard line with 43 seconds to go… The Canes still have 2 timeouts, but they let the clock run…. On 2nd and goal, a critical and often forgotten moment in the game…. A play that would burn a Miami timeout and probably eliminate any chance that Highsmith or Bratton would/could touch the ball again… Inside the 10-yard line, the field becomes very compact… 22 players in a small space…On second down, Vinny drops straight back to pass, looks right, but Duffy Cobbs and Marques Henderson have that side of the endzone bottled up, and then just as he looks left, Tim Johnson DT is on him… Johnson had quickly shed his blocker, charged past him, and went straight to Vinny… Testaverde kind of half steps forward and Johnson nearly flies by him, but Johnson’s left arm catches just enough of the left side of Vinny’s helmet causing Testaverde to lose his balance and fall… Vinny burns a TO from his back with 25 seconds to go in the game leaving only 1… The sack cost the Canes 7 yards and left them at the 13… With only 2 downs left in the season, it’s TD or nothing… Even with a TO left, running was really no longer an option for a passing team that needed to reach the endzone… On 3rd and goal from the 13, the pass by Vinny is pressured and he throws off his back foot and short of the target… Warren Williams dives and can’t get it… The clock stops on the incomplete pass… 18 seconds remain…

4th and goal… Everyone knows it’s going to be a pass… Miami has 2 receivers to the right including Irvin who would just be a decoy here… Vinny drops back quickly to the 21-yard line, looks immediately left and never takes his eyes off the receiver…. Testaverde fires the ball on a line to his lone wide receiver on the left, Brett Perriman, but anticipating the pass, Pete Giftopoulos LB has dropped into pass coverage underneath (it’s the defensive theme of this game)… Perriman is surrounded by blue jerseys: Ray Isom S and Eddie Johnson RCB with linebackers Don Graham & Gifto underneath… Somebody other than Perriman was going to get that ball… Pete picks off the pass at the goal line and slowly returns it to the 11 where he drops to the ground and downs the ball with 11 seconds left… The exclamation point on “The Statement!” Penn State has just won the 1986 National Championship… The final, 14-10… Vinny’s stat line for the game was forgettable: 26 of 50 passing, 0 TDs, 5 INTs, 4 sacks… Joe Paterno gets carried off on the shoulders of his players… It’s win number 199 for Joe and his second national title in 5 seasons… The Blue Band marches from the stadium all the way back to the team hotel with tons of fans in tow… Two days later, 5-thousand Penn State fans would rally on the Harrisburg campus after the team’s return flight had landed at nearby Middletown…

The media like to proclaim the Miami Hurricanes as the team of the 1980’s with 3 consensus national championships in the decade (1983, 1987, and 1989)… But, let’s be honest, two of those titles were won in Orange Bowl games (on the Canes home field)… Penn State won a pair of titles in that decade and beat the #1 ranked Canes head-to-head for the 1986 crown… Miami head coach Jimmy Johnson will insist that his was the better team, but the score begs to differ…

For Other Statement & Message Game Stories—CLICK HERE

1986 at Alabama—The Tide gets rolled in Tuscaloosa

1981 at Pitt—The game that shoved Pitt off the national stage

1911 at UPenn—Our first true upset victory

From our PSU Football Archaeology section—What if an earlier interception in the ‘87 Fiesta Bowl erased Pete Giftopoulos from the Penn State record books? It actually could have happened… CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY