Nov. 23, 2007

By Jim Sumner
theACC.com

It may well be the most iconic moment in college football history. Under pressure, Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie scrambles to his right. He winds up and throws the ball as far as he can, 60 yards, maybe a little more. The ball almost disappears in the rain and the dark of the Orange Bowl. Three Miami defenders converge on the ball but none lay a finger on it. Instead Boston College receiver Gerard Phelan, falling to the ground in the end zone, gently cradles the ball for the winning touchdown.

Flutie to Phelan fascinates us for a number of reasons. It was the ultimate backyard play, devoid of nuance or deception; go deep and see what happens. It sewed up the Heisman Trophy for Flutie. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving on CBS, when the entire nation watched, at least that portion of the nation that cares about sports.

But most importantly, it won a spectacular, fiercely contested game. Before we can look at the play, we have to look at the context.

Host Miami was part of the college football elite in 1984. The Hurricanes, still an independent in those days, won the 1983 national championship under Howard Schnellenberger. They struggled a bit the following year under new coach Jimmy Johnson, coming into the BC game with an 8-3 record. Still, they were ranked 12th in the AP poll and featured an explosive offense, led by quarterback Bernie Kosar, running backs Alonzo Highsmith and Melvin Bratton, and receiver Eddie Brown.

BC wasn't quite as visible on the national radar, despite a 9-3 record and a Liberty Bowl appearance in 1983. But they were getting there. Jack Bicknell, then in his fourth season at Chestnut Hill, and offensive coordinator Tom Coughlin had installed an offense every bit as explosive as Miami's.

Phelan describes the offense. "Doug brought unique skills to the position and the coaches were smart enough to provide him with opportunities. Doug was intellectually capable of making great reads, so we had multiple audibles, with lots of sight adjustments. We receivers weren't faster or bigger than anybody but we were pretty smart and the feeling was that smart kids could handle this stuff. Find an open area and Doug will find you. Every thing we did was based on timing. There was lots of precision in the offense."

Boston College almost came into the Miami game undefeated. They opened with an easy win over Western Carolina and then traveled south to play Alabama. Phelan recalls Alabama coach Ray Perkins apologizing to the home fans "for not scheduling a better opponent." It looked like Perkins had a point early. The Crimson Tide led 31-14 before Flutie led a furious comeback. Hampered by a sore left shoulder, he threw two touchdown passes and ran for another as BC came back for a 38-31 win. Flutie wasn't the only BC hero. Defensive back Tony Thurman picked off three Alabama passes.

Flutie followed with six touchdown passes in a 52-20 rout of North Carolina. An easy win over Temple pushed the Eagles to 4-0. By this point the Eagles were ranked fourth in the AP poll.

BC nemesis West Virginia slowed down the Eagles. BC led 20-6 at the half but the home-standing Mountaineers fought back for a 21-20 win. Flutie ended his career against West Virginia 0-4.

Boston College rebounded with a win over Rutgers, before falling 37-30 at Penn State. Flutie passed for 447 yards against the Nittany Lions and became the first college player to exceed 10,000 yards in career total offense. But Flutie also lost two fumbles and was intercepted twice. Army and Syracuse fell, leaving Boston College 7-2 when it visited Miami. The Syracuse game was held under brutally cold, windy conditions. Flutie was held to 136 passing yards but ran for 72, while tailback Tory Stratford rushed for 102 yards. Boston College accepted a Cotton Bowl bid after the win.

Boston College was ranked 10th in the AP poll going into the Miami game, two spots ahead of the hosts, but playing on the road, was a slight underdog. The game was played in a windy rain that intensified as the game went on. Phelan says, "We had to stick with the game plan. We just weren't built to win a slug-out against a good team."

Flutie came out on fire. He connected on his first 11 passes, driving the visitors into the end zone on each of its first two possessions. The first score was a 33-yard pass to Kelvin Martin, the second a short run by Ken Bell.

Phelan says, "We had a slow-'em-down defense." BC did have some solid defenders, including tackle Mike Ruth and Thurman, who would end the season with a still-standing school record of 12 interceptions. There wasn't enough size and speed to shut down top-notch offenses, and Miami had a top-notch offense. Kosar was willing and capable of going into a full-fledged shootout with Flutie. Trailing 14-0, Kosar got in gear and drove Miami down the field. Melvin Bratton scored from the two and the first period ended with Boston College up 14-7.

Miami tied the score early in the second period on a 10-yard pass from Kosar to Willie Smith. By this point the game had taken on the appearance of a series of two-minute drills. "We felt like we probably had to score every time we got the ball," says Phelan. "We couldn't stop them, they couldn't stop us."

