Miami

Numbers behind the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders’ win over the Miami Hurricanes


The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders shocked the college football world with their 45-31 victory over the No. 25 Miami Hurricanes.

MTSU was led by senior quarterback Chase Cunningham who had a day, logging 408 passing yards and three touchdowns.

Entering the game, the Blue Raiders were 0-24 all-time vs AP-ranked opponents with 23 of the losses coming by double-digits, but it didn’t take long for them to flip the script.

Read More: Week 4’s top plays, games and takeaways

The game was never close, and Miami was not able to overcome three first-quarter turnovers. It was 10-0 before the Hurricanes got on the board, and they did not come within 14 points for the remainder of the game.

Here are some other notable numbers from the upset win:

3: MTSU is now 3-0 all-time against Miami. Their previous meetings occurred in 1931 and 1932. The Hurricanes never held the lead in any of those games, but this is the first one in which they scored a point as the other two games ended 20-0 and 7-0.

1.5 million: The Blue Raiders cashed in with the win and a check. Their trip to Miami included a $1.5 million guarantee and an additional $40,000 for travel expenses, according to USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz.

14: The Blue Raiders offense was powered by big plays, causing them to land surprisingly short in other areas. Their 14 first downs are tied for the second fewest by a team to score 45 points in the last five seasons.

1978: Miami closed as 25.5-point favorites. This made Middle Tennessee’s victory the largest spread upset against Miami since the 1978 FBS/FCS split.

First: Junior wide receiver DJ England-Chisolm recorded two catches in the game and scored as many touchdowns. His receptions of 71 and 98 yards made him the first FBS player this season to have multiple 70-yard touchdown receptions in a game.

Cunningham’s other long touchdown pass went to freshman wide receiver Elijah Metcalf, making him the first FBS player with three 65-yard touchdown passes in a game against a Power 5 opponent since then-Nebraska Cornhuskers quarterback Zac Taylor accomplished the feat against the Kansas Jayhawks in 2006.

Taylor is currently the Cincinnati Bengals head coach.

ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this story





Source link