‘The perfect villains’: How Miami ruled the 1980s and reveled in Notre Dame rivalry

November 6, 2026 Admin

‘The perfect villains’: How Miami ruled the 1980s and reveled in Notre Dame rivalry originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Brent Musburger strolled toward the entrance at Notre Dame Stadium, but he was stopped by a student who handed the legendary sports broadcaster a white T-shirt. What was Musburger’s reaction to seeing what is now the most iconic relic in college football history?

“I opened it up and immediately laughed because ‘Catholics vs. Convicts,’ OK?” Musburger told The Sporting News. “Honestly, it’s somewhere in a box in a storage garage, but I’ve still got it.”

Musburger had prepared for the top-five matchup between No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 1 Miami on Oct. 15, 1988. He recorded a voiceover set to the CBS college football theme song – a timeless monologue that will be rewatched in earnest this weekend. The pre-game tease with color commentator Pat Haden also was pre-recorded, which was a custom at that time. Yet all that changed when Musburger’s producer called an audible less than 15 minutes before kickoff.

“I was unaware that there had been a fight in the tunnel between the two teams,” Musburger said. “So, that added more intensity to the game immediately when that broke out. I did the tease live, and then we went from there. As you know, it was an unbelievable football game.”

That totally-rad 80s nostalgia will be thick when Miami (8-0) and Notre Dame (7-1), once again ranked No. 1 and No. 4 in the AP Top 25, meet at 7:30 p.m. on NBC at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday.

The montage is easy. Lou Holtz. Jimmy Johnson. A pre-game fight. A controversial call. A two-point conversion attempt, and a T-shirt with a tagline that still resonates from the Irish’s 31-30 upset that led to the program’s last national championship.

History is written by the winners, but the Hurricanes have a different point of view from those visits to Notre Dame in the 80s. The 1984 matchup in South Bend, Ind., when No. 14 Miami beat No. 16 Notre Dame 31-13, is their origin story in this rivalry. Bernie Kosar, a Miami quarterback from 1982-84, remembers Notre Dame coach Gerry Faust standing with crossed arms as players entered the tunnel.

“It was pretty chippy to the point where both teams came out in the same spot, and Coach Faust – intimidation was a factor back then and we were a younger team,” Kosar told SN. “They tried to intimidate us and there was a fight in the pre-game in the tunnel. As I like to say, that was the appetizer to the fight a few years later.”

Now, there is a long-awaited reboot with the makings of an all-time classic on Saturday night.

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Inside Miami-Notre Dame rivalry in 1980s

Steve Walsh was 16-0 as a starting quarterback for the Hurricanes heading into that 1988 matchup with the Irish. By then, Miami won national championships in 1983 and 1987, but it was the way they won that shook the college football establishment.

“Teams would watch us get in fights, talk s—, dance over the opponents and they hated it,” Walsh told SN. “The purists hated it. But we were damn good, so we could back it up. There was also that element that loved that so-called swagger. We didn’t know what the hell swagger was. We never used that term. We were just cocky and arrogant and confident in our ability. It was just a different time in college sports because of the exposure to the product.”

Walsh points to the difference in television exposure. There were only a handful of televised games each week in the 1980s. Miami infringed on a space that was reserved for traditional blue bloods, and Notre Dame was the most prestigious college football program in the country at that time. The rivalry with the Irish became a culture clash for college football fans. Notre Dame won three of four meetings from 1980-83 against the Hurricanes at a time when “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” were the most popular movies at the box office.

Miami-Notre Dame created the same dynamic. Who is the Empire? Who are the Rebels? Do you root for Darth Vader?

“Listen, the one thing that’s always good for sports is a villain,” Musburger said. “I don’t care what anybody says, you’ve gotta have a villain, OK? Of course, there were the loyalists for Miami and the students and everything. But around the country, they were the villains, and they just fit that perfectly.”

When Jimmy Johnson replaced Howard Schnellenberger in 1984, that took on a whole new meaning heading into the 1984 matchup at Notre Dame.

How 1984 matchup changed Miami-Notre Dame rivalry

Kosar grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, and shared the same dream as most Rust Belt high school kids as he grew into a star quarterback at Boardman High School. Notre Dame was the premier program in the region with national championships in 1973 and 1977.

“As a scarred Northeastern Ohio Catholic who watched the Notre Dame games on Saturday and then got yelled at by teachers and the priests on Sunday morning because you wanted to watch the broadcast of it again – that’s absolutely the place I wanted to go to as a little boy growing up into high school,” Kosar said.

