Warren Sapp was relentless in all phases of the game.
By BOB HARIG
Published August 28, 2003
Picking the best Miami defensive player of the past 20 years is about as easy as the task offenses faced in moving the ball against such a talented group of players.
Since the Hurricanes first won the national title in 1983, they have had seven consensus All-Americans from the defensive side of the ball, including the likes of Jerome Brown, Russell Maryland, Cortez Kennedy and Warren Sapp. Can you really go wrong picking one of them? We chose Sapp and got a mild rebuff from the man himself.
"In college, Russell was the best of all of us," said Sapp, who is entering his ninth season with the Tampa Bay Bucs. "He was the best. You don't put up 20 tackles on Notre Dame. And they knew they had to block him. That's the whole thing that I've always said. If you want to be the man, be the man. Get a target in front of you. Have offenses all week long scheme to block you and beat you, and then dominate. That's when you know you're a beast. That's all they did was put a bull's-eye on the guy and say we're going to block this guy."
Sapp said he believed Brown, who died in a 1992 auto accident, was the best professional player among all the Hurricane defenders. But we are talking college here, and though Sapp missed UM's championship run, it was not for lack of effort.
From the tiny town of Plymouth, Sapp arrived at UM as a tight end in 1992 and turned into one of the game's best defensive linemen. He was a Heisman Trophy finalist his junior season when he was named defensive player of the year by numerous outlets. And he led the UM defense in 1994 that was first in the country in total defense, scoring defense and pass defense. "He was unbelievable," said assistant head coach Art Kehoe, who coaches the offensive line and has been on staff since 1982. "I remember coming into the office one Sunday morning after we played Syracuse and the defensive coaches were in there watching film. They called me down, "Watch this.' It was about six plays in a row and we were getting beat and he literally, single-handedly manhandled Syracuse. He lived in the backfield, beat double teams, beat the fullback, made quarterback sacks, caused turnovers, batted balls, forced interceptions ... he dominated the game. That's what you saw from Sapp.
"Warren Sapp was relentless. He loved to practice. Those are the guys who are standouts. The guys who love football and love to practice. They just enjoy kicking your (butt). (Receiver) Michael Irvin was a great practice player. Warren Sapp the same thing. You were just counting on guys like that. They weren't going to be injured, they were going to be on the field early, off the field late. You knew that when the game got at the biggest moments, that's when Sapp wanted to make a sack, make a play."
As a junior in 1994, which turned out to be Sapp's last season, he was the first UM player to win the Lombardi Award. He had 84 tackles and led Miami in sacks (10.5), tackles for loss (nine), fumbles caused (four), fumble recoveries (three) and quarterback pressures (25). "The thing that goes unnoticed about Warren, because he's so talented, is how hard he works," then-'Canes coach Dennis Erickson said. "He's gotten better throughout his career. He started the year (1994) as probably the best defensive tackle in America, and he's improved on top of that."
- Times staff writer Roger Mills contributed to this report.
