Negatives Developing Fast at Miami

The fallout at Miami could be uglier than the brawl that took place Saturday night against Florida International University in the Orange Bowl.

Repercussions might extend beyond the 13 game ejections and the 13 player suspensions announced by Miami on Sunday.

What transpired Saturday night -- and the images that were transmitted to television sets -- could be viewed as conduct detrimental to the program.

You have to wonder about the futures of Athletic Director Paul Dee and Coach Larry Coker.

Doesn’t someone have to pay for this?

Miami spent years trying to repair the negative image that accompanied success and scandal in the 1980s and 1990s.

It largely succeeded through the Butch Davis, post-probation era, the seamless handoff to nice-guy Coker, the national title triumph in 2001 and the 34-game winning streak that ended a year later with a double-overtime loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.

But Miami of late is acting like Miami of old -- maybe worse.

“As a Hurricane ex-coach and ex-player, I’m embarrassed about it,” Fran Curci said Sunday of Saturday’s melee. “It was obnoxious. It was a black eye for college football.”

Curci, an All-American quarterback at Miami in 1959 and later the program’s head coach, said it didn’t matter that two schools were involved in Saturday’s fracas -- even though Florida International had 18 players suspended Sunday, five more than Miami.

“Who cares about FIU?” Curci said. “I don’t care if they came out with guns, it’s Miami’s fault. When you’ve earned that reputation you’re going to get that reputation. Yeah, it concerns me. I see nothing good coming out of that.”

Curci said the trouble that has plagued Miami this year -- which began with preseason suspensions to star players -- worries him more than the school’s exploits under former coaches Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson.

“The Miami program back then, it was almost silly in some ways, kind of funny,” Curci said. “It was done in a high-spirited way -- Jimmy Johnson and all that baloney. It wasn’t malicious, just silly nonsense. It wasn’t harmful. It was not guys hitting guys with helmets or crutches. That’s a different game.”

It seemed ironic that this Miami ugliness occurred on a day when the Boston Globe ran an ambitious package on college football in America, the newspaper fanning out reporters across the country to capture the sport’s pageantry at all competitive levels.

The Globe scratched college football’s surface but missed part of its underbelly.

They like to say at Miami that “it’s all about the U.”

Today, the “U” stands for “Unsportsmanlike.”

“I don’t have many bad days,” Coker said Sunday after handing out suspensions. “This is a bad day.”

Weekend Wrap

* We’re sure fans in Knoxville are thrilled California opened at No. 10 in the first BCS standings, one spot ahead of Tennessee, which crushed Cal in the season opener. Missing in BCS standings action were Florida State and Miami -- the first time neither school has been ranked.

Texas has to be scratching its horns after debuting at No. 9 despite being No. 5 in the human polls. The Longhorns’ only loss was to No. 1 Ohio State, yet Texas is a dismal No. 15 in the BCS computers? Texas should get a nice BCS bump this week if it beats BCS No. 17 Nebraska.

* USC can’t keep playing like this and expect to win the national championship, right? This 28-21 Arizona State slop victory would have never happened in the Matt Leinart-Reggie Bush-LenDale White era, right?

How soon we forget: Last year, the same dynastic USC squad that came within a play against Texas of winning a third consecutive national title trailed Arizona State at the half, 21-3, before rallying to win. On Saturday, USC led Arizona State, 21-0, at one point.

USC also needed the “Bush Push” to beat Notre Dame in South Bend.

What about that invincible 2004 team that won the BCS title with a wipeout win over Oklahoma? Those Trojans had to rally from a second-half deficit to beat Virginia Tech, needed a late touchdown run by White to beat Stanford, beat late-charging California by six points, survived a 28-20 pea-soup fog game at Oregon State and crushed archrival UCLA by five points.

* Time to strike the pose? A broken collarbone for Oklahoma tailback Adrian Peterson and a season-low 25 yards rushing by Northern Illinois tailback Garrett Wolfe make Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith the clear-cut leader for this year’s Heisman Trophy. Moving up the pecking order are the West Virginia backfield combination of quarterback Pat White and tailback Steve Slaton, Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn and Georgia Tech receiver Calvin Johnson.

Wolfe was held to 25 yards in 18 carries in a 16-14 loss at Western Michigan. How bad was it? Wolfe’s nation-leading yards-per-game average dropped from 223.8 to 195.4. The good news for Wolfe is that, this week, he gets to run circles around Temple, ranked 117th nationally against the run.

* After Florida’s loss, Michigan moved to No. 2 in this week’s Associated Press poll. The last four No. 2 teams this year have all lost -- Notre Dame, Texas, Auburn and Florida.

* Found on Miami’s website: athletic department mission statement.

Point No. 10 states: “To develop the values of leadership, teamwork, discipline, sportsmanship and integrity among its student athletes and staff.”

* Recipe for disaster? This was the first meeting between Miami and Florida International, located less than 10 miles apart. Only three players on the FIU roster are from outside the state of Florida, and 25 list their hometown as Miami. It’s safe to say most of those players were not offered scholarships by the Hurricanes. Think that might have caused some friction?

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com