2001 Miami football team gets more support from ESPN analysts

Gilmore played baseball and football at Stanford. Bill Walsh was one of his college Head Coaches. He has been an ESPN analyst since 1996. He has been an attorney since 1986. Gilmore’s broadcast partner is Mark Jones. He and Jones broadcast the Miami-Georgia Tech game last season.

Gilmore, for the most part, agreed with Ware about the 2001 Miami football team being the top national champions since 1998. Gilmore said he would put the 2001 Hurricanes first and USC’s 2004 National Champions second.

"“Andre, I can’t argue with you about Miami. That team produced a lot of first round picks. USC crushed Oklahoma (55-17 in the 2005 Orange Bowl BCS National Championship Game). But that (2001 National Championship ) Miami team and that (2004 National Championship) USC team stand one, two for me.”"

The players below are who played on the 2001 Miami football team and later went on to become NFL first-round draft picks. The second number is the year they were drafted and the third number after the one for being a first-round pick is their overall selection in the draft.

Year Round pick team position

• 2002 Bryant McKinnie 7 Minn OT
• 2002 Jeremy Shockey 14 NYG TE
• 2002 Philip Buchanon 17 Oakland DB
• 2002 Ed Reed 24 Baltimore safety
• 2003 Andre Johnson 3 Houston WR
• 2003  Jerome McDougle 15  Phil DE
• 2003 Willis McGahee 23 Buff RB
• 2004 Sean Taylor 5 Safety Washington
• 2004 Kellen Winslow 6 TE Cleveland
• 2004 Jonathan Vilma 12 LB NYJ
• 2004 DJ Williams 17 LB Denver
• 2004 Vernon Carey 19 OT Miami
• 2004 Vince Wilfork 21 NE NT
• 2003 William Joseph 25 NYG DT
• 2005 Antrelle Rolle 8 DB Arizona

Fifteen players and 11 starters from the 2001 Miami Hurricanes National Championship team were first round picks. Forty-three players in all from the 2001 team were drafted. That is 12 players shy of having a full NFL roster.

Doubters and detractors often say that talent alone didn’t make the 2001 Miami football team great. That might be true. However, the outpouring and outcry from close to a dozen analysts nationally make any case against the 2001 Hurricanes a point without much support or analytics to back up that claim.