Testaverde Passes Lead Miami to 61-11 Victory

If second-ranked Miami was looking past Texas Tech to a Sept. 27 showdown with No. 1 Oklahoma, it didn’t show Saturday night when the Hurricanes rolled to a 61-11 victory over Texas Tech.

“It’s an understatement to say that this is a total team victory,” Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson said after Vinny Testaverde passed for 330 yards and 4 touchdowns.

“All the breaks went our way,” Johnson added. “It certainly does not reflect the type of team and program that Texas Tech has.”

Defensive tackle Jerome Brown said Miami also was motivated by the death of a Florida State football player who was killed in a shooting early Saturday on the Tallahassee, Fla., campus.

“We had no problem getting up for this team,” Brown said. “The death of Pablo Lopez motivated us. He was so close to the guys.

“We came out for the kickoff with a tear in our eyes,” he added. “I knew then it would be no contest.”

Testaverde threw scoring passes of 49 and 18 yards to Alonzo Highsmith, 33 yards to Michael Irvin and 19 yards to Charles Henry.

Three of his touchdown passes were thrown in the first half, when he also scrambled 12 yards for a score to help the Hurricanes to a 28-3 halftime lead.

The victory, before a crowd of 41,925, boosted Miami’s record to 3-0 for the first time since 1980. Texas Tech fell to 1-1.

Miami, the only team to defeat defending national champion Oklahoma last season, will have an open date before facing the Sooners in the Orange Bowl in two weeks.

“We will let the players have a couple of days off, then we will start to get ready for Oklahoma,” Johnson said. “The only thing that we have accomplished at this point is a 3-0 record.”

Testaverde was intercepted twice while completing 16 of 27 passes.