MIAMI By the fourth quarter, Kyle Wright was on the sideline, wearing a cap instead of a helmet. He was flanked by most of Miami's starters, and the Orange Bowl slowly emptied.
Just as the Hurricanes hoped, this one was decided quickly and decisively.
Kyle Wright completed 18-of-31 passes for 255 yards and three touchdowns -- all those coming in a five-minute span of the second quarter of No. 9 Miami's 52-7 win over Duke on Saturday.
"I felt like I was back in high school, getting pulled out of the game so early," Kyle Wright said.
Tyrone Moss ran for 82 yards and a pair of touchdowns -- his third multi-score game in four weeks -- for Miami, which established season highs for points and yards. Ryan Moore made a career-high seven catches for 87 yards and a touchdown for Miami (4-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), winners of four straight.
The Hurricanes outgained Duke 557-128, with 81 of the Blue Devils' yards coming on Ronnie Drummer's touchdown run early in the third quarter. Duke managed only five first downs and 8 passing yards.
"I'm just really, really proud of our defense," Miami coach Larry Coker said. "We get better and better and better. I told our team, we're talking about building. We for sure haven't put the roof on yet, but I can see the walls coming up and I want them to catch that vision."
Drummer's scoring run was the sixth-longest carry in Duke history and the longest play from scrimmage allowed by Miami in 29 years. Other than that, highlights were slim for Duke (1-5, 0-3), which has lost 29 straight games against ranked opponents.
Freshman quarterback Zack Asack, making his second start, had 31 plays that managed only 14 yards. He was 4-of-15 for 8 yards passing, and he carried the ball 16 times for 6 yards. Chris Davis made two interceptions for Duke, which was missing several key players because of injury.
"It's certainly difficult when you don't have your troops, but that's the way football is," Duke coach Ted Roof said. "Part of it was Miami doing some good things, and part of it was that we were down some people. But that isn't what lost the game for us. We got beat by a better football team."
Kirby Freeman played the final 1.5 quarters at quarterback for Miami, throwing for 47 yards and the first two touchdowns of his career. And four other receivers -- Lance Leggett, Greg Olsen, Sinorice Moss and Chris Zellner -- all had touchdown catches for Miami, which visits Temple next weekend.
"It really came easy for all of us," Kyle Wright said. "We really got into a rhythm and the defenses, we were seeing it real well. I could hear the offensive line making their calls. ... We were just doing what we were coached, and it was definitely a great feeling for the offense."
The Hurricanes built a 31-0 halftime lead, their four touchdown drives totaling eight plays.
Moss' 7-yard run opened the scoring one play after Kelly Jennings caused a fumble deep in Duke territory. Leggett's 29-yard touchdown catch was three plays after Willie Williams tackled Duke's Marcus Jones on a fake-punt try, and Devin Hester had two big punt returns to set up a pair of two-play touchdown drives -- Olsen and Sinorice Moss making those catches.
Roof said he didn't want Hester to get any return chances.
"Hester did his thing. I didn't want him to touch the ball," Roof said.
But Hester remained in the locker room long after halftime because of cramps, eventually returning to the sideline in street clothes.
"He should be fine," Coker said.
By halftime, Duke had three more yards (34) than Miami had points. The Blue Devils' biggest gain of the first half was a 15-yard personal foul penalty called against Miami's Kareem Brown 10:00 before halftime.
Midway through the second quarter, Miami only led 10-0. From there, it quickly turned into a rout.
Leggett's scoring catch came 6:37 before halftime; in the next 4:23, Olsen and Sinorice Moss also made touchdown catches, eliminating all doubt.
"In the papers, they said they were going to come after us in the passing game," Davis said. "They did and we didn't step up."
other Duke football DVDs
other Miami Hurricanes football DVDs
NFL football DVDs /
NCAA college football DVDs /
NBA basketball DVDs /
Major League Baseball DVDs /
NFL Europe DVDs /
XFL football DVDs /
Super Bowl DVDs /
NFL draft DVDs /
Canadian football CFL DVDs /
USFL football DVDs /
Arena football AFL DVDs /
World Leage WLAF football DVDs /
Japanese baseball DVDs /
NCAA college basketball DVDs /
NHL hockey DVDs /
Olympics hockey DVDs /
other DVDs /
contact
the sale of sports telecasts is illegal and not condoned