2005 Miami Hurricanes football team

The 2005 Miami Hurricanes football team represented the University of Miami during the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season. It was the Hurricanes' 80th season of football and 2nd as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Hurricanes were led by fifth-year head coach Larry Coker and played their home games at the Orange Bowl. They finished the season 9–3 overall and 6–2 in the ACC to finish in second place in the Coastal Division. They were invited to the Peach Bowl where they lost to LSU, 40-3.

2005 Miami Hurricanes football
Peach Bowl, L 3–40 vs. LSU
ConferenceAtlantic Coast Conference
DivisionCoastal
Ranking
CoachesNo. 18
APNo. 17
2005 record9–3 (6–2 ACC)
Head coachLarry Coker (5th season)
Offensive coordinatorDan Werner (2nd season)
Offensive schemePro-style
Defensive coordinatorRandy Shannon (5th season)
Base defense4–3 Cover 2
Home stadiumMiami Orange Bowl
(Capacity: 72,319)
2005 Atlantic Coast Conference football standings
Conf  Overall
Team W L    W L 
Atlantic Division
No. 23 Florida State xy$  5 –3     8 –5  
No. 18 Boston College x  5 –3     9 –3  
No. 21 Clemson  4 –4     8 –4  
Wake Forest  3 –5     4 –7  
NC State  3 –5     7 –5  
Maryland  3 –5     5 –6  
Coastal Division
No. 7 Virginia Tech x  7 –1     11 –2  
No. 17 Miami  6 –2     9 –3  
Georgia Tech  5 –3     7 –5  
North Carolina  4 –4     5 –6  
Virginia  3 –5     7 –5  
Duke  0 –8     1 –10  
Championship: Florida State 27, Virginia Tech 22
  • $ – BCS representative as conference champion
  • x – Division champion/co-champions
  • y – Championship game participant
Rankings from AP Poll

Season

Miami dropped its first game of the season at archrival Florida State, 10–7, when punter/holder Brian Monroe fumbled the snap on a 28-yard game-tying field goal attempt by kicker Jon Peattie with 2:16 left to play in the fourth quarter. Despite gaining 313 yards of offense to Florida State's 170, Miami lost to its archrival for the first time since 1999 (6 straight wins by Miami). The three turnovers, two missed field goals, and a muffed hold on the game-tying field goal attempt were also a contributing factor in the outcome for Miami.

The Hurricanes rebounded by winning 8 straight games (including a 27–7 win over previously unbeaten Virginia Tech in Blacksburg) and climbed to the #3 spot in both polls. However, any hopes of a sixth national championship were dashed when the Hurricanes were upset, 14–10, by Georgia Tech at home on November 19 (the game was originally scheduled for October 22, but was postponed in the wake of Hurricane Wilma). The Miami offense, which had problems all season, sputtered badly against Georgia Tech and quarterback Kyle Wright was booed continuously during the second half of the game by the Orange Bowl crowd for his ineffective play. The loss also knocked Miami out of a spot in the inaugural ACC Championship Game.

Miami finished the regular season at 9–2 (6–2 ACC), ranked #9 in both polls, and received an invitation to return to the Peach Bowl to face the 10th-ranked LSU Tigers. However, this trip to Atlanta was much different from the Hurricanes last, as Wright and the Miami offense struggled, and the defense, which had been the top-ranked defense in Division I-A for most of the season, was shredded by the LSU offense. Miami was routed, 40–3, in the worst-bowl loss in the program's history. The 'Canes finished the 2005 campaign with a 9–3 record and ranked #18/17 (USA Today/AP).

Aftermath

Coker's three-loss seasons at Miami were viewed as failures, and the season-opening loss to FSU and the bowl loss to LSU made the 2005 campaign particularly difficult for alumni and fans of the proud program to swallow. The Hurricane offense had been the center of criticism all season long (as well as during the two previous seasons). In particular, offensive coordinator Dan Werner, offensive line coach Art Kehoe, and quarterback Kyle Wright were assigned most of the blame.[1] In the aftermath of the Peach Bowl loss, head coach Larry Coker fired four assistants: Werner, Kehoe, running backs coach Don Soldinger, and linebacker coach Vernon Hargreaves.[2] The firing of Kehoe was particularly controversial,[3] as he had been with the program as a player and then a coach for over 25-years and took part in all five of Miami's national championships.

With Miami failing to win a conference championship or go to a BCS bowl the previous two years and not having won a national championship since 2001, it was widely assumed that Coker would enter the 2006 season on the hot seat and need to take Miami to a BCS bowl to keep his job.[4]

Schedule
DateTimeOpponentRankSiteTVResultAttendance
September 58:00 PMat No. 14 Florida StateNo. 9
ABCL 7–1084,347
September 173:30 PMat No. 20 ClemsonNo. 13
ABCW 36–30 3OT79,135
September 2412:00 PMColorado*No. 12
ABCW 23–351,228
October 18:00 PMSouth Florida*No. 9
  • Miami Orange Bowl
  • Miami, FL (rivalry)
ESPNUW 27–758,308
October 83:30 PMDukeNo. 9
  • Miami Orange Bowl
  • Miami, FL
ESPNUW 52–740,314
October 151:00 PMat Temple*No. 7
FSNW 34–323,129
October 2912:00 PMNorth CarolinaNo. 6
  • Miami Orange Bowl
  • Miami, FL
ESPN2W 34–1630,618
November 57:45 PMat No. 3 Virginia TechNo. 5
ESPNW 27–765,115
November 123:30 PMat Wake ForestNo. 3
ABCW 47–1727,106
November 197:45 PMGeorgia TechNo. 3
  • Miami Orange Bowl
  • Miami, FL
ESPNL 10–1453,764
November 263:30 PMVirginiaNo. 10
  • Miami Orange Bowl
  • Miami, FL
ABCW 25–1737,629
December 307:30 PMvs. No. 10 LSU*No. 9
ESPNL 3–4065,620
  • *Non-conference game
  • Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game
  • All times are in Eastern time

Awards and honors

First Team All-Americans

All-ACC Selections (First Team)
  • Devin Hester, KR/PR
  • Kelly Jennings, CB
  • Tyrone Moss, RB
  • Eric Winston, LT

Awards Finalists

Bold indicates winners

  • Eric Winston, LT – Jacobs Trophy (Top ACC Lineman)

Jack Harding University of Miami MVP Award
  • Eric Winston, LT
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References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-11-28. Retrieved 2006-10-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2277894
  3. NBC News
  4. NBC News
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