From 1995-2008 the Miami Hurricanes set an NFL Draft record with having at least one player taken in the first round in each of those years.
This is the first in a two-part series taking a look at the amazing run of having 30 first round picks over record run of 14 consecutive seasons with a player selected in the first round.
What might be the most amazing thing about this run is that it didn’t occur during their glory years of the 1980’s and early 1990s. Aside from a four-year run when they went 46-4 from 2000-03 Miami was not an elite team during the other ten years of the 14-year streak.
The streak began in Butch Davis’ first season. The Hurricanes were coming off a 10-2 season in 1994 when they lost to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. The 1995 Hurricanes went 8-3 and were on probation after a Pell Grant scandal.
The streak began when Warren Sapp was selected 12th in the first round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round. Sapp had slid in the draft after being arrested for Marijuana.
The streak continued through the 2008 draft when the New York Giants selected safety Kenny Phillips 31st. The streak came to a screeching halt when linebacker Spencer Adkins was the only Hurricane who was selected in 2009.
Not only did the streak end abruptly in 2008, Miami did not have another first round pick until Philip Dorsett went 29th to Indianapolis in 2015.
What also gets lost in the first round streak is that the Hurricanes had a player selected in the first two rounds of the draft from 1987-2008. The only years in that stretch without a first round pick were 1993 and 1994. Four Hurricanes were selected in the second round in the ’93 draft and one went in the second in ’94.
A total of 30 players went in the first round during the 14-year streak.
Sapp is the only player that been named to the Hall of Fame thus far. Several other Hurricanes will likely get there someday led by Ed Reed, Andre Johnson and Ray Lewis.