Chase Cunningham passed for 408 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another score as the visiting Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders upset the 25th-ranked Miami Hurricanes, 45-31, on Saturday afternoon.
MTSU’s DJ England-Chisolm caught two passes for 169 yards and two scores. Jaylin Lane had four catches for 130 yards, and Elijah Metcalf had one catch for a 69-yard score.
The Hurricanes (2-2), who have lost two straight games, benched star quarterback Tyler Van Dyke in the third quarter in favor of Jake Garcia.
Miami also suffered unspecified injuries to its top two running backs, Henry Parrish Jr. and Jaylan Knighton.
MTSU (3-1) knocked off an Atlantic Coast Conference team for the first since beating Syracuse in 2017.
The Hurricanes, who lost 17-9 last week to Texas A&M, struggled in the first half on Saturday, extending their streak to six consecutive quarters without a touchdown.
Miami turned the ball over on its first three possessions, falling behind 24-3 in the second quarter. All three turnovers occurred deep in Miami territory.
The Canes finally scored a touchdown on a 6-yard near-lateral pass to Parrish with 1:20 left in the second quarter, cutting the Canes’ deficit to 24-10.
In the third quarter, MTSU took a 31-10 lead on a 69-yard TD pass to Metcalf.
With 7:43 left in the third, Van Dyke was benched in favor of Garcia, who immediately led the Canes to a 72-yard TD drive. The key play was a 39-yard downfield pass to Key’Shawn Smith, which set up Thad Franklin Jr.’s 1-yard TD run.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Miami was stopped on a fourth-and-goal incompletion. On the next play, Cunningham hit England-Chisolm on a fly pattern for a 98-yard score.
Smith took the ensuing kickoff for a 91-yard TD return, cutting Miami’s deficit to 38-24.
But MTSU added Frank Peasant’s 1-yard TD run with 8:42 left to put the game away.
–Field Level Media
