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Harris Rallies Hurricanes

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 19, 2008

DURHAM, N.C. - Jacory Harris didn't start for Miami. Boy, did he finish.

Harris threw four touchdown passes and ran for another to lead the Hurricanes past Duke 49-31 on Saturday.

The freshman took over for starter Robert Marve in the second quarter and became the first Miami quarterback to throw for four scores and account for five TDs since 2005, when Kyle Wright did it against Wake Forest.

It still wasn't enough to convince Coach Randy Shannon to name him the starter.

"Robert's still going to start ... Jacory knows that," Shannon said. "Like I said from Day 1, these two guys are going to make us better as a football team, because there's always competition with those guys."

Harris finished 18-of-28 for 185 yards with two interceptions and accounted for three TDs in the third quarter to help the Hurricanes rally from a 10-point deficit. They outscored the Blue Devils 35-14 in the second half while he outdueled Miami native Thaddeus Lewis.

"Thad is somebody like a role model to me," Harris said. "He grew up, and he taught me how to play the quarterback position."

Lewis was 12-of-28 for 130 yards with two touchdown passes and ran for a score, but he fell to 0-3 as a starter against his hometown team.

"I love to see players have success, especially Jacory," Lewis said. "He came in and he managed that team and has been making great plays. ... Maybe this game will help him claim the starting job."

Miami (4-3, 1-2 ACC) rolled up 420 yards and snapped a six-game league losing streak in claiming its 78th straight win when scoring at least 42 points - a string that dates back to the "Hail Flutie" loss to Boston College in 1984.

But for much of the way, this one was anything but a rout.

Duke (3-3, 1-2) took a 24-14 lead early in the third quarter before Harris took over, capping a three-play, 69-yard drive with a 15-yard keeper that pulled the Hurricanes within three. Then, he put them up for good with less than 3 minutes left in the quarter, finding Aldarius Johnson from 6 yards in the corner of the end zone to make it 28-24.

Harris threw a 25-yard touchdown to Travis Benjamin on Miami's next possession, then added a 10-yard TD toss to Laron Byrd in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.

"They came in bundles," Shannon said. "It was a great deal for us to score the way we did. We got in kind of a 'hurry, hurry' situation, and I thought it was a great job. I thought our offense responded."

Earlier, Harris had a 9-yard touchdown toss to Chris Zellner with 11 seconds left in the first half.

One of the quarterback's few mistakes helped Duke match its largest lead - two plays after Adrian Aye-Darko's second interception of the game, Lewis threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Raphael Chestnut to push the Blue Devils' lead to 10 - but it was all Harris and the Hurricanes after that.

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