This Date in College Football Belt History – August 31

Posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 and is filed under TCFB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

August 31, 2002

Florida A&M at Miami, Florida

The top-ranked Miami Hurricanes of coach Larry Coker welcomed the Division 1-AA Florida A&M Rattlers with coach Billy Joe to the Orange Bowl in the season opener for both teams. No Division 1-AA team had ever won The Belt & the defending National Champion Hurricanes had no intention of allowing the Rattlers to be the first. Miami scored 28 points in the 1^st quarter on their way to a 63-17 win. Florida A&M was held to 61 yards rushing, 155 total yards, & sacked 7 times by the Hurricanes’ defense as Miami rolled to an easy win. The Hurricanes were driving for a score on their second drive before the Rattlers’ All-MEAC S Levy Brown intercepted Miami’s All-Big East QB Ken Dorsey at the Florida A&M 3-yard line. Unable to move the ball, the Rattlers punt was returned by Hurricanes’ WR Ethenic Sands to the Florida A&M 19-yard line. On the next snap, Miami’s All-American RB Willis McGahee carried the final 19 yards for a 7-0 lead. Sands returned the next Rattlers’ punt 36 yards to the Florida A&M 12-yard line & Dorsey connected with All-Big East TE Kellen Winslow, Jr. on the next play for a 12-yard touchdown pass. The Hurricanes’ next score took more than a play as Dorsey finished a 4-play, 47 yard scoring drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass to All-Big East WR Andre Johnson for a 21-0 lead still in the opening quarter. The final points of the quarter came on a 46-yard run from Miami’s WR Roscoe Parrish. Dorsey threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Sands while Hurricanes’ back-up QB Derrick Crudup threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Parrish as Miami established a 35-0 halftime lead. In the 3^rd quarter, Hurricanes’ RB Jason Geathers scored on a 20-yard touchdown run while the Rattlers broke the shutout with a 35-yard field goal from PK Juan Vasquez. In the 4^th quarter, each time scored 2 touchdowns. Florida A&M got a 4-yard touchdown run from back-up QB Reggie Hayes & a 3-yard touchdown pass from Hayes to WR Dennis Bonga. Miami’s scores came from Geathers’ 62-yard run & a 39-yard touchdown pass from back-up QB Marc Guillon to WR Akieem Jolla. Dorsey threw for only 110 yards but 3 touchdowns in limited action, McGahee had 60 yards with a touchdown on just 6 carries, & Geathers rushed for 199 yards with 2 touchdowns as the Hurricanes made this look more like a scrimmage than a regular season game. Miami’s DT Vince Wilfork & DT Matt Walters each tallied 2 sacks for the Hurricanes’ defense. Florida A&M’s QB Casey Printers threw for just 42 yards completing 8 of 22 pass attempts in the loss. Miami finished the season 12-1; Big East Champions, ranked 2^nd nationally while the Rattlers finished 7-4 & MEAC Champions. Florida A&M had not played for The Belt again.

The College Football Belt