Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [12]
Since its inception, the program earned a handful of bowl appearances and produced great players and all-Americans, including future NFL stars Ted Hendricks and Chuck Foreman. But in fifty-two seasons, the Hurricanes did not have a signature win that vaulted the program to an elite standing.
That all changed on November 3, 1979. Nineteen-point underdogs, Miami traveled north to State College, Pennsylvania, for another difficult test against Joe Paterno’s bunch. The Hurricanes had lost four consecutive matchups with Penn State, including a 49-7 drubbing two years earlier.
Schnellenberger knew that to have a chance, they would have to improvise.
“We felt we had to pass to beat Penn State . . . because we felt their secondary is not as strong as their front seven,” the coach told reporters. “Because we felt we had to throw the ball, we went with Kelly, because he is our best thrower.”
Penn State had expected to see the option quarterback Rodrigue under center. Schnellenberger didn’t tell anyone of his intended lineup change, including Jim Kelly.
“Just a few hours before the game, he said ‘I’ve decided to start you at quarterback today,’” Kelly said. “And the first thing I did was I went to the bathroom after I got done talking to him and threw up.”
That unique pregame ritual would continue throughout the remainder of his college and professional playing career. Aside from the unpleasant visual image, Kelly’s new warm-up routine had a surprisingly strong impact on his teammates.
“Schnellenberger was giving us our getting-ready-to-go-on-the-field speech and during the speech you could just hear Jim in the toilet puking his guts out,” teammate Mark Rush remembered years later. “From that day on every game, we were not ready to go on that field until we heard Jim puke. Once he started puking, everybody would just start screaming ‘all right, let’s go, we’re ready!’”
Kelly’s howling heaves inspired the Hurricanes. On the first play from scrimmage, fullback Chris Hobbs caught a short pass and raced fifty-seven yards to set up a short field goal. Minutes later, Kelly converted a Penn State turnover into a touchdown pass to Jim Joiner.
Beneath a rainy, cloudy sky, Kelly took command of the offense, calling audibles from the sidelines, completing a slew of short passes, and ignoring the dislocated jaw that he suffered on the game’s opening play. And although his brothers Dan and Kevin could not make the trip—they were playing Brockway for a Little 12 conference championship that same afternoon—forty-five friends and family members cheered Jim on from the Beaver Stadium stands.
Penn State’s trademark ground game—they would run the ball sixty-five times for 248 yards on this day—narrowed the score to 13-10 at the half. But Kelly tossed two second-half touchdown passes to give “lowly Miami,” as one newspaper noted, a 26-10 advantage.
“We’re not a real good catch-up football team,” said Paterno afterwards. “We used two tight ends and tried to control the football. We’re aware of our limitations. I blame myself, not (quarterback) Dayle Tate. Maybe we didn’t give him enough offenses to be a good football team.”
With freshman Jeff Hostetler watching from the Penn State sidelines, Tate completed eleven of twenty passes for 109 yards and threw three interceptions. The Hurricane defense tossed a shutout in the second half to give the university a landmark victory.
“This day will go down in the history of Miami football as the day we turned our football program around,” proclaimed Schnellenberger.
Jim Kelly, who completed eighteen of thirty passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns, was equally proud, of both the team’s win and his own personal victory.
“Afterward, Paterno shook my hand, but he didn’t say much. I think he just wanted to get off the field. Fast.”
Victory over one of the most storied programs in college football did not transform Miami into a national power overnight. In fact, the Hurricanes