BOONE, N.C. _ No Appalachian State giant-killers Saturday.
No upset alerts.
Just the little guys getting throttled by the No. 25 Miami Hurricanes on a gorgeous, 72-degree day amid the Blue Ridge Mountains and lush green woods.
Miami came out on fire and stayed hot the first half, faltered briefly in the third quarter and eventually cruised to a 45-10 victory over the Mountaineers.
By the time Miami made it 38-10 with 1:38 left in the third quarter, the record Kidd Brewer Stadium crowd of 34,658 began leaving.
The Mountaineers still had their glory moments _ and the Canes their scary ones.
With Miami leading 24-3 early in the third quarter and the Canes at first-and-goal on the 1, UM quarterback Brad Kaaya was intercepted and seemingly hurt a knee on the play. Mountaineers linebacker John Law ran the pick back 60 yards before he was tackled by UM tight end David Njoku _ as a dazed Kaaya limped off the field. ASU took advantage and scored on a 24-yard pass from Taylor Lamb to Barrett Burns to make it 24-10 with 8:41 left in the quarter, and the Mountaineer fans erupted again.
With Hurricanes fans no doubt holding their collective breath, Kaaya bounced up and down on the sideline and did a little practice scampering. When the Canes' offense came back, so did he _ leading his team to two subsequent third-down touchdowns _ the first a 12-yard run by tailback Joe Yearby and the next an 8-yard pass to Stacy Coley that had fans packing up for good.
Kaaya, who was replaced by backup Malik Rosier with about seven minutes left in the final quarter, complete 21 of 27 passes for 368 yards and three touchdowns, with the interception.
True freshman Ahmmon Richards, who had what seemed like a big drop in the third quarter, two plays later caught a 61-yarder from Kaaya. Then a bit later he caught a 62-yarder. After three quarters, Richards had 142 yards receiving on four catches.
With 7:34 left in the game, UM had made five plays of at least 50 yards. All last season the Hurricanes had seven such plays.
It took the Hurricanes exactly 12 seconds to make their first offensive statement Saturday, brought by Mark Walton. The sophomore took UM's handoff from Kaaya, ran over Mountaineers defensive back A.J. Howard, then galloped 80 yards straight into the end zone.
The touchdown was Walton's sixth of the season. He scored his seventh touchdown of the season in the fourth quarter.
