Torretta threw for more than 7,600 yards as the Miami Hurricanes quarterback. He took home the Maxwell Award, Davey O’Brien Award, Unitas Award and was a consensus All-American… though his critics love to point to a lackluster NFL career. Never mind all that as this honor is all about his NCAA run and dominance of the college landscape in the early 90s.
Though Torretta’s older brother Geoff was an under the radar quarterback at Miami in the late 80s, Gino had his sights set on playing for the Stanford Cardinal.
“I knew Stanford’s education was very valuable and a great degree and that’s the way I looked at it. I was going to have an opportunity to get a scholarship but to me that meant it paid for my education,” said the former Heisman winner. “Unfortunately, (Stanford) said I wasn’t good enough — or fortunately.”
Geoff’s career was mostly spent on the bench, backing up the Canes first Heisman winner, Vinny Testaverde. Miami coaches warned the younger Torretta that there was a chance he wound up a career back up, as well. Craig Erickson was the Canes signal caller and a then-unknown Brian Fortay would eventually battle Gino for the starting job.
Erickson graduated, Torretta went on to stardom while Fortay left UM, miffed and not being named starter. He eventually transferred to Rutgers, attempted to sue the University of Miami and was essentially never heard from again. As for Gino’s decision to call Coral Gables home, it was a no-brainer.
“It’s awful hard to turn down, when you go into their offices and the last five (starting quarterbacks) are on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Torretta said. “I wanted to have a chance to win a national championship.”
Torretta started his final two college seasons at UM and went 26-2 as a starter. Now he can add ‘member of the College Football Hall of Fame’ to his resume.
Congrats, Gino.
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Congratulations to Gino on the high honor. He deserves it!
Congratulations Gino! He was a great player and had a lot of help from some great defenses and great receivers such as Lamar Miller. The loss to Bama still kills me, but Gino had a great career at Miami. He threw a great long ball and was a great leader on the field.
-Columbus Cane
Ginooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
columbus cane...lamar miller??? lol
true warrior.....
Oops. I meant Lamar Thomas.
-Columbus Cane
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