Gino Torretta - Football

Gino Torretta capped an illustrious collegiate career by bringing the prestigious Heisman Trophy award back to the Coral Gables campus in 1992.
Named the 58th winner of the Heisman, Torretta was the 47th senior and 19th quarterback to win. Entering the 2002 season, Torretta still ranked as Miami's all-time leader with 7,690 passing yards, 555 completions and 7,722 yards in total offense. He also had 123 consecutive pass attempts without an interception.
Torretta's story has many parallels to the saga of Miami's first Heisman winner, Vinny Testaverde. Like Testaverde, Torretta was a superior athlete who had to wait his turn as the Miami quarterback rotation worked it out. Like Testaverde, Torretta made the most of his opportunity to star during his junior season and set up a Heisman run with a spectacular junior season.
But Torretta took Testaverde's model for success to another level by racking up 11 school records.
A strong-armed passer from California, Torretta accepted the challenge to add to the legacy of Quarterback U. at Miami by turning down offers from several West Coast schools. He signed with Miami in 1988 then waited his turn behind fellow Hurricanes quarterbacks Steve Walsh and Craig Erickson.
After redshirting in 1988, Torretta toiled in obscurity for three years. He had a brief flirtation with the starting job during his redshirt freshman season of 1989, starting four games while Erickson was shelved with a fractured finger on his throwing hand. He responded with three solid outings, including a spectacular 486-yard performance against San Jose State, before getting a baptism by fire against Florida State in Miami's only lost of the '89 season. He returned to a reserve role when Erickson came back the following week to complete Miami's 11-1 national championship season.
Torretta played sparingly in 1990 as a sophomore, seeing only mop-up duty but playing in all 11 regular season games of a 10-2 season. With Erickson moving on to the NFL after the '90 season, Torretta was ready to take over the starting job. And he did so with spectacular results, debuting with a 297-yard outing against Arkansas on the road that featured a 99-yard touchdown pass to Horace Copeland - Torretta's first TD pass as the starter.
He went on to throw for 3,095 yards and 20 touchdowns (with just eight interceptions) while completing 55.3 percent of his passes during that junior season and led Miami to the national championship. Playing on a Miami offense that ran the ball 48.4 percent of the time, he still racked up the highest passing yardage in a single season by a UM quarterback.
The 1992 season was to be Torretta's coronation as the Heisman favorite. But the season started amidst disaster as Hurricane Andrew ripped through South Florida just 12 days before the season opener at Iowa. Dealing with the emotional aftermath, Torretta led the Hurricanes to a 24-7 win over the Hawkeyes on national television by passing for 433 yards and two touchdowns.
That performance established him as the leader for the Heisman. While most Heisman campaigns are marked by some "signature" moment, consistency was Torretta's hallmark. He passed for 289 yards against Arizona, threw for 252 against Florida State, 350 against TCU, 249 against Virginia Tech, 363 against West Virginia, 221 against Temple, 343 against Syracuse, and 310 against San Diego State.
If there was a game that typified Torretta's career it was the win against Florida State. Miami trailed 16-10 with 9:05 left in the fourth period when Torretta led the Hurricanes on a 58-yard scoring drive to take the lead. He keyed the march with a 14-yard scramble on a third-and-12 play then ended it with a 33-yard scoring strike to Horace Copeland, his favorite receiver, with 6:50 left. The 19-16 victory that became known as "Wide Right II" was testament to Torretta's leadership under pressure. The win over FSU sent Miami on to a 12-0 regular season and a number one ranking entering the Sugar Bowl against Alabama
Torretta threw for 3,060 yards while completing almost 57 percent of his pass attempts. He also dominated the Heisman voting, outdistancing San Diego State's Marshall Faulk and Georgia's Garrison Hearst. The Heisman capped a season unparalleled in Miami history, as he became the most decorated football player in Miami history. Torretta took every award available to him in '92: the Maxwell Award (best overall player), Davey O'Brien Award (top quarterback), Unitas Award (top senior quarterback), consensus All-American, and every Player of the Year Award.