So Much for Comparisons : Miami's Tradition of Talented Quarterbacks Has Made It Tough for Torretta to Gain Any Recognition Despite What His Leadership Means to a Top-Ranked, Undefeated Team

By GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI

Dec. 31, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

MIAMI — While thumbing through his mail earlier this month, Miami quarterback Gino Torretta noticed an envelope with a Cleveland postmark. His curiosity aroused, Torretta opened the letter to find a short, but sweet, message enclosed. It read:

Great game against Florida State. Wishing you success.

--Bernie Kosar.

From one once-maligned quarterback to another, the note was a keepsake for Torretta, who seemingly can’t do anything right these days, except lead the No. 1-ranked Hurricanes to victory after victory. Fifteen times he has taken the field as the Miami starter, 14 times he has left it a winner.

But for assorted reasons--some fair, some ridiculous--Torretta has been labeled a caretaker, a simple component easily interchanged. As the Hurricane quarterbacking legacy grows with each season’s success, Torretta is regarded as the least impressive starter since the gawky, side-armed Kosar presented the school in 1983 with its first of three (and counting) national championships.

Now, as Miami is positioned to win yet another national title, Torretta finds himself the subject of more scrutiny and doubts. The list includes such old favorites as:

--”If he’s so good, why did it take four seasons before he became the No. 1 quarterback?”

--Or, “If he’s so good, how come there was a quarterback controversy last spring?”

--Or, “With the wide receivers Miami has, anybody could run that offense. All you do is drop back and throw.”

--Or, “He’s no Jim Kelly, Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Steve Walsh or Craig Erickson.”

This is the mind-set of those unfamiliar with the Torretta journey, one that has taken him from teen skateboarder to Pinole Valley star to Hurricane understudy to least-appreciated quarterback in Division I. Still, if you’re expecting to find an outraged Torretta hell-bent on proving America wrong, forget it.

“I try not to think about (Kelly, Kosar, etc.) because I think if you get caught up in that, you try to put more pressure on yourself, living up to what they did here,” Torretta said. “I’m a different quarterback, and I have a different team. I just go out there and take what I can, what the defense is going to give me, and hope everything works out. It’s worked out pretty well this year. I mean, we’re undefeated, and that’s all I can ask for.”

And isn’t that the point? The way Torretta figures it, the only statistic that matters is the one regarding wins and losses. Touchdowns? Yardage? Passing efficiency?

“I couldn’t care less as long as we were undefeated,” he said.

This is the way Torretta thinks. When his name was frequently omitted from lists of serious Heisman Trophy candidates, he shrugged. When Florida State quarterback Casey Weldon was heralded as Joe Montana-esque for his leadership ability, Torretta didn’t utter a peep. He could have.

At last look, Torretta had led Miami to a perfect regular season, compared with the two losses incurred by Weldon and the Seminoles. Among those Hurricane victories was a one-point victory over then-No. 1-ranked Florida State at Tallahassee. It remains Torretta’s career highlight and with good reason. In 1989, filling in for an injured Erickson, Torreta had four passes intercepted in Miami’s only loss of the year, 24-10, to Florida State.

Compare numbers, too. Torretta finished with more completions, a lower interception percentage, more yardage and only two fewer touchdowns than Weldon.

So what happens? Weldon is the runner-up in the Heisman voting. You need a search committee to find Torretta’s name on the ballot results.

If Torretta was upset, he didn’t show it. He never does. Instead, he said: “Obviously, you can’t please everybody.”

Miami coaches and players weren’t as understanding. How, they wondered, could the quarterback of the nation’s No. 1 team be so ignored? How is it possible that Torretta was fifth in total offense, but a no-show in total voter support?

Ask Torretta and you get the well-practiced shrug. But Hurricane Coach Dennis Erickson credits Torretta with expanding the capabilities of the Miami offense. After all, what’s the use of having a state-of-the-art offense, as the Hurricanes do, without having someone who knows what buttons to press?

“Gino grew a lot faster, developed a lot faster, than I thought he would,” Erickson said. “He executed better, did the right things better and threw the long ball better than I anticipated. So the offensive philosophy changed a little bit because we were throwing the ball deep and getting more big plays than we had in the first two years of this offense.”

Two years ago, Torretta was sitting on the bench. Then Craig Erickson got hurt and Torretta was sent in. He won three of the four games he started, but no one suggested clearing a space for him in Miami’s Hall of Fame. The minute Erickson’s broken right index finger had healed, Torretta returned to the sidelines, where he stayed until last spring, when the starting position at last became available.

First, though, came a quarterback controversy of sorts: Torretta vs. Bryan Fortay, who according to the scouting magazines at the time, was considered the No. 2 quarterback prospect in the country. And Torretta? Don’t ask.

This wasn’t the most pleasant competition of all time. Torretta struggled during several of the Hurricanes’ spring scrimmages, while Fortay excelled. At the end of the spring game, Fortay’s father was even heard to exclaim that his son had won the job, no questions asked.

One problem for the Fortay family: Erickson chose Torretta, prompting the stunned Fortay to transfer.

Truth is, there was never much of a controversy, at least not among Torretta’s teammates.

“The players knew,” linebacker Micheal Barrow said. “(Torretta) was much more mature. I kind of looked at it as a Joe Montana-Steve Young type of thing. Gino was Montana, a guy who had experience, who stayed back there in the pocket and took the hits, and Fortay was Young.”

And this from wide receiver Lamar Thomas: “It wasn’t even a quarterback battle. Bryan didn’t have any experience. He had the better scrimmages, but Gino had the experience. A lot of people don’t give Gino a lot of respect, but he’s showed people.”

Even Torretta bristles slightly at the mention of the so-called competition between him and Fortay.

“I felt as soon as Craig graduated . . . it was my team,” he said.

And it is, in more ways than one. For instance, during the recent Orange Bowl media day, several Hurricane players who majored in telecommunications playfully began interviewing teammates for a local TV station. They would ask questions and care little about the responses.

But when it came time to talk with Torretta, the teammates turned serious, as if they didn’t want to offend their leader. They asked him about the Miami running game, about his strategy against Orange Bowl opponent Nebraska, about his thoughts on a national championship. Torretta obliged them with thoughtful and concise answers.

“That’s Gino,” Miami defensive lineman Rusty Medearis said. “He’s the man the offense rallies around.”

Torretta could have gone elsewhere. Erickson recruited him at Washington State. A year later, Miami recruited Erickson.

Don James wanted Torretta at Washington, but Jimmy Johnson wanted him at Miami, which was good enough for Torretta, whose brother Geoff had been a backup to Testaverde for two seasons.

So here he is four seasons later, owner of one championship ring and eager to add another to his collection. This one would be special. This one would be for all those people who never thought he belonged, who dismissed him as a quarterback by default, who didn’t think twice about ignoring him as a Heisman candidate.

To them, Torretta would say nothing. But given the chance, he might take a new championship ring and hold it up for all to see. In Torretta-speak, the translation would be: “I told you so.”