Torretta Takes Heisman : College football: Faulk is second, Hearst third to quarterback who has led Miami to 26-1 record as a starter.

On the heels of a massive storm, which brought 75-m.p.h. winds and flooded streets and subway stations, a Hurricane materialized at center stage inside the Downtown Athletic Club.

Miami quarterback Gino Torretta won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, claiming the top individual award in college football and gaining a large measure of vindication in the process.

His 320-point victory over runner-up Marshall Faulk, a San Diego State sophomore, included a 310-164 margin in first-place votes.

It was his “I told you so,” with a national-television exclamation, Torretta acknowledged. It was a rebuttal to claims that linebacker teammate Micheal Barrow was a better player, that Torretta was merely the leader of the best team in the nation. It answered the charge that Florida State linebacker Marvin Jones was better than either.

“Let me tell you a story,” said Torretta’s mother, Connie. “We were in Louisville (Friday) night for the Johnny Unitas Award. You know how they spelled his name on the trophy? G-O-R-E-T-T-A. He laughed. He said, ‘Why should it be any different now than it has been all season?’ ”

There were no such gaffes by the Heisman committee. It awarded a trophy whose most obvious feature is a ballcarrier using a straight arm to ward off those who challenge him.

“Everyone says I don’t look graceful, I don’t look this, I don’t look that,” said Torretta, who came from Pinole, Calif., to post a 26-1 record as the Hurricanes’ starting quarterback, with only a Sugar Bowl game against Alabama in the way of a second consecutive national championship. “I don’t think you need that all the time. I don’t think you need the flash. You just need to play football.”

He did that well enough to complete 228 of 402 passes for 3,060 yards and 19 touchdowns this season, and only had seven passes intercepted.

Others helped put Torretta’s name on the Heisman Trophy. Faulk rushed for 1,630 yards and 15 touchdowns but missed the last two games of San Diego State’s season--including a showdown against Miami--because of a sprained knee. He said he would be back for his junior season at San Diego State, rather than enter the NFL draft.

Third-place finisher Garrison Hearst, a junior at Georgia, was not a household name at the start of a season in which he set a Southeastern Conference record for touchdowns with 21. Hearst said he would decide whether he would enter the NFL draft after the Bulldogs’ Citrus Bowl game against Ohio State.

So when the votes were tabulated, Torretta was No. 1, the first senior to win the award since Notre Dame’s Tim Brown in 1987.

But Torretta was still an offensive player on the defensive. This time, the critic was only a few feet away.

“I think the best college football team won today,” said Al Luginbill, Faulk’s coach at San Diego State. “There is no question in my mind that Miami is the best football team in the land, and that Gino Torretta is their leader. In that respect, he won it and he deserved it, because that’s what the award was based on.”

It was also a day of emotion for Faulk. NBC paid for his mother and two brothers to come from New Orleans to see him get a head start on Heisman Hype ’93. When someone asked him if he wishes he could have played against Miami, the two-time national rushing leader answered quickly.

“Yeah, I wish I would have,” Faulk said. “I would take anything back to be able to play that game. That mainly was what swayed voters. That game could have helped me a lot.”