Miami vs. Notre Dame: 1980-90

DATE	LOCATION	FINAL SCORE
Oct. 11, 1980	South Bend	No. 7 Notre Dame 32, No. 13 Miami 14
Nov. 27, 1981	Miami	No. 9 Miami 37, Notre Dame 15
Oct. 9, 1982	South Bend	No. 10 Notre Dame 16, No. 17 Miami 14
Sept. 24, 1983	Miami	No. 13 Miami 20, Notre Dame 0
Oct. 6, 1984	South Bend	No. 14 Miami 31, No. 16 Notre Dame 13
Nov. 30, 1985	Miami	No. 4 Miami 58, Notre Dame 7
Nov. 28, 1987	Miami	No. 2 Miami 24, No. 10 Notre Dame 0
Oct. 15, 1988	South Bend	No. 4 Notre Dame 31, No. 1 Miami 30
Nov. 25, 1989	Miami	No. 7 Miami 27, No. 1 Notre Dame 10
Oct. 20, 1990	South Bend	No. 6 Notre Dame 29, No. 2 Miami 20

Musburger points out that the 1980s also marked a boom in high school football in Florida. Alonzo Highsmith, a star running back at Christopher Columbus High School – the same program that later produced Mario Cristobal and Fernando Mendoza – was among those star players who chose Miami over Florida and Florida State.

The Hurricanes won a national championship in 1983 – but they had yet to win at Notre Dame Stadium. That was the spice behind the matchup on Oct. 6, 1984, and Highsmith heard all about it that summer.

“I think people warn you about a lot of things in life,” Highsmith told SN. “You’re going up to Notre Dame. It’s Notre Dame football. It’s night time. It’s still Notre Dame. It means something. You’re going up there in a hostile environment. All of those things come into account.”

This was one of the first night games televised on ESPN, a network also pushing into the college football realm. Temporary lights were brought in for the game. Notre Dame quarterback Steve Beuerlein provided the pre-game fuel when he said the Hurricanes were “very low class about the way they handled the victory” in the 1983 matchup. Kosar took on a more even-keeled approach in the pre-game interviews. He still holds Notre Dame up with the highest respect, even if that game-day environment was nasty.

“It was super emotional growing up loving Notre Dame and wanting to go there,” Kosar said. “I’m not exactly proud of it because the game of football has altered in a better way, but back then it was really a war type of environment.”

Highsmith scored four TDs in a heavy rainstorm, including two TD catches from Kosar – in a 31-13 victory. He remembers that feeling of vindication walking out of Notre Dame Stadium.

“We wanted people to take us seriously, and we wanted to be a force to be reckoned with,” Highsmith said. “The only way you were going to be a force to be reckoned with – there weren’t that many games on national TV. In my era, you had to be good to be on national TV, and national TV was always reserved for Notre Dame, USC, those types of schools.”

The Hurricanes embarrassed Notre Dame 58-7 under Johnson the following season in Faust’s final game on Nov. 30, 1985. Holtz was hired in 1986, and No. 1 Miami beat No. 10 Notre Dame 24-0 on Nov. 28, 1987 as part of a second national championship season in the decade. The kindling for 1988 was there for the return to South Bend. The Irish were 5-0. The Hurricanes were 4-0.

By the time Musburger unfurled that T-shirt, he knew it was on.

SN ARCHIVE: Lou Holtz calls for rivalry to pause (1988)

How Notre Dame won ‘Catholics vs. Convicts’

Musburger, 87, rattles off the details of that game while putting into present-day perspective by simply saying, “Social media would have gone crazy with that game.”

Holtz and Johnson were larger-than-life personalities, but Musburger points to Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator at the time.

“Barry Alvarez is an underrated piece in that game,” Musburger said.

The Hurricanes had seven turnovers. Notre Dame defensive back Pat Terrell’s interception return for a touchdown put the Irish up 21-7 in the second quarter. Miami had outscored their first four opponents 140-33.

“Their plan was to get pressure on me,” Walsh said. “We did not have enough protection helpers – meaning when you know a team’s got a good pass rush you’re going to have the tight end chip a defensive end or have a running back get in the way and slow those edge rushers down. We didn’t really have a special plan for their pass rushers. That was the difference in the game.”

Miami trailed 31-24 in the fourth quarter when the game-defining play happened.

Walsh threw a fourth-down pass to Cleveland Gary, but a potential game-tying TD was ruled a fumble at the goal line, which was recovered by Notre Dame linebacker Michael Stonebreaker. According to the account in the Oct. 24, 1988 issue of The Sporting News:

“Miami is still confused about that play. The officials ruled it a catch and a fumble. But Johnson said the officials told him it was a dead ball and that Miami had turned it over on downs. Gary, for his part, said it was a touchdown. ‘If I cross the plane and then it squirts out, is it a touchdown?'”

