Hurricanes greats honored New starters

They were five of the greatest players to wear a Miami uniform and on Saturday while the current Hurricanes were taking on Georgia Tech, they were honored by the school where they once starred.

During halftime of Saturday’s game former Hurricanes receiver Michael Irvin, defensive tackle Warren Sapp, linebacker Ray Lewis and safeties Ed Reed and the late Sean Taylor became the latest AUTO RACING: Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for his final scheduled NASCAR Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. Chase Elliott qualified second.

BOXING: George Groves stopped Jamie Cox in four rounds in the first defense of his WBA super middleweight belt at Wembley Arena in London.

GOLF: Pat Perez shot an 8-under 64 in the third round of the CIMB Classic to open a four-shot lead over Xander Schauffele in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia . ... Matt Wallace has a two-stroke lead after the third round of the Italian Open in Monza, Italy . ... Jin Young Ko fired a bogey-free 6-under 66 to take a two-shot lead after the third round of the KEB Hana Bank Championship in Incheon, South Korea . ... Phillip Price, Colin Montgomerie and Jerry Kelly shared the second-round lead at 8-under 136 in the PGA Tour Champions’ SAS Championship in Cary, N.C.

NBA: The league suspended Trail Blazers G CJ McCollum for one game for leaving the bench area during an altercation. McCollum took several steps onto the floor when the Trail Blazers’ Caleb Swanigan and the Suns’ Alex Len tussled in an exhibition game Wednesday night.

NFL: Patriots LB Harvey Langi was hospitalized after being involved in a car accident Friday in Foxborough, Mass. Langi, a rookie from BYU, was in a car stopped at a traffic light with another passenger when their car was rear ended by another car . ... The 49ers promoted TE Cole Hikutini from the practice squad to the active roster. Hikutini was added to the

Homer wasn’t Hurricane to get start Saturday.

With Miami dealing with injuries to several players, receiver Darrell Langham made his first start, as did offensive lineman Corey Gaynor and safety Robert Knowles.

Langham finished with five catches for 100 yards. Gaynor helped UM total 481 yards of offense and Knowles had five tackles. the his roster to take the spot vacated when LB NaVorro Bowman was released . ... The Raiders promoted LB Shilique Calhoun from the practice squad to the active roster. Calhoun takes the place of CB Antonio Hamilton, who was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury . ... The Falcons promoted WR Marvin Hall to the active roster and waived RB Brian Hill. ... The Chiefs placed Chris Conley on injured reserve with a ruptured Achilles tendon and elevated fellow WR Marcus Kemp to the active roster . ... The Jets waived WR Jalin Marshall and signed CB Xavier Coleman from the practice squad.

SOCCER: Cristiano Ronaldo saved Real Madrid from another setback in the Spanish league by scoring late to beat Getafe 2-1 in Madrid . ... Manchester City beat Stoke 7-2. Man City has an English Premier League-best 29 goals . ... Tom Cleverley scored an injury-time winner as Watford rallied to beat Arsenal 2-1 . ... Lindsey Horan scored in the 50th minute, and the Portland Thorns won the National Women’s League championship with a 1-0 victory over the North Carolina Courage in Orlando, Fla.

TENNIS: Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will face each for the 38th time after advancing to the Shanghai Masters final. Top-seeded Nadal defeated Marin Cilic 7-5, 7-6 (3) in the first semifinal, and second-seeded Federer posted a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Juan Martin del Potro. ... Top-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova defeated Viktorija Golubic 6-4, 6-4 at the Ladies Linz in Austria to set up a final against Barbora Strycov, a 6-3, 7-6 (3) winner over Mihaela Buzarnescu. dise. That’s how we roll, I guess,” Hurricanes coach Mark Richt quipped after the win. “What a wonderful victory for our team, our program, our fans, our university. Our hats are off to Georgia Tech and how they played. They played good enough to win as well, just one of those games where somebody had to lose. … We did what we had to do to win. We kept fighting, believing and scrapping and that’s a tremendous trait for a football team.

“There’s many times we could’ve stacked our bats and put our heads down and started feeling sorry for ourselves, but we never did that. … There’s something going on that’s really good right now. Who knows where it’s going to go from here. I have no idea. The train could come off the tracks at any time. That’s just the way football is, but to do what we did two weeks in a row is pretty darn good.”

As wonderful as that all felt, though, the celebration was in jeopardy for much fo the afternoon as Georgia Tech held the lead until the final seconds and answered every time Miami made a big play.

One of the biggest came early in the fourth quarter, when just after Travis Homer scored on a 27-yard run that pulled the Hurricanes within two, the Yellow Jackets tipped Rosier’s pass to Chris Herndon, that if caught, would have tied the game at 24.

But even before that, Tech’s defense did a solid job of keeping Miami’s offense off balance, especially throughout the first half.

The Hurricanes managed just 196 yards in the first half, 77 of those coming on the final drive of the second quarter that ended when Homer caught a 17-yard scoring pass from Rosier that sent Miami into the locker room down 14-13 at the half.

Earlier, it had all been Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets building a 14-3 lead on the strength of a 5-yard scoring run from J.J. Green and then a 3-yard scoring grab by Green from Tech quarterback TaQuon Marshall.

And while Miami (5-0, 3-0) seemed to have grabbed some of the momentum back with that late first-half score from Rosier to Homer — who was making his first start in place of injured running back Mark Walton — a head-scratching opening play in the third quarter put the Hurricanes in a bigger hole.

Down a point and set to kick off to Georgia Tech (3-2, 2-1) to open the second half, the Hurricanes opted to try an onside kick.

But Badgley’s kick didn’t go the necessary 10 yards and as the ball rolled down the turf, Tech’s Lamont Simmons picked up it up and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown.

That put the Yellow Jackets up 21-13 and silenced the stunned crowd of 55,799 that couldn’t quite grasp what had just unfolded.

It also created that odd 8-point deficit that put the Hurricanes in the position of having to go for two on Homer’s late score.

Ultimately, though, none of that mattered as another last-second drive gave Miami another win.

Homer finished with a career-high 20 carries for 170 yards, Rosier was 12 of 37 for 297 yards and a touchdown, and Langham finished with five catches for a career-high 100 yards.

Ultimately, Miami outgained Georgia Tech 481-281 and the Hurricanes remain perfect as they prepare to host Syracuse next week with the Orange fresh off their win over defending national champion Clemson.

“We’re having fun right now, but we know we have to keep our heads calm and keep fighting through,” Langham said.