Hurricanes Revived by Raucous Routine

The Hurricanes hacked up a perfect season here in classical ‘Cane style: Mouths running, shoulder pads crackling, and the night’s celebrations only starting with the final gun.

Miami did not merely spoil UCLA’s 10-game high-wire walk toward a national title and 20-game win streak. Miami broiled the Bruins--with high humidity and low humility, with exuberance, pride, endurance and last of all, a 49-45 final result at the Orange Bowl.

The raucous, talented, flashy ‘Canes . . . remember them? It has been a while.

Ultimately, the Hurricanes said, the difference in this operatic outcome was toughness. They had it. And the Bruin defense--backpedaling and wavering all day--did not.

By studying the tapes of UCLA’s previous defensive demonstrations, Miami knew there were soft spaces to explore. And they kept pushing until UCLA at last yielded.

“All I know is they were calling over to their coaches and raising their hands to get back to the sideline,” said 220-pound Miami tailback Edgerrin James, who broke scores of Bruin tackles and a bucketful of single-game and career records in a devastating 299-yard, three-touchdown rushing performance.

“They didn’t want to be out there any more. What does that tell you?”

It told James, who established single-game Miami, Big East Conference and UCLA opponent rushing records, all he needed to know.

“I know the way I run--I run real hard,” James said. “I don’t think they liked that.”

James opened the game’s scoring with a 45-yard rumble through the right side of the Bruin defense; he closed with a one-yard sweep with 50 seconds left. He had 22 carries for 173 yards by halftime, and finished with 39 carries, each one a body blow into the heart of UCLA’s defense.

Every time Cade McNown tossed a touchdown for UCLA, Miami responded with thunder--when James had to take a brief rest, backup Najeh Davenport chipped in 68 yards in nine carries and the Hurricanes amassed a staggering total of 371 rushing yards.

“We knew as long as we went out and ran the ball, they were going down,” fullback Nick Williams said. “Edgerrin was going right at them, and the tackles and the tight ends were just gashing them like crazy.

“You saw it, they were scared of our running game. We were smashing them up. And pretty soon they didn’t want to come up so fast. You know how that works?”

Meanwhile, in the 80-degree weather and thick 69% humidity, the Hurricanes didn’t get fatigued--they wore fatigues to the game, an old tradition, started long ago by former Hurricane defensive lineman Jerome Brown.

This game, even though had it no national title implications for Miami (set to play in the Micron PC Bowl), was special because of UCLA’s ranking and because of the Hurricane’s 66-13 loss at Syracuse last week--which cost the Hurricanes the Big East title.

Coach Butch Davis didn’t deny that it was the biggest victory of his four-year Hurricane career.

Of course, defensive end Derrick Ham only laughed when he considered that the Hurricanes have surrendered a combined 111 points in their last two games, and are 1-1.

“We knew that this was our season, right there,” Ham said. “If we didn’t stop them, we’d have another mediocre season, just like last year. And we’re not a mediocre team.”

This was about reestablishing Miami, post-probation, as a swaggering national power; this was about proving that anybody who comes into the Orange Bowl faces the wrath of the ‘Canes.

That’s why, Ham said, the crowd was more into this game than any other this year; that’s why when McNown’s last pass flew through the end zone uncaught and the game was over, hundreds of fans streamed onto the field and the players danced and bobbed with them and shouted into the night.

“I’ve never been a part of anything like that here,” said fifth-year senior quarterback Scott Covington, who threw for 318 yards and three touchdowns. “The fans storming the field, everything. . .

“I don’t think the magnitude of what this game will do for this program is going to be felt for some time. Incredible!”

The Hurricanes partied like it was 1999, which it almost is, and like they were future national champions, which they just might be sometime soon.

So it is appropriate to leave the last word to Nate Brooks, the backup cornerback who gamely predicted victory over UCLA in the numbing aftermath of the Syracuse defeat.

“Look at the history of this program--Warren Sapp talked, Michael Irvin talked,” Brooks said. “This program has a history of talking the talk, then walking the walk. That’s what I was trying to do.”

And Miami did.

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Running Wild

With a school-record 299 rushing yards (the most for a UCLA opponent), junior running back Edgerrin James moved past Ottis Anderson (1,266 yards in 1976) for a Miami season-record 1,416 yards. Here are the biggest rushing games against UCLA: *--*

Player, School (Year) Rushes Yards Edgerrin James, Miami (1998) 39 299 Jon Vaughn, Michigan (1990) 32 288 Napoleon Kaufman, Wash. (1994) 34 227 Marcus Allen, USC (1981) 40 219 Mike Garrett USC (1965) 40 210

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