The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 33

The Orlando Sentinel Sunday Special: Golfers such as Fred Couples will feel pressure at the Ryder Cup, C-16 SUNDAY, September 19, 1993 mm ru pore FSU rallies past North Carolina, 33-7 By Alan Schmadtke Larry Guest OF THE SENTINEL STAFF for the first time this year before rallying in the third quarter on national television. FSU quarterback Charlie Ward completed a career-high 27 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns, offsetting a pair of first-half turnovers. He gained 69 yards scrambling 17 more than North Carolina's vaunted Leon Johnson-and-Curtis Johnson option tandem but in the final analysis he merely took what his defense gave him. Please see FSU, C-12 FSU seized early control of the Atlantic Coast Conference race with a stifling final three quarters, earning an 11th consecutive victory and its 11th in a row in the ACC. "This game," FSU coach Bobby Bowden said, "was about what I expected." Bowden's Seminoles entered Saturday having outscored three previous opponents, 144-7i They found out early that North Carolina has its ranking for a reason.

FSU (4-0, 3-0 in the ACC) trailed CHAPEL HILL, N.C. Top-ranked Florida State finally felt the harsh blow of an opponent Saturday night. North Carolina's shot came too soon and landed too softly. The Seminoles allowed No. 13 North Carolina its moments before a frenzied record crowd of 54,100, then decimated the Tar Heels with defense, 33-7, at Kenan Memorial Stadium.

Curtis Johnson eludes James Roberson (47) Wuerffel 4 produces for Gators The freshman quarterback passed for three touchdowns in his first start to-lead Florida past Tennessee, 41-34. By Mike Dame OF THE SENTINEL STAFF GAINESVILLE Ninth-ranked Florida discovered a lot about itself Saturday during its 41-34 victory over No. 5 Tennessee at Florida Field. The Gators finally found a quarterback Dannj Wuerffel They learned their secondary isn't very good stilL And they discovered their invincibility at Florida Field under fourth-year coach Steve Spurrier just may be legitimate maybe. It sure was Saturday, as the Gators overcame Tennessee quarterback Heath Shuler's school-record five touchdown passes to stretch their winning streak at the Swamp to 20 games before 85,247 and a regional TV audience.

Satisfaction still eluded UF coach Steve Spurrier. "If we are ever going to be a championship team, we can't allow a team to get back in the game that easily," Spurrier said. "We can't allow them to just throw it over our heads." Shuler, a Heisman Trophy candidate, threw touchdown passes of 55, 41 and 70 yards against a porous Florida secondary and finished 25-of41 for 355 yards and an interception. In the end, it almost didn't matter. Gators (3-0, 2-0 in the Southeastern Conference) Please see GATORS, C-1 1 -i I I r-J If Nl THE SPORTS COLUMN Spurrier has his starter until Wuerffel fails test GAINESVILLE Danny Wuerffel, redshirt freshman quarterback of the Florida Gators, has successfully made it through two-thirds of a killer schedule.

He passed a chemistry test on Wednesday, whipped Tennessee on Saturday and now tackles a calculus exam on Monday. "I've had a lot on my mind these past few days," grinned Florida's bright-eyed, G-rated new star after acing his first career start in a 41-34 victory over Tennessee that was not as close as the score might indicate. Wuerffel's counterpart, Vols quarterback Heath Shuler, kept this early SEC East showdown interesting by connecting on several home runs, but he didn't have enough runners aboard to overcome Florida's 21-0 start. The Gators built that huge lead in rock-concert noise and temperatures at Florida Field more commonly associated with the meeting of mozzarella and pepperoni, not Gators and Vols. Tennessee didn't manage a first down until the final play of the first period.

Then Shuler got his long ball cranked. Lapses in the UF secondary were the lone concern out of this struggle for control of the SEC East. For any Vol trying to forget about the heat, UF management thoughtfully hung a large, round thermometer on the retaining wall behind the Tennessee bench. During most of the first quarter, the needle was lodged at 120 degrees. A thunderstorm cooled things in the fourth period and, oddly enough, the more Florida Field actually began to resemble "The Swamp," the more Tennessee seemed to like it.

Shuler's fifth TD pass of the day closed the Vols to that final 7-point margin, but it came with just 1:22 to go and all Tennessee's timeouts exhausted. When the Vols failed to cover the expected onside kick, Florida finally chose to run out the clock instead of throwing the ball around, inviting the Vols back into the fray. Wuerffel's only interception had come with an 18-point lead and only nine minutes to go. "We probably should have run it, or thrown wide," UF coach Steve Spurrier second-guessed himself. "But sometimes we hit those third-and-15s.

We're that kind of team." Thankfully from an orange-and-blue perspective, all of that was academic, and all that mattered was the successful debut of Wuerffel, whose starting assignment was the week's worst-kept secret. He delivered a three-touchdown performance one score came on his own audible that could make junior Terry Dean a trivia question. "We hoped one of them would play better," Spurrier said. "Danny led us to a victory in relief last week and won today. He's our quarterback until something else happens." Seated at his locker wearing cut-off jeans and a wide-eyed smile, Wuerffel admitted to some pregame butterflies and rated his day thusly: "We won.

