Even Bernie Kosar Can’t Overcome Miami’s Defense

TEMPE, Ariz. —  With Flutie the Cutie putting away the bad guys on another network New Year’s morning, many of our nation’s football fans turned their TV sets and their attention to the inaugural Bernie Bowl.

Make no mistake, Miami sophomore quarterback Bernie Kosar was the headliner here at what was also called the Fiesta Bowl. He was the drawing card, this kid with the arm and the star quality of a Namath, and Lord knows this game needed a drawing card.

Kosar drew a crowd, almost a full house in what could have been a real box-office disaster, and he put on a good show, but he couldn’t lead his team to victory.

The UCLA Bruins won it, 39-37, marching to the winning last-minute field goal as Kosar knelt on the Miami sidelines, holding hands with a priest.

Bernie’s going to have to go higher on the chain of command, it would seem. The last three games, the Hurricanes have scored 122 points--and lost all three games.

“That’s life,” Miami fullback Melvin Bratton said. “You gotta expect the unexpected.”

Wait a minute. That’s impossible. If you expect the unexpected, it’s not unexpected. So the Miami loss was a surprise that wasn’t.

“That’s the third heartbreaker in a row,” Kosar said. “After the last three weeks (games), nothing in my life’s going to surprise me anymore, especially on the football field. . . . I expect the worst out there, and the last three games, the worst has happened.”

Tuesday, Kosar completed 31 of 44 passes for 294 yards and two touchdowns. He was 19 for 23 in the second half, which is pretty good even for a guy who is expected to erase most of Doug Flutie’s national passing records.

But with time running out Tuesday, Kosar was sacked, and he fumbled away the ball and Miami’s last hopes. Good show; no miracles.

“The only thing on my mind right now is that last play,” Kosar said, “thinking what I should have done differently--throw it away, call a different play, anything . . .

“From an offensive standpoint, our philosophy is to do whatever it takes to win the game. We needed the last field goal, and we couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t handle it.”

He could handle the press, though. Bernie can always handle the press. The limelight doesn’t bother him, in good times or bad. He did slip on a pair of dark black shades in the locker room, but not for the purpose of anonymity. They were part of his apres-game outfit, which also included:

A colorful yachting jacket, unzipped to the waist, no undershirt, Walkman headphones and a large silver crucifix around his neck, sporty sweat pants, and white high-top basketball sneakers. For accent, a red sword toothpick, although he hadn’t eaten anything recently except a football.

Kosar was asked to reflect upon the last three games, in which the Hurricanes have passed opponents silly, only to be betrayed by a Miami defense that is generous to a fault.

“It’s amazing, really, if you want to look back at it,” Kosar said.

How about that Hurricane defense, Bernie?

“We had determined we had to change our defensive philosophy (this week), and I don’t think we did,” he said. “I think on offense, we did pretty much what we wanted.”

Defensive philosophy? For Miami, a better word would be philanthropy.

Still, Kosar’s sack and fumble didn’t help.

“I was looking to the outside, to get a completion and get out of bounds,” Kosar said. “I didn’t really want to take a sack; we had one time-out left. As I lifted to throw, he (UCLA noseguard Terry Tumey) knocked it away.”

Credit the UCLA defense for giving Kosar the toughest time of any team other than Florida State, which beat Miami, 38-3, in midseason.

Someone asked Kosar if the UCLA defense was almost as good as Florida State’s. He looked mildly surprised and said quietly, “We scored three points against Florida State. We scored 37 today.”

The Bruins kept Kosar from exploding in the first half, but the Hurricane offense seemed to adjust in the second half.

“The last two drives, we had good balance,” Kosar said. “We had them guessing, instead of us guessing what they would do. . . . I thought our offense really had the flow and movement going.”

Leaving the locker room, head up, Kosar passed the priest, who reached to shake Bernie’s hand and said, “I love you, buddy.”

Outside the locker room, a lot of folks loved Bernie. He signed dozens of autographs, posed for snapshots, smiling politely, with toothpick in place. He shook hands, hugged relatives and was introduced to a half-dozen mothers of assorted friends and strangers, who have been dying to meet him and could hardly believe their luck.

Kosar wasn’t moping. He wasn’t going to slink out of town in a frown. It’s not his style. Hey, Bernie couldn’t pin this loss entirely on himself. He was leaving the stadium with a fairly clean conscience.

“It was almost a good day,” he said to one last reporter. “Almost a good day.”