Football Annihilates Temple, 55-0
Dec. 4, 1999
By MARK LONG
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) – The Miami Hurricanes finally met one of their goals.
Ken Dorsey threw four touchdown passes and Jarrett Payton, James Jackson andClinton Portis combined for 216 yards rushing Saturday as No. 23 Miami beatTemple 55-0, sending the Hurricanes to a New Year’s Day bowl for the first timesince 1995.
Miami (8-4, 6-1 Big East) accepted a bid to the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville,where they will play No. 17 Georgia Tech on Jan. 1.
“Finally,” Miami center Ty Wise said. “People respect Jan. 1 ball gamesand for us it’s a great honor to finally play in one.”
The Hurricanes started the season with hopes of a national title, but theyhad to turn their sights toward a Big East championship after threeearly-season losses. And following a conference loss to No. 2 Virginia Techlast month, Miami was left with one goal: get to a New Year’s Day bowl.
The Hurricanes had gone to a Jan. 1 or later bowl 12 years in a rowbeginning with the Orange Bowl in 1984, the site of their first nationalchampionship. That streak ended with coach Butch Davis’ arrival in 1995, whenthe Hurricanes missed out on a bowl game because of NCAA probation.
“This was a great way to end the regular season,” Davis said. “This was afootball team that was able to continue to redefine its goals, and certainlyone of those goals was accomplished today by giving the University of Miami anopportunity for the first time in five years to go back and play on Jan. 1.”
Miami rotated Payton, Jackson and Portis on each possession against the Owls(2-9, 2-5). It resulted in the Hurricanes’ best rushing performance of theseason with 239 yards.
Portis rushed for 61 yards. Jackson ran for 74 and Payton had 81 beforeleaving with a sprained right ankle early in the fourth quarter.
Jackson and Portis combined to score Miami’s first four touchdowns, threerunning and one receiving.
“It was a performance where the playmakers on offense made plays anddefensively, like we’ve done for about the last month, we were stingy,” Davissaid. “It was a complete ball game.”
Dorsey broke the school record for touchdown passes by a freshman with four.He tied the record last week against Syracuse with three TD passes.
Making his third consecutive start for an injured Kenny Kelly, Dorseycompleted 23 of 34 passes for 288 yards.
In Dorsey’s three starts – against Rutgers, Syracuse and Temple – Miamiscored its most points (155) in a three-game span in school history. Theprevious high was 152 against Piedmont, Bowden and Louisville in 1933.
“This has been such a frustrating year that we took out our frustration onthese last three games,” Wise said.
Added receiver Santana Moss, who caught seven passes for 96 yards: “It justshows how dangerous we can be. I know the teams that we played these last threegames are not as strong, but we still have to play them.”
Temple’s offense was as inept as its defense, which allowed Miami 540 totalyards.
The Owls crossed midfield just once in the first half and did not have alegitimate chance to score until there was less than a minute to play in thegame. Mac DeVito threw an interception in the end zone with four seconds toplay.
DeVito went 5-of-14 for 14 yards off the bench for starter Devin Scott, whofinished 15-of-25 for 83 yards.
“It was an embarrassing day for us,” Temple coach Bobby Wallace said.
