The Miami Hurricanes may be setting up more than a tribute game when they face Pitt on Oct. 24.
Miami already plans to honor its 2001 National Championship team that day, but a recent clue has fans wondering if the throwback treatment could extend to the uniforms themselves. A resurfaced Instagram post from Canes.HQ showed Armondo Blount in last year’s fall camp wearing what looked like an early-2000s Miami jersey, complete with “2001” engraved on the collar. With the University of Miami’s Adidas partnership, gear is often tested a year before it ever gets used on the field.
Nothing has been confirmed, and the Hurricanes haven’t said a word publicly about any new throwbacks. Still, the possibility is there.
If Miami does roll out a look from that era, it would fit the moment. The 2001 team remains one of college football’s gold standards, loaded with Hall of Famers Ed Reed and Andre Johnson and quarterback Ken Dorsey, a Heisman Trophy finalist. That squad went 12-0, beat Nebraska 34-17 in the Rose Bowl for the national title, and sent 38 players into the 2002 NFL Draft, with 17 going in the first round.
That kind of talent drain is still staggering.
It’s also been a long wait since then. Miami’s 2001 championship was followed by a 24-year drought, one of the longest active stretches without another title.
But the program is at least looking upward again after a 13-3 season that ended with its first National Championship appearance since Jan. 3, 2003.
Mario Cristobal’s team lost to Indiana, but the year still marked a major turnaround.
Now the Hurricanes enter the new season projected as the favorites to win the Atlantic Coast Conference for the first time in school history and reach the College Football Playoffs again. An undefeated regular season is on the table, though road trips to Notre Dame and Clemson could complicate that path.
Cristobal isn’t ducking the challenge.
The 2001 group did its damage with ruthless efficiency, winning by an average of 32.4 points and posting shutouts against Rutgers (61-0), Temple (38-0), and Syracuse (59-0). Virginia Tech was the only team to push them close, and Miami still escaped 26-24.
Larry Coker coached that team, and during his six seasons in Coral Gables he delivered three straight double-digit-win campaigns before departing after the 2006 season.
For a program that spent two decades drifting through mediocrity, the standard in Coral Gables suddenly feels like it’s moving back toward something much closer to its old self.
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Miami Just Cleared An Early Hurdle With Elite Safety Recruit
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Easterling-Flores has already logged official visits to Oregon, Florida, Auburn, Texas and Notre Dame, but Miami has not yet hosted him. He said this will be his final list, with no more trimming ahead, so the next step for the Hurricanes will be turning that spot on the list into a real trip to Coral Gables and, eventually, a stronger claim in a recruitment that already has plenty of heavyweight competition. [Read more 🡒]