That confusion still exists. Johnson reminded Musburger about that play at banquets for years to come.

“Jimmy never actually, maybe even to this day, has never forgiven us on the Cleveland Gary play,” Musburger said with a laugh. “Because Haden immediately backed the referees. Jimmy to this day said we blew it.”

How would that sequence be viewed today?

“Well you know, you would have obviously had outrage and podcasters playing every little moment,” Walsh said. “You might even have the head of the officials’ crew come back on Monday and say, ‘Oh, yeah, we made a mistake. There is nothing we can do about it, but we made a mistake.’ So, you know that would have even stirred the pot even more.”

The Hurricanes still scored with 45 seconds remaining with a fourth-down TD pass from Walsh to Andre Brown, and Johnson elected to go for two and the win. Defensive lineman George Williams pressured Walsh, and Terrell knocked down a pass that sealed a 31-30 victory that still reverberates on both sides.

Musburger, however, does not recall reflecting on the significance at that moment.

“It was very intense,” Musburger said. “Great game, and I really enjoyed the game but when we closed the book and headed to the airport I probably said, ‘I can’t wait for the next one.'”

Jeremiah Love

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Miami-Notre Dame returns to South Bend

The teams split the next two matchups in 1989-90, with No. 6 Notre Dame beating No. 2 Miami 29-20 in South Bend before the rivalry paused. There was a 20-year hiatus, and the last meeting in South Bend was in 2016. ESPN released the documentary “Catholics vs. Convicts” that year.

It was No. 10 Miami’s 27-24 victory against No. 11 Notre Dame in the season opener on Aug. 31, 2025 that led to the Irish being left out of the College Football Playoff later. Now, the teams are finally back at Notre Dame Stadium.

Marcus Freeman. Mario Cristobal. A year-long controversy, and a matchup that will define the ACC and Notre Dame in this year’s race. The Irish were No. 11 in the first CFP rankings, which were released Tuesday.

MORE: ND a big loser in the first CFP rankings | What a 24-team field would look like

“The stakes are very high in this game in my opinion, especially for Notre Dame,” Musburger said. “It has the makings, when you got the No. 1 team going in there and you have the history that you’re talking about.”

The players who defined that rivalry in the 1980s are back, too. Walsh said he will attend the game with Tony Rice, the Notre Dame star quarterback in that 1988 matchup.

“I guess selfishly I was kind of hoping Notre Dame would take care of business and Miami would take care of business and you would have a 1-2 matchup with Notre Dame being No. 1,” Walsh said. “Now, you look at it where Miami has the big target on their back with everybody they play, and Notre Dame is in a must-win situation to stay alive for playoff contention as an at-large team.”

Walsh sees similarities on the field, too. Miami leads the FBS with 47.6 points per game. Walsh believes the Irish will have to pressure quarterback Darian Mensah. The Hurricanes will be without star receiver Malachi Toney, who suffered a high ankle sprain in practice this week.

“I look back at the ’88 game, and I look to this game coming up, and I’m like, ‘OK, there are a lot of eerie similarities,'” Walsh said. “The winner of this game could have the ability to run the table and win the championship.”

The missing narrative? The players still respect Notre Dame. Kosar traveled to Miami this week ahead of the game, and the memories of those 80s matchups have not faded.

“We beat them the year before in the Orange Bowl and (won) the national championship game,” Kosar said. “But to go on the road in front of ‘Touchdown Jesus’ and actually come out with a ‘W,’ words can’t describe it.

“I am biased that the Canes are back and I absolutely believe Notre Dame is back,” Kosar said. “Coach Freeman is the same with his program as Coach Cristobal. You know, this could be a teaser to a national championship game. These are definitely two of the better teams in our country who deserve these accolades.”

Highsmith played with Notre Dame stars Allen Pinkett and Robert Banks with the Houston Oilers and plans to watch the game from his living room.

“I think Notre Dame and Miami has always been circled for people ever since the 80s,” Highsmith said. “I don’t think players really look ahead, because it’s our job to take care of business week to week, but you know it’s on the horizon. It’s always there – it’s like the elephant in the room. Nobody is going to say anything, but it’s there.”

Finally, there’s Musburger. He will do a voiceover for NBC before this game, too, and the memories of walking into Notre Dame Stadium in 1988 have not faded one bit.

“It certainly has legs because the controversy carries over, and I’m not sure that that T-shirt is the reason why,” Musburger said. “I was a writer before I was a broadcaster. There’s nothing like controversy. That game had controversy going in and controversy coming out, so it lives. There’s no question about that.”

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