Miami quarterback taking next step in football career

After beating Louisville, Ben Roethlisberger said he's ready for the NFL.
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- Ben Roethlisberger shed defenders, threw perfect strikes on the run and then made his next big move -- to the NFL.
The Miami (Ohio) junior who became a high-profile standout for a typically low-profile program capped his college career with a 49-28 victory over Louisville in the GMAC Bowl on Thursday night.
Then, he bid farewell to the team he directed to 13 consecutive wins, a No. 14 ranking and a Mid-American Conference championship.
Next challenge
Flanked by friends and family, Roethlisberger said after the game that he was leaving school early for the NFL.
"The unbelievable team success of this season has fulfilled so many of my collegiate football goals," Roethlisberger said after passing for 376 yards and four first-half touchdowns.
Now he'll join former Marshall quarterbacks Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich in going from the MAC to the NFL.
"This is a special season, it's a special team, led by a special man in Coach [Terry] Hoeppner," Roethlisberger said.
Roethlisberger, a third-team AP All-American, is a likely top 10 pick in April's NFL draft and showed why against the Cardinals, completing 21-of-33 passes and making a handful of head-turning plays when it appeared he would be sacked.
The RedHawks (13-1) extended major college football's longest winning streak after racing to a 35-7 second-quarter lead. Miami scored two more touchdowns in the fourth to stymie a rally by Louisville (9-4), which has lost five bowl games in the past six years.
Bowl bonanza
Roethlisberger led the RedHawks to their first bowl appearance since 1986 and their first postseason win in 28 years, punctuating the team's only 13-win season.
He was 16-of-20 for 291 yards before halftime. In the first two quarters, the RedHawks had 16 plays that gained 10 yards or more.
"He is all that they talked about," Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said. "He is a great player. We couldn't tackle him, and he made some great throws."
The RedHawks outgained Louisville 597-492 in a matchup of high-powered offenses and their defense scored on Matt Puserati's 35-yard interception return in the fourth quarter.
Louisville quarterback Stefan LeFors was 17-of-26 for 224 yards but was intercepted three times.
Roethlisberger joined Leftwich and Pennington as the only MAC quarterbacks to reach 11,000 career yards in total offense. He finished with 19 touchdowns and one interception in his last five games, then gave a typically humble assessment of his first-half performance in giving most of the credit to his teammates and coaches.
"Humble is definitely a good word for it," Miami receiver Martin Nance said. "That should be the title in front of his name. He's making all the plays. It's just a matter of us finishing them. Obviously, he's a great quarterback."