Gary Stevens is the envy of every...

Gary Stevens is the envy of every offensive coordinator in the country.

Since he arrived at the University of Miami in 1980, Stevens’ quarterbacks have included Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde, an assortment of riches that seems almost unfair.

What coach wouldn’t like the chance to choose between Kosar and Testaverde, as Stevens and then Head Coach Howard Schnellenberger did in 1983 when Testaverde was a sophomore and Kosar a redshirt freshman.

“The only reason we went with Bernie at that time was we felt he was a little ahead of Vinny mentally,” Stevens says.

Though Stevens is reluctant to compare his three backs, press him a little and he will say “all of them can throw the ball, they have good heads on their shoulders and they’re winners.

“Jimmy was a good, tough kid. He could scramble, but he was more of a muscle-man. He didn’t have great speed. He was a 5-flat, 5.1 quarterback. Bernie had to sit in the pocket and throw. The thing that Vinny does is he’s got such good feet and he’s smooth and he can run with the ball. He can run a 4.7, 4.6 sometimes, and he’s got great composure back there.

“But Vinny’s got half a season to go and you can’t say he’s better than the other two until his career’s over. But he’s right there with them.”

Press Stevens a little more.

If all three were college seniors this year--as the 6-foot-5, 218-pound Testaverde is--and you were a pro scout, which one would you draft?

“Vinny.”

After leading Miami’s offense to school records for most points and average yards per game in 1985--his first year as a Hurriance starter--Testaverde is leading the nation’s quarterbaks in passing efficiency.

Playing little more than a half in several games in Miami’s drive to a 6-0 record and a No. 1 ranking, Testaverde has completed 92 of 146 passes (63%) for 1,381 yards and 15 touchdowns.

“He’s too good,” Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer said last month after Testaverde passed the Sooners silly for the second year in a row.

Switzer meant on the field; Testaverde may be too good off the field, as well.

He doesn’t smoke (“I get terrible headaches when someone smokes”), doesn’t drink, is team-oriented (“I’d rather win the national championship than the Heisman Trophy”) and is modest almost to a fault though a big head would be understandable since he is expected to be a runaway winner in the Heisman voting.

“‘I don’t think about it because there’s so much to be accomplished before that comes up,” he says.

Wait a minute. Testaverde may not be the All-American boy after all. He eats lasagna on Thanksgiving.

“I’m allergic to turkey, chicken and fish,” he explains. “I get a sharp pain in my chest. I ate some tuna fish last spring and I broke out in a rash. It was the worst feeling I ever had. They had to take me to the hospital.”

About the worst thing you can uncover about Testaverde is that he spells his first name wrong -- even the Miami media guide listed him as “Vinnie” for two years.

“I have an older cousin who is also named Vincent Testaverde and he spells it Vinny,” says Testaverde, who comes from a close-knit family (he has four sisters -- two older, two younger, and no brothers) in Elmont, N.Y., just over the county line from New York City’s borough of Queens. “He gets some calls and letters at his house that are meant for me.”

Ask Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson for some Testaverde anecdotes and you hear that “he’s such an into-the-team nice guy that he’s not one who gets into a lot of funny stories. He’s just your get-up-in-the-morning and do-what-he-has-to-do guy.

“And because he’s that way is what rallies the other members of the team around him. If he wasn’t that way, it would be only natural for some other players who are All-American-type players in their own right to resent all the publicity he gets. But because he’s so team-oriented they really rally around him.

“The whole thing about what he had to do to get to this point says a lot.”

After throwing for 665 yards in a run-oriented veer attack and leading Sewanhaka High School to an 8-0 record as a senior, Testaverde spent 1981 at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia saying “Yes Sir” and “No Sir” and getting his grades up so he could get a college scholarship.

“It helped me in a lot of ways,” he says of his year there. “It helped me to mature as an individual, being away from home and learning to do things on my own, meeting other people and getting ready for college. I was very comfortable with the whole situation.”

He’s even more comfortable in Miami.

“I was recruited by a lot of different people,” Testaverde says. “Ohio State, Penn State, Pitt, some big schools out West. I chose Miami because of the warm weather and their pro passing attack.

“I visited North Carolina and Syracuse first, but after I visited Miami I canceled the rest of my trips. It was freezing in Syracuse. I said, ‘I can’t deal with this.’ Then I came to Miami and it was 85 degrees in the middle of January, my kind of place.”

Yet, he thought about leaving after the 1984 season, his third straight year as a bench-warmer.

As a freshman in 1982, Testaverde became the backup to Kyle Vanderwende when Kelly suffered a shoulder injury early in the season. He played in four games but threw only 12 passes.

Testaverde was redshirted in 1983, when Kosar quarterbacked the Hurricanes to the national championship. And in 1984, he played in six games as Kosar’s backup.

At that point, they each had two years remaining and two more years of bench duty wasn’t appealing. Then the handwriting on the wall turned into a verbal message from Kosar.

“I thought about transferring,” Testaverde says, “but not to the point where I went out and looked at or contacted other schools. Before that point, Bernie came to me (shortly after the Fiesta Bowl) and told me he was thinking about turning pro. For me, it was the best thing that could have happened.

“But I probably wouldn’t have transferred anyway. I was having a good time off the field, I had a lot of friends and Miami’s a good school. I was afraid it might be the same (sitting on the bench) at any other school.”

Testaverde wouldn’t mind playing for the Miami Dolphins, but quarterback isn’t their major need.

“It’s always been my dream to play in the NFL,” he says. “I grew up rooting for the New York teams and I picked up Miami along the way. My teammates keep teasing me about going to Green Bay or some other cold weather team.”