Beaver Stadium felt the Hurricanes a blowin'.

The Nittany Lions (0-1) were in for nasty weather (not literally) as Miami's Ken Dorsey rained all over the Penn State secondary.

And there was certainly a bad moon on the rise for Penn State's first on-campus night game since 1993.

Somehow, No. 2 Miami (1-0) developed some skeptics in the days leading up to Saturday night's season kickoff for both teams. But those doubters quickly dissipated as Miami had its way with the Nittany Lions, 33-7, in Larry Coker's debut as the Hurricanes' head coach.

"We beat a great football tradition tonight," Coker said. "We know it was a young Penn State football team and we probably caught them at the right time. They found some things about themselves I'm sure and we found some things about ourselves."

"It was just a great win for us, no doubt about it."

Coker's club hit on all cylinders. This Miami team appeared to have very few, if any, weaknesses, even with the losses of four first-round draft picks.

Dorsey was better than advertised as he completed 20 of 27 passes for 344 yards and three touchdowns with just one interception.

The 'Canes' running game was equally impressive as tailbacks Clinton Portis and Willis McGahee rode the backs of Miami's titanic offensive linemen for 258 yards.

The 'Canes new defense, which was brought in by new defensive coordinator Randy Shannon, had the Lions' heads spinning. The combination of Shannon's blitz packages and the shear speed of the 'Canes defensive front seven kept pressure on Penn State's quarterbacks all night and led to four sacks, dozens of quarterback hurries and one signal caller knocked out of the game (the Lions' Matt Senneca).

Even the Hurricanes' special teams were spectacular as placekicker Todd Sievers was a perfect 4-for-4 on field goal attempts. Punter Freddie Capshaw only saw the field four times, but his 43.8 yards per punt average kept Penn State in poor field position throughout the second half.

All in all, the Hurricanes outclassed the Lions in every phase of the game.

"I think they're better than they were last year," Paterno said. "I think they're better defensively than they were last year.

"It's going to take a heck of a team to beat them."

After the ceremony to honor former team member Adam Taliaferro at the start of the game, the Lions took that emotion and carried it into the first drive of the game as Penn State marched the ball to midfield following the first three plays.

But the drive stalled, and the Lions were forced to punt. The 'Canes offense took no time in establishing their attack as Miami ripped off huge chunks of yardage on several plays to get inside the Penn State 10-yard line. But a holding penalty pushed the Hurricanes back to the 21, forcing Coker to opt for Sievers' first field goal.

Miami forced a three-and-out on Penn State next series and then cruised 58 yards back down the field as Dorsey hit a wide open Ethenic Sands for a 27-yard touchdown pass to make it 10-0 'Canes.

The Hurricanes knocked Senneca out on the next series and followed up again with a Sievers 42-yard field goal.

After tacking on another Sievers' field goal early in the second quarter, the 'Canes held Penn State to another three-play drive before Dorsey found fullback Najeh Davenport — whose closest defender was in Mifflin County — for a 28-yard toss-and-run score to make it 23-0 with 11:11 left in the half.

Ten minutes later, Dorsey hooked up with tight end Jeremy Shockey — who finished the game with seven catches for 84 yards — for a 10-yard touchdown to give the 'Canes a 30-0 halftime lead.

While it may appear the 'Canes were having tremendous success through the air (which they really were), the Miami ground game may have been the biggest contributor to the 30-point lead. Portis had 117 yards by halftime.

"They were trying to put eight guys in the box and our running game was still working," Dorsey said. "Anytime you can do that, then that is a great asset to you."

Each team failed to score in the third quarter before Sievers put home his fourth field goal early in the fourth to extend the Miami lead to 33-0.

The Lions finally got on the board the next series when backup quarterback Zack Mills hit Bryant Johnson with a 44-yard strike to cap the scoring.