A Hurricane Force

MIAMI —  Perhaps the NFL could spare one of its teams Jan. 3. It’s a Thursday, after all, and the University of Miami is going to need some sort of challenge in the Rose Bowl.

But, so long as the national championship game features Miami vs. Another College Team, it’s a blowout waiting to happen. After the top-ranked Hurricanes obliterated Washington on Saturday, 65-7, Miami Coach Larry Coker was almost apologetic.

“That was one of the most dominant performances I’ve ever seen against a quality opponent,” Coker said.

And then, before anyone could ask the obvious and embarrassing follow-up question, Coker provided the follow-up answer.

“Washington is a quality opponent,” he said.

So best of luck to Florida, the team most likely to face Miami in the Rose Bowl, an in-state rivalry transported to Pasadena. In the last two games, the Hurricanes have thumped two top 20 teams--Syracuse and Washington--by a combined score of 124-7. Talk about peaking at the right time: Never has an NCAA team scored so many points in consecutive games against ranked opponents.

“Everybody wants to throw roses at us, and that’s all fine and dandy,” Miami offensive tackle Joaquin Gonzalez said. “But nobody on this team has won at Blacksburg.”

That’s the home of Virginia Tech, where the Hurricanes (10-0) play next week. With apologies to Brigham Young, the Hurricanes are the lone major unbeaten team in Division I. With a victory next week, roses are theirs, with no sweating over whatever results some bowl championship series computer might spit out.

Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey, your leader in the Heisman Trophy race, took the fourth quarter off after completing 14 of 21 passes for 189 yards and three touchdowns. He took this game personally. He is 24-1 as the Hurricanes’ starting quarterback, with the lone loss to Washington last year. Dorsey, normally as bland in public as a corporate spokesman, went out of his way last week to accuse the Huskies (8-3) of dirty play and late hits last year.

“I did have a little extra motivation, but all the motivation I needed was Pasadena--going home and playing for the national championship,” said Dorsey, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area town of Orinda.

This sounds silly, but it isn’t: Coaches say, almost by rote, that keeping the opposing defense on the field and tiring those players out is a key to victory. No one has figured out how to beat Miami, but here’s a suggestion: Keep the Hurricanes’ offense on the field and tire those players out; they wouldn’t know how to react.

With an offense geared toward big plays and a defense that produces an average of four turnovers per game, Miami could be challenged by a team that can protect the ball on offense and limit long plays on defense. The Huskies were not that team.

The Hurricanes scored five touchdowns in the first half, one on an interception return. The scoring drives for the other four touchdowns? Two minutes, 27 seconds--that’s the total, not the average. The Hurricanes converted three interceptions into touchdowns and parlayed a 60-yard return of a free kick into another touchdown. The time of the average Miami scoring drive this season--not counting Saturday’s game--is 2:07.

For the eighth time in 10 games, the Hurricanes held their opponent to seven points or less. They forced seven turnovers, including five interceptions of Washington quarterback Cody Pickett. The Huskies have lost by more points once in school history--in 1921, in a 72-3 loss to California.

This was payback time for the Hurricanes, and unmercifully so. The last team to beat the Hurricanes? Washington, last year, the loss that prevented Miami from playing in the national championship game. The team that ended the Hurricanes’ NCAA-record 58-game home winning streak? Washington too, in 1994.

The game spun horribly out of control for Washington in the second quarter, turning defeat into an utterly demoralizing debacle, and in lightning speed at that. The Hurricanes scored 23 points in less than three minutes, including 16 points in the span of 50 seconds, en route to a 37-0 halftime lead.

“We wanted to put them away,” said Miami running back Clinton Portis, who scored three touchdowns. “At halftime, we were up 37-0 but it was like, remember last year.”

Was this really the Washington team that has accepted a bid to the Holiday Bowl, the team that could still capture a share of the Pacific 10 Conference championship?

“This ends what I thought was a good season on a really bad note,” Washington center Kyle Benn said. “Whatever we did this year was overshadowed by this. It’s a shame. I’m embarrassed.”

Washington tailback Rich Alexis didn’t really see any point in blaming his team, not after the demolition administered by the Hurricanes.

“They’re going to win the Rose Bowl. They’re a great team. They’re my pick,” Alexis said. “They were just on fire. It was like a perfect game for them.”

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL COVERAGE

BCS update: Maybe the Rose Bowl will have to be renamed the Sunshine State Bowl this season. Miami and Florida should benefit the most by Nebraska and Oklahoma losses this weekend, which created a strong possibility of an all-Florida national championship game. But more upsets could benefit Oregon, Texas or Tennessee.

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Oklahoma State 16, No. 4 Oklahoma 13

Josh Fields’ touchdown pass with 1:36 remaining ruined Oklahoma’s hopes of repeating as national champion. D11