Subdued Miami Does It Nice and Easy : Hurricanes: They play by the rules and roll over Arkansas in opener, 31-3.

No baiting. No finger-pointing. No taunting.

Could this really be the Miami Hurricanes, who behaved so poorly in the Cotton Bowl that the NCAA passed a rule against blatant showboating?

The third-ranked Hurricanes acted like gentlemen Saturday in their season opener against Arkansas. In fact, the only rude thing they did was rout the home team, 31-3.

“They were a very clean football team today,” Arkansas center Mark Henry said.

Miami Coach Dennis Erickson has urged his players to follow the new NCAA rule, which went into effect after the Hurricanes piled up 202 yards in penalties during a 46-3 rout of Texas on New Year’s Day. Erickson’s message apparently got through.

“They didn’t say anything to me, nothing you shouldn’t expect in a football game,” Arkansas tailback Freddie Bradley said.

Gino Torretta, the latest in a long line of celebrated Miami quarterbacks, threw touchdown passes on plays covering 99 and 42 yards and made the big plays in an 80-yard scoring drive to lead the Hurricanes.

“Gino made some early mistakes and overthrew a couple of guys, but he came out in the third quarter and did a good job,” Erickson said. “I would give him an above average grade.”

Torretta’s 99-yard pass play to Horace Copeland was the first score of the game, and his 42-yarder to Martin Patton made it 21-3 after Arkansas hung close for most of three quarters.

Torretta, a junior who won the starting job after a preseason battle with sophomore Bryan Fortay, completed 17 of 33 passes for 297 yards.