That's all that mattered. All summer I imagined every way the season might go, good and bad. You try to think about the positive things. But ever since I was a kid, I've been envisioning something like this." Pressed for a critique of his day, Wuerffel said he could have eliminated a few bad throws. Apparently, he did better in the chemistry quiz, winning a hamburger bet from kicker Bart Edmis-ton on their test scores.

"That's not a violation is it?" Wuerffel asked through a sheepish smile. Nah, he was told, only if it had been a cheeseburger. The danger at this point is to forget Wuerffel is a rookie and that this is just mid-September. Otherwise all the indicators suggest Alabama and Florida are again the class of the conference. No.

2-ranked Bama thumped Arkansas, 43-3, on Saturday, and Florida's handling of Tennessee suggests there is nothing capable of causing Gator anxiety before the season-ending match with FSU and a likely return to the SEC championship game. Only the 25-second clock appears capable of stopping the Gators. They were flagged five times Saturday for failure to get off one of their high-tech ball-plays within the allotted time. If they can beat the clock, the Gators appear ca Florida's Errict Rhett outruns the Tennessee defense to score from the ASSOCIATED PRESS and Mack Knight. jy 12 Miami fullback Larry Jones plunges COLLEGE FOOTBALL Notre Dame 36 Alabama 43 Duke 42 Michigan a 14 Arkansas 3 Army 21 Page C-8 Page C-1 0 PageC-72 Texas 73 Georgia 52 B-CC 30 Missouri 0 Texas Tech 37 J.C.

Smith 7 Page C-8 PageC-70 PageC-f4 Perm St 31 Indiana 24 Top 2 c-8, Iowa 0 Kentucky 8 SfgS -PageC-9 -Page C-1 0 iff il f1 1 PHELAN M. EBENHACK in Gators' 41-34 victory. Till ASSOCIATED PRESS into the end zone for a 1-yard TD. The Hurricanes inconsistent, still win, 21-2 By Randall Mell FORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL MIAMI Miami Hurricanes quarterback Frank Costa grimaced as he eased his aching frame into a locker after Saturday's 21-2 victory against Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Costa's back hurt, his arms ached and his legs throbbed.

His face fairly summed up the offense's pain after an uninspired home opener before 55,753. "I'm sore," Costa said. "I took a lot of hits today. I haven't taken that many hits in a long time." The offense is hurting, too. Penalties.

Dropped passes. Missed blocking assignments. Those mistakes left the offense bruised and battered with a Top 10 showdown with Colorado only one week away. The third-ranked 'Canes (2-0) travel to Boulder on Saturday. "We better play better next week, or we will have some problems," UM coach Dennis Erickson said.

Please see MIAMI, C-1 3 HEADLINERS Golfer David Frost could win his 2nd consecutive tournament at the Hardee's Classic; Payne Stewart trails by 6, C-17. Orlando could play host to preliminary soccer matches in the 1996 Olympic Games. C-18. Columnist Barry Cooper says boxer Muhammad Ali still snows concern for others, C-19. East Carolina ruins UCF's road show By Jerry Greene OF THE SENTINEL STAFF GREENVILLE, N.C.

A day will come when the University of Central Florida Knights will be ready, willing and able to play Division I football. Saturday was not that day. The Division I-AA Knights felt ready and seemed willing but were unable to stay with the East Carolina Pirates, falling, 41-17, before a largely antagonistic crowd of 30,867 at hot and humid Ficklen Stadium. The Knights (1-1), who plan on becoming a Division I team in 1996, play their first I-AA opponent next Saturday in highly ranked McNeese State. Odd as it may seem to others, the players left the East Carolina campus with the attitude that Saturday's game proved something positive about the team.

"We feel that playing a Division I team is a great experience," UCF center Mark Grut: tadauria said. "We didn't win, but we learned we're not intimidated by anybody." Please see UCF, C-1 4 MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL AMERICAN LEAGUE NATIONAL LEAGUE Toronto 5, Minn. 1 S.F. 6, Cincinnati 1 Detroit 7, Ctev. 6 Chicago 6, Florida 5 New York 4, Boston 3 New York 3, Atlanta 2 Oakland 3, Chicago 2 Milwaukee 3, Bait 0 K.C.

at Seattle, night Texas at night Gordon EdM C4 Phlla. 5, Montreal 4 St Louis 8, Pitt 1 Houston 4, S.D. 2 LA. 9, Colorado 0 TMmlMdw C-t 1 UA Panthers put Lightning on ice The expansion Florida Panthers scored three goals in the first period Saturday and recorded their first victory with a 5-1 triumph over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Jacksonville. Story, C-3.

1 pable of beating the assorted cupcakes and bagels on the schedule until Florida State arrives Nov. 27. And if Wuerffel can handle Chemistry-Tennessee-Calculus, then he should have no trouble with Southwest Louisiana-South Carolina-Vanderbilt. 4 11.