SPOTLIGHT / Saturday’s Games at a Glance : PASSING IN THE NIGHT

Frank Costa’s debut as the Miami quarterback, replacing 1992 Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta, was a success: 205 yards while completing 15 of 31 passes.

Meanwhile, Bryan Fortay, a former Miami bench warmer who is suing the school for $10 million because coaches allegedly promised him a starting role, started a 45-yard scoring play on his first pass of the season as a Rutgers’ reserve. Fortay also threw a five-yard touchdown pass in Rutgers’ 68-6 victory. He completed four of five passes for 72 yards.

IMAGE IS NOTHING

Arkansas State, selected as the worst team in Division I college football by Sports Illustrated, did nothing to right itself in a 44-6 defeat to No. 8 Florida. Arkansas State, in only its second year of Division I-A competition after a decade in Division I-AA, has lost 20 of its last 23 games.

Said Indians Coach John Bobo: “I could be wrong, but I can’t believe this crowd saw the worst I-A team in college football. We can draw a lot from this game.”

A SURE THING?

Florida State freshman kicker and cover boy, Scott Bentley, is off to a less than illustrious start. The Seminoles, hurt in year’s past by poor field goal kicking, must be wondering about Bentley, who made a 20-yard field goal to end the first half but missed a 33-yard attempt and three extra points against Duke after making all six extra points against Kansas.

“I don’t know how much of it had to do with (rainy) conditions,” Coach Bobby Bowden said. “. . . If we are getting the good snap and getting the ball down perfectly, yeah, I’m getting darned concerned.”

FEET FIRST

Iowa’s Todd Romano had a school record-tying four field goals in the Hawkeyes’ 26-25 comeback victory over Tulsa, including a 53-yarder, third best in Iowa history. He also missed an extra point that could have cost the team the victory. . . . Dan Eichloff matched his career high for the third time with four field goals as Kansas defeated Western Carolina, 46-3. . . . Sophomore Jim Richter kicked four field goals, including one for 51 yards, as Furman defeated Connecticut, 26-17.

A BIG TEN WELCOME

John Sacca threw four touchdown passes to Bobby Engram and No. 17 Penn State made its debut in conference football with a 38-20 victory over Minnesota. Tim Schade’s 478 yards broke the Golden Gopher single-game passing mark of 444 yards, set by Mike Hohensee in a 35-31 victory over Ohio State in 1981. Omar Douglas had 11 catches for 193 yards for Minnesota, also a school yardage record.

“How many passes?” Coach Joe Paterno wanted to know during a news conference.

Told it was 66, he said, “You mean combined?”

No, just Schade.

“Well, no wonder it (the game) was so long.”

No wonder.

NOTEWORTHY

Ray Cooper, in his East Michigan coaching debut, lost to West Virginia, 48-6, as the Mountaineers scored on six of their first eight possessions. Cooper is the youngest Division I-A coach at 32. . . . San Jose State’s John Ralston, who had not coached a college game since he led Stanford to the 1971 Rose Bowl, lost, 31-24, in his return to college football against Louisville. . . . The St. Francis Red Flash, after 15 seasons of Division III football, made their I-AA debut with a 20-0 defeat to Gannon at Loretto, Pa. . . . Darrell Bevell, a 23-year-old sophomore who is two years removed from a Mormon mission, passed for a school-record five touchdowns in Wisconsin’s 35-17 victory over Nevada.

For the first time in its 33-year history, New Mexico sold out its 30,000-seat University Stadium for a football game in its season opener against Brigham Young. Some streaks: Kansas State won its seventh consecutive home game by defeating New Mexico State. . . . Cheyney won for the first time since November of 1989, ending a 36-game losing streak, the longest in college football, in a 20-7 victory over Southern Connecticut at Cheyney, Pa.

QUOTE WORTHY

Rice Coach Fred Goldsmith after the Owls made their first national television appearance since 1954 an embarrassing one, a 34-7 loss to No. 17 Ohio State: “I’m real disappointed in our performance because I’m sure we bored the dickens out of that TV audience . I feel sorry for those ESPN announcers.”

North Texas Coach Dennis Parker on a 76-14 rout by Nebraska: “Everything got off real bad real quickly. We thought the emotion might be good, but it was 21-0 and we haven’t even tightened up our belt.”

Fresno State Coach Jim Sweeney, before his team lost to Baylor, 42-39: “We’re not going down to play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We need added credibility to show (last season’s USC victory) was not a fluke.”

Coach Bobby Bowden after his Florida State Seminoles destroyed Duke, 45-7, in a downpour in Durham, N.C.: “We don’t want to play in the snow, or ice, hail, sleet, wind or rain. But we got one of them.”

From North Carolina quarterback Geoff Bender, who led the Tar Heels to a 20-7 victory over Purdue in Chapel Hill: “I thought a hurricane was coming through. It brings back memories of Pittsburgh, where it rains every Friday night.”