The Week

SOUTH

"No practice tonight," shouted Maryland coach Bobby Ross in the locker room following a shocking 42-40 Terp victory in Miami. Ross had threatened his team with a nocturnal workout at halftime, when the Terrapins trailed 31-0. But it was canceled after the biggest comeback ever by a Division I-A team. Senior Frank Reich, who had suffered a separation of his right shoulder a month earlier, sat out the first half and then came on to direct Maryland on six consecutive touchdown drives. He threw two scoring passes and ran one yard for a touchdown in the third period to make the score 34-21. Then the Terps scored on a 14-yard run by Tommy Neal and a catch of a tipped Reich pass that Greg Hill grabbed and turned into a 68-yard TD. That put Maryland in front 35-34 with 5:29 to go.

Two plays after the Hurricanes fumbled away the ensuing kickoff at their six, the Terps' Rick Badanjek banged into the end zone on a four-yard run to make the score 42-34. But Miami wasn't done. Here came quarterback Bernie Kosar, who would finish with four touchdown passes and 363 yards on his 30 completions in 50 attempts. Kosar connected with Eddie Brown for a score with one minute left on the clock. Then, in a try for a two-point conversion, he found fullback Melvin Bratton on a screen, but Bratton was brought down at the three-yard line by Maryland cornerback Keeta Covington.

Maryland's comeback was three points better than the previous record, which was set in 1981 by Oregon State against Fresno State and equaled last month by Washington State against Stanford.

For the first time since 1905, Virginia defeated North Carolina State in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers won the ACC game 45-0 by augmenting their powerful running game with a passing attack that netted 165 yards, including a 37-yard touchdown throw from Don Majkowski to freshman John Ford. The speedy Ford, who used to run down and catch rabbits after the sugar cane fields were burned off each year back home in Florida, has averaged 30.4 yards on 14 receptions so far this season.

Although outgained 336 yards to 220, Clemson held off stubborn Virginia Tech 17-10. The Tigers prevailed by pulling off the longest pass play of the game, 66 yards from Mike Eppley to Terrance Roulhac for a touchdown, and the longest run, a 17-yarder by Ray Williams for another six points.

There were no turnovers during the first half of the Florida State at South Carolina game, which ended with the Gamecocks ahead 17-7, but in the second half there were 13, nine of them by the Seminoles. The Gamecocks intercepted seven passes and recovered two Florida State fumbles. The Seminoles outdistanced the Gamecocks in total yardage 593 to 474, but they fell behind 38-7. A too-little, too-late resurgence merely made the final score 38-26.

While Florida was shutting out Georgia 27-0 (page 33), Auburn clobbered Cincinnati 60-0, and LSU was a 16-14 SEC winner over Alabama. The decisive touchdown came in the third quarter on a seven-yard scamper by Dalton Hilliard three plays after Tiger linebacker Michael Brooks had blocked a Tide punt and Kevin Guidry recovered the ball at the 'Bama 12.

EAST

Even for Doug Flutie it was a remarkable week. It wasn't simply that he completed 19 of 29 passes for 311 yards and three touchdowns to lead Boston College past Army 45-31. And it wasn't merely that he became the Division I-A career leader in passing yardage by raising his total to 9,695. There were two other events that made Flutie's week distinctive: He received a National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame postgraduate scholarship, and he was nominated for a Rhodes scholarship.