Indiana, Miami graduates from Greater Akron ready for CFP final
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The NCAA Division I national championship football game Monday, Jan. 19, features two programs with completely different histories.
Indiana University (15-0) is in unchartered waters in its first national title game after years of losing.
The University of Miami (13-2) is back in the spotlight and seeking its sixth national title after winning in 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991 and 2001.
“This is awesome,” said Akron native Jay Brophy, a first-team All-America linebacker on the 1983 national championship Miami team.
Indiana has gone from the bottom of college football to defeating Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship and then beating Alabama in a national quarterfinal and Oregon in a national semifinal this season.
“This is an exciting time for Indiana,” Akron Public Schools Coordinator of Athletics Tom McKinnon said. “Through the years when I was at Indiana, we were successful. Personally, I was in three bowl games, but we never reached these levels. It is really exciting to see the Hoosiers take the next step.”
McKinnon graduated from Archbishop Hoban High School in 1990 and Indiana University in 1994. He played as an offensive lineman and tight end on Indiana’s football team, lettering four years and starting in 34 games from 1991-94.
“When I look at them, I think the coach [Curt Cignetti] has done a great job,” McKinnon said. He does bring in a lot of [transfer] portal kids and he has been recruiting well. He also brings a team mentality and you can really see that with the way they play. They are a very unselfish team. It is team first with them. Everybody is always praising their teammates. It is an old-school mentality of teamwork that I think makes them successful.”
Times of course have changed in college athletics with players legally making money and frequently transferring. The Hoosiers have the financial support from billionaire Mark Cuban and millionaires such as John Mellencamp.
McKinnon started at left tackle on IU’s 1993 team that posted an 8-4 record and lost 45-20 to Virginia Tech in the 1993 Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana.
“A big difference is that Indiana has finally made that full commitment to the football program,” said McKinnon, whose resume includes being a teacher at several schools, football head coach at Kenmore and an athletic director at Willoughby South, Revere and Waterloo. “I think that has really helped. They have made upgrades to the stadium and upgrades all around the sports facilities. I think that has really helped them take off as well.”
Thomas Lewis, a 1990 Garfield High School graduate, played wide receiver at Indiana from 1991-93 with McKinnon before a four-year NFL career with the New York Giants. Lewis had six receptions for 177 yards and two touchdowns in the bowl game against Virginia Tech. He also caught the longest TD pass in IU history, a 99-yarder from QB John Paci in a game at Penn State on Nov. 6, 1993.
Lewis made 148 catches for 2,324 yards and 18 TDs during his IU career, gaining 3,994 all-purpose yards. He was second-team All-Big Ten in 1992 and 1993, and a first-round pick by the Giants (24th overall) in the 1994 NFL Draft.
McKinnon and Lewis played on winning teams for former IU coach Bill Mallory.
“I am excited about this,” former St. Vincent-St. Mary and Copley football head coach Dan Boarman said. “I am really excited about this. This is a great thing for the university. That is a great school. I loved my time there. It was a great experience and I was lucky to go there, but we weren’t ultra successful.
Boarman, 73, graduated from St. Vincent High School in 1970 and Indiana University in 1974. He was a three-year starter at left guard for former Hoosiers coaches John Pont and Lee Corso.
“I played at a time when freshmen were ineligible [to play on the main college team],” Boarman said. “My freshman year, we had a freshman team and I played on that. I played the next three years: 1971, 1972 and 1973. … My teams played against Archie [Griffin during his first two seasons at Ohio State before winning the Heisman Trophy twice].”
Boarman transitioned to teaching and coaching after his playing career. He won two state championships apiece as a STVM head coach in baseball (1986 and 1989) and football (2012 and 2013), and took Copley to a football state semifinal in 2000.
