No baiting. No finger pointing. No taunting.
Could this really be the mean old Miami Hurricanes, who behaved so poorly in the Cotton Bowl that the NCAA passed a rule against blatant showboating?The third-ranked Hurricanes acted like gentlemen Saturday in their season opener against Arkansas. In fact, the only rude thing they did was rout the home team 31-3.
"They were a very clean football team today," said Arkansas center Mark Henry.
Miami coach Dennis Erickson has urged his players to follow the new NCAA rule, which went into effect after the Hurricanes piled up 202 yards in penalties during a 46-3 rout of Texas on New Year's Day. Erickson's message apparently got through.
"They didn't say anything to me, nothing you shouldn't expect in a football game," said Arkansas tailback Freddie Bradley.
Gino Torretta, the latest in a long line of celebrated Miami quarterbacks, threw touchdown passes of 99 and 42 yards and made the big plays in an 80-yard scoring drive to lead the Hurricanes.
"Gino made some early mistakes and overthrew a couple of guys, but he came out in the third quarter and did a good job," Erickson said. "I would give him an above average grade."
Torretta's 99-yarder to Horace Copeland was the first score of the game, and his 42-yarder to Martin Patton made it 21-3 after Arkansas hung close for most of three quarters.
Torretta, a junior who won the starting job after a preseason battle with sophomore Bryan Fortay, completed 17 of 33 passes for 297 yards. Fortay quit the team and transferred to Rutgers after Torretta was named the starter.
The TD pass to Copeland came after a punt was downed at the Miami 1. Copeland, who was wide open down the left sideline, caught the ball on his own 35 and outraced cornerback Michael James to the end zone.
"We ran two guys down the field and the safety stayed on the inside guy," Erickson said. "Gino threw as good a pass as someone can throw."
The play broke school records for Arkansas and Miami. The longest previous pass by Miami was 88 yards, and the longest ever allowed by Arkansas was 88.
The Hurricanes started slowly, getting only one first down on their first five possessions. After Todd Wright's field goal cut the Miami lead to 7-3, Arkansas held an 8-1 advantage in first downs.
But Miami then drove 80 yards in 12 plays and scored on an 11-yard run by Stephen McGuire. Torretta completed five of seven passes for 59 yards during the drive, including a clutch third-down pass to Darryl Spencer that gave the Hurricanes a first down at their own 44.
Torretta also completed an 11-yard screen to Patton and a 15-yard pass to Copeland to dig Miami out of a first-and-20 hole during the drive.
Miami had a chance to open a big lead late in the half after Kevin Williams' 20-yard punt return to the Arkansas 45. But James broke up a third-down pass and Torretta's fourth-down throw was out of bounds.
Wright missed a 40-yard field goal attempt on the final play of the half.
No. 17 Auburn 32, Ga. Southern 17
At Auburn, Ala., No. 17 Auburn woke up in the second half, rallying from a 17-0 deficit as Stan White threw for 236 yards and two touchdowns in a victory over Division I-AA Georgia Southern on Saturday night.
The Eagles, two-time defending Division I-AA champions, appeared on track for their first victory ever over a Division I team. They stunned Auburn and more than 79,000 fans by building a 17-3 lead at the half in the season opener for both teams.
But Auburn, as it did four times in 1990, rallied for victory in the second half. The Tigers scored two touchdowns in both the third and fourth quarters while the defense was limiting Georgia Southern to just 58 yards.
White tossed a 23-yard scoring pass over the middle to Herbert Casey with 10:53 left in the third quarter to cap a six-play, 88-yard drive that turned the momentum in Auburn's favor. Reid McMillon's 18-yard run got the Tigers out of a hole, and White got them in scoring position with a 40-yard completion to Pedro Cherry.
On Auburn's next possession, the Tigers went 79 yards in 15 plays. Redshirt freshman Joe Frazier ran up the middle for a 2-yard touchdown with 1:01 left in the third, but Jim Von Wyl missed the extra point to leave Georgia Southern ahead going to the fourth period.
The outmanned, outsized Eagles couldn't stem the Auburn tide, however. White eluded two rushers for his second touchdown pass, a 10-yarder to a wide-open Fred Baxter with 12:24 left.
McMillon sealed the victory with a 32-yard touchdown run with 41/2 minutes remaining.
The first half was a shocker. Georgia Southern had only 125 yards but kept Auburn off balance with the run-oriented option offense. Auburn managed 187 yards but had two fumbles, an interception and two missed field goals. The fumbles led to 10 Eagle points.
Georgia Southern's first possession was an omen of things to come in the first half. The Eagles went 59 yards in 12 plays, capping the drive when quarterback Charles Bostick went untouched into the end zone from the 1 with 8:05 left in the first quarter.
Georgia Southern made it 10-0 early in the second quarter after Michael Berry recovered Darrell Williams' fumble at the Auburn 19. The Eagles got to the 2 before David Cool came on to kick a 19-yard chip shot with 13:45 to go in the half.
The Eagles took advantage of another Auburn turnover to go ahead 17-0. Thomas Bailey appeared to simply drop the ball on a punt return and Shane Maxwell gobbled up the ball at the Tiger 22. Four plays later, Darryl Hopkins dove over the right side from two yards out.
Auburn finally got on the board when Von Wyl kicked a 31-yard field goal with 4:18 remaining in the half. But Von Wyl missed on attempts of 40 and 46 yards in the second quarter, the latter as time expired.
White completed 14 of 27 passes, while McMillon (87 yards) and Frazier (86 yards) led the Auburn running game. The Tigers wound up with a 465-183 advantage in total yards.