You can say this wasn't real football. You can claim Florida State's 41-39 victory over Miami was sheer circus -- at least UM's part of it. But don't dare say it wasn't the most watchable Hurricanes game since Maryland nosed them 42-40 way back in 1984.

Because it was.

Seems to me Miami had Maryland down by something like 31-0 at one point in that classic nearly a quarter century ago in the now-gone Orange Bowl.

So, too, Saturday night at Dolphin Stadium, FSU had UM down and drowning 24-0 just before halftime.

Then Miami cut it loose. Flea-flickers, reverses, a touchdown run by a tackle, fumbles, interceptions, a dozen near-breakaways, even in addition to all that really were.

It was purely eye-popping stuff. It is what we go to games hoping to see.

NOT ENOUGH TIME

In a way, Miami didn't get beat. Miami ran out of time. But Florida State wasn't about to run out of resistance.

Talk about a show. Sure, neither team ranks in the Top 25. Sure, this was two second-tier teams colliding, compared with the usual meeting of Goliaths.

Didn't matter. Not to the Hurricanes, anyway. They came in as two-point favorites who shouldn't have been because the Seminoles line up with more talented players at almost every position.

UM sure didn't look like any favorite when it had four first downs -- one-fourth as many as FSU -- at halftime, when it was trailing 24-3.

The Canes came flying back, using want-to instead of power and ingenuity to replace speed. They threw everything in offensive coordinator Patrick Nix's playbook until they finally closed the margin to 34-32.

That's when the superior forces finally prevailed -- and still took nothing from this historic UM effort in one of the worst rainstorms to hit any game around here.

You know something? The storm got worse after the game was over. If they had still been playing when the the downpour really kicked in, every lifeguard in Crandon Park wouldn't have been enough.

But back to the circus: FSU's lines, offensive and defensive, are probably better players then UM's almost to the man, in terms of sheer athleticism.

So are FSU's quarterbacks and runners. But the Seminoles couldn't stop a 162-pound stick of dynamite wrapped in green and orange, a stick named Trevor Benjamin who kept returning kickoffs (six for 185 yards) and catching passes (three for 71 yards), and even rushing once for 18 yards.

If any more modern match is to be found hereabouts for Devin Hester, it's Benjamin. He's so skinny you fear for his life every time he races into a scrum -- or away from it. But he has stayed whole so far, and if he's running out of ''sheer terror,'' as old Dolphins great Jake Scott once put it, well, the kid from Belle Glade is still upright. Not that you get a very clear view of him, he's moving so fast.

Overall, the oddest thing of this whole riotous night was the trick Miami almost turned on sheer tenacity. Nobody is throwing any rose petals in Randy Shannon's path these days, not at 2-3 coming off last year's 5-7 record. And the petal-tossing isn't likely to start this morning, not after a loss.

But, Lordy, give the man credit as the one in charge of one of the most memorable comebacks going all the way back through the old Orange Bowl days.

Here's one little clue as to how electric this game turned out to be: 328 yards in kickoff returns, 203 by UM.

Here's another: FSU had the ball 39 minutes, 23 seconds to UM's 19:44, and still had a devil of a time putting the Canes away.

TRICK PLAYS

We had halfback Graig Cooper throwing a 51-yard touchdown pass, and tackle Jason Fox scoring on a 5-yard run. We had 65,375 not only showing up for what appeared beforehand to be one of the least interesting FSU-UM games in years, but gutting it out through every soaking inch of that rain. Every single one of those fans ought to be awarded a little bronze bust of themselves, maybe depicting them floating through the stands hanging onto umbrellas, or just each other.

Maybe nobody will remember Saturday's principals a year from now. But nobody who saw it in person or on TV will forget the game itself. Call it sloppy, call it comedic, call it just a match of once-great powers reduced to mediocrity.

Just make sure you rate it No. 1 for sheer watchability, for violent swings exceptional in even the most emotional and compelling of sports, college football.

Call it as good a circus as you ever saw without a tent, and be thankful if somehow you spent the evening high and dry.

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