“I am an Ohio State fan, except for when they play Indiana,” Boarman said. “I have sent eight to 10 kids to Ohio State on scholarship being [a coach] at STVM. I have always rooted for Ohio State and recognized the physicality that Ohio State had. When have you ever seen a team be as physical or more physical than Ohio State? That is the thing that impressed me the most, and they did it again against Alabama and they did it again against Oregon.
“… They can run the ball and they can throw the ball [on offense] and they play good defense. You can see they are a very well-coached team. These guys don’t make mistakes. That is probably the most impressive thing about them.”
Boarman coached Mark Murphy Jr. at STVM before he was a four-year starter at Indiana from 2011-14 as a linebacker and free safety for former Hoosiers coach Kevin Wilson.
Murphy was an Academic All-American in 2013 and 2014 and finished his career with 279 tackles and four interceptions (two returned for TDs).
While McKinnon, Lewis, Boarman and Murphy’s loyalties are with Indiana, Brophy will be cheering for Miami.
Brophy, 65, was a standout football player at Buchtel High School and graduated in 1979. He chose Miami over scholarship offers from Ohio State, Michigan, Arizona and Notre Dame among others, and graduated in 1984.
“I had talked to coach [Mario] Cristobal earlier this year, and seeing us play Hurricane football again is fantastic,” Brophy said. “I think that has been missing in our quest to get back to where we are at now. The way we played, with the kind of intensity, that was missing. There was always a certain kind of style of play that Miami plays with, and it is that fast-paced, get after it, go crazy kind of football. It was missing, and I think Mario has done a great job of bringing that style of ball back. That was kind of our MO. That is what I am probably happiest about first, even before getting to a title game.”
The Hurricanes made this season’s College Fooball Playoff on the strength of a regular-season win over Notre Dame, and then beat Texas A&M, defending national champion Ohio State and Mississippi to advance to the final.
Brophy was at Miami from 1979-83, all five years Howard Schnellenberger was the Hurricanes coach. Both are in UM’s Sports Hall of Fame, with Brophy being inducted in 2020. Brophy played with high-profile quarterbacks Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde at Miami.
“I played as freshman and got a redshirt year at 19 years old as I was going into my sophomore year,” Brophy said. “At 19, you’re the smartest guy in the world, right? I decided that I was going to quit school and transfer somewhere else because I was disenchanted with the way college was ran. I had talked to coach Schnellenberger about it over and over, and I lettered as a freshman. So, I left my sophomore year for a semester and I ended up working in West Helena, Arkansas, with my brother, Ray.”
Jay Brophy said he “learned a lesson and called Schnellenberger back.”
“Unbeknownst to me, he had told my parents he had left the scholarship open,” Brophy said. “He knew I just needed to find my way. … I ended up being one of the captains on the national championship team in 1983.”
As a redshirt junior in 1982, Brophy led the Hurricanes with 135 total tackles and was the team MVP.
During the 1983 championship season, Brophy finished second in tackles with 133 (56 solo) and tied for the team lead in interceptions with three. He made 17 tackles in the bowl-clinching victory over Florida State before helping Miami upset No. 1 Nebraska to win the title.
Brophy was a second-round pick by the Miami Dolphins in the 1984 NFL Draft and the team’s rookie of the year. He played for Miami in Super Bowl XIX during a four-year NFL career, including one season with the New York Jets.
Brophy served as a football head coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary, Sebring, Manchester and with the Canton Legends of the Atlantic Indoor Football League. Brophy coached LeBron James to first-team All-Ohio honors in 2001 at STVM.
Brophy lauded Schnellenberger as a “straight shooter” and a “father figure to his players.”
“Howard sold us on a plan,” Brophy said. “We had nothing down there. Our facilities were nil. We played in the old Orange Bowl. Howard was taking over a program that a lot of people wanted to kick down to I-AA, and he said no. … He told me in Buchtel’s gym, ‘Jay, I’ll tell you right now, within five years we will play for the national championship.’ In our fifth year, we won it. The old man knew what he was talking about.”
Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Indiana, Miami grads from Akron area ready for college football final
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