Boston College regained the lead on a nine-yard scramble by Flutie but Miami tied it once more with an eight-yard pass from Kosar to Williams. Flutie hit Phelan from 19-yards out right before halftime. Boston College was up, 28-21, at intermission.

The defenses had their victories in the third quarter. Miami tied it for the third time at 28-28, when Braxton scored from two yards out to culminate a 96-yard drive. The Hurricanes took their first lead minutes later but only after BC made a stand inside the five and forced a field goal. Miami returned the favor later in the third after Kosar was picked off. Kevin Snow's 18-yard field goal tied the game at 31-31.

BC picked off Kosar early in the fourth quarter but again could only pick up three points. Miami held serve on a spectacular 52-yard Bratton run, where he broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage and out-sprinted the Boston College secondary. It was 38-34 Miami, with 9:03 left.

Boston College took over on their own 18 and methodically moved down the field, Flutie hitting Phelan with regularity. Steve Strachan pounded over from the one with 3:50 left. BC led 41-38.

With time running out, it was apparent that a defensive stop from either team would likely sew up the win. BC had Miami pinned back on its 10, third and 21. But Kosar scrambled away from a sack and hit Darryl Oliver for 20 yards. The Hurricanes converted the fourth-and-one and continued their drive. Kosar completed five passes on the drive for 80 yards. Actually, he completed seven. Penalties called back two long completions. Bratton scored his fourth touchdown of the evening, this one from the one, to put Miami up 45-41. Only 28 seconds remained. Bicknell later admitted he was thinking about how to console his team.

The ensuing kickoff was a touchback. After the game, Flutie said, "With 28 seconds left, I said, `We've got at least four plays. Let's get the ball out near midfield and put one up into the end zone.'"

Flutie hit Stratford out of the backfield for 19 yards, then tight end Scott Gieselman for 13. The third pass fell incomplete. The three plays had moved the ball to the Miami 48 and chewed up 22 of the 28 seconds. Time for one last desperate heave.

The play was called "55 Flood Tip." Send everyone in the general neighborhood of the end zone and try to tip it to a teammate. It had worked for a score earlier in the season against Temple at the end of the first half. Flutie would have to negotiate a wind that was estimated at 20, maybe 30, miles per hour into his face, although Miami fans swear the wind stopped at the climatic moment. He later admitted, "I thought our chances were very slim. You put the ball in the end zone - we've got a couple of guys down there, they've got a couple of guys down there - you see who comes up with it."

After Flutie was flushed from the pocket, he set and threw from around his own 38-yard line. Phelan says, "I ran by the free safety into the end zone. The free safety stopped at about the five. Apparently, they didn't think Doug could throw it that far. I stayed in the end zone. It wasn't going to do us any good to catch the ball at the five. I was more prepared for a tip than a clean catch. It was a dark sky, a dark ball, rain, the pack was closing in. Three or four guys jumped in front of me and I lost sight of the ball. Then it appeared, right at my pads. I got my elbows together, fell down, and the ball was still there."

Phelan was buried under his jubilant teammates. There was no reason for an extra point. The final was 47-45. A stunned Jimmy Johnson lamented, "I didn't think there was any way in the world they could throw one behind us and we wouldn't knock it down."

The two teams combined for 62 first downs and almost 1,300 yards of total offense. Flutie completed 34-of-46 passes for 472 yards, Kosar 25-of-38 for 447. Phelan caught 11 passes for 226 yard, Miami's Eddie Brown 10 for 220 yards. Bratton rushed for 134 yards. There were only four punts, three by Boston College.

Boston College easily handled Holy Cross in its season finale and defeated Houston 45-28 in the Cotton Bowl. The Eagles finished their season 10-2, ranked fifth in the AP poll. Miami lost to UCLA 39-37 in the Fiesta Bowl to finish 8-5.

Doug Flutie and Gerard Phelan were roommates at Boston College. Phelan, who is a businessman in the Boston area, says, "This is the kind of thing that we talked about all the time. You dream about this sort of thing when you're a kid. At the time I was more relieved than anything else but the excitement kicked in pretty quick. I went crazy. There was so much on the line. To be able to live out your dream on national TV is something that just doesn't happen that often."

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Jim Sumner's articles on southern sports history have appeared in the ACC Handbook, the ACC Area Sports Journal, Blue Devil Weekly, Inside Carolina, the Wolfpacker, Baseball America, Basketball America, and other publications. His latest book, Tales From the Duke Blue Devils Hardwood, was published in 2005. In his bimonthly column "Looking Back... by Jim Sumner", he will examine the rich history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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