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With 'Noles looming, victory wasn't pretty

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 8, 2001

CORAL GABLES -- Miami didn't earn any style points for its 38-7 win over Troy State on Saturday in what was billed as a tuneup for Saturday's showdown with Florida State.

In most ways, Troy State (1-3) competed better than Penn State, Rutgers and Pittsburgh, three teams Miami dominated.

Two missed field goals cost the Trojans, in their first season in Division I-A, a chance to go into halftime trailing by only four.

Troy State had the ball almost 12 minutes more than Miami. It also held Miami to 101 rushing yards, the first team this season to hold Miami to less than 200 yards rushing. Starter Clinton Portis was held to 18 yards on seven carries. His backup, Willis McGahee, had 45 on 11 carries.

In addition, Troy State's spread offense had the Hurricanes off-balance for most of the first half.

"We knew that eventually we would stop them," defensive end Andrew Williams said. "We just had to get used to their offense and formations. After that, we knew we could shut them down."

The relative closeness of the game -- Miami was favored by 50 points -- helped drop Miami to No.2 in the AP poll behind Florida.

Coach Larry Coker said his goal wasn't to impress pollsters, but stay healthy and start preparing for the No. 14 Seminoles.

The fact Miami has played four teams with a combined three wins means there are questions as to how good it is. '

'That's a good question," Coker said. "I think we're a good football team. We'll find out a lot more (this weekend). Have we been tested? I don't know."

FSU TIME: Last season, Miami beat FSU 27-24 after losing the previous five meetings. And though FSU was upset by North Carolina Sept. 22, defensive tackle Matt Walters said the Hurricanes aren't taking anything for granted.

"I'm looking forward to this game," he said. "We haven't been tested yet, and Florida State will do that. Florida State has the kind of players who are confident enough that they can line up and beat us."

FSU hasn't lost at Doak Campbell Stadium since 1991, when Miami won 17-16. Miami kept the game close in its last visit in 1999 before falling 31-21.

"Obviously, they've had a good decade," Portis said. "But we're not going up there to take a backseat or just play a good game."

BACKUP PROBLEMS: Coker said he wasn't happy with the play of the offensive reserves.

"I guess that's why they're reserves," he said.

Derrick Crudup completed 3 of 7 passes for 28 yards in relief of Ken Dorsey and misfired badly on a few of them. Miami managed three first downs and 56 yards in the fourth quarter.

ODDS AND ENDS: Safety Ed Reed, who returned an interception for a touchdown for the fourth time in his career, moved into second on the all-time interception return yards list with 213. He trails only Bennie Blades, who had 305 on 19 interceptions from 1984-87. ... Dixie Hollins grad Markese Fitzgerald not only had his second sack of the season, he tipped the ball Reed returned for a score. ... Miami gave up only 3 yards passing (1-for-8) to Troy State in the second half after allowing Brock Nutter to throw for 149 yards through two quarters (13-for-17).

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