Miami Hurricanes Football — "Season Of Challenge" [1999]

Recently found this old VHS tape that gives a retrospective of the Miami Hurricanes' 1999 football season—year five under head coach Butch Davis and an expected step-forward year after closing the 1998 campaign with an upset of No. 2 UCLA at the Orange Bowl (12/5/98) and a bowl win over North Carolina State, as the Hurricanes finished 9-3.

The 1999 season opened with #12 Miami taking out #9 Ohio State in the Kickoff Classic, before a week three stumble against #3 Penn State—where the Canes took a late lead, but gave up an 80-yard touchdown bomb in the final minutes.

The hangover continued for a road loss against East Carolina, which took place in Raleigh, as the Purple Pirates were displaced due to Hurricane Floyd—Miami blowing a 23-3 early third quarter lead.

Miami hung tough a week later in Tallahassee, tied 21-21 against #1 Florida State before falling 31-21 to the eventual national champs. The Canes only other loss came weeks later, at #2 Virginia Tech, where Miami was steamrolled after losing starting quarterback Kenny Kelly—yielding to true freshman Ken Dorsey.

Upside; Dorsey started the next three games, rolled Rutgers, Syracuse and Temple—while outplaying Kelly in the Gator Bowl win over Georgia Tech—which saw Kelly heading out to play pro baseball and Dorsey getting the nod in 2000; the start of what as a 38-2 run for the two-time Heisman finalist and national champion—who should've been 39-1 with two rings, if not for that motherfucker Terry Porter throwing a flag five minutes after a supposed pass interference call in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl against mouth-breathing Ohio State.