The "Thug U" moniker isn't fair anymore. In reference to the 1980s, yes - and they revel in it. But that's not Miami today, and hasn't been for quite a while. Heck, they were a decent, almost likeable bunch when they demolished us in 2001.
Most everyone harboring a grudge about Miami is, like me, old enough to remember 1983 and the late 80s/early 90s games. Nebraska and Miami have played five times in the last 30 years, all of which encompass Miami's nationally relevant period.
The winner of four of those games won the National Championship. Three times that was Miami, once in heartbreaking fashion (1983) and twice in blowouts (1991 & 2001). Only once in those five games - Tom Osborne's first National Championship - did Nebraska prevail, and that took an epic comeback.
That's why people are going to bring up old grudges. The games we've played, that most remember, mattered.
<Mod hat off>
Anyway, so far our Miami visitors have been pretty cool, and have dropped some pretty good knowledge on us. Let's be good hosts, and save the "Thug U" references for any trolls that show up.
</Mod hat back on>
That's fair, to an extent, though the '83 team shouldn't be lumped in there with the "bad boy" image teams. That was Schnellenberger. It really started under Johnson in '84. As for Thug U, as I said in another thread, that name is there, and it's used, but even that isn't completely accurate. They danced on the field, and wore fatigues, and talked trash, but they weren't getting arrested off the field. They weren't killing people, raping women, etc. They weren't doing the stuff, that say, Oklahoma was doing under Switzer, but they have that reputation because they wore fatigues to the 1986 Fiesta Bowl instead of suits. Everyone remembers that they walked out of the "Steak Fry" dinner at the Fiesta Bowl with Penn State, and calls them "Thugs," but everyone forgets that Jerome Brown led the walkout because the Penn State punter got on stage and told a racist joke, prompting them to leave. Everyone thinks the players were running around campus raping women, when they were actually running up the score on Gerry Faust, embarrassing him 58-7 on national TV in his last game, leading Ara Parseghian to basically call them thugs on the national broadcast.
