— By David Walsh
MIAMI — Marshall ended Florida International’s hopes of reaching the Conference USA championship game. The Thundering Herd used two touchdown passes from Isaiah Green and also scored on a blocked punt and interception return to win 28-25 on Saturday.
The loss by FIU (8-4, 6-2 C-USA) opened the door for Middle Tennessee (8-4, 7-1) to capture the East outright. The outcome means UAB returns to Murfreesboro, Tenn., next Saturday for the C-USA title game.
The Herd (8-3, 6-2) won its third straight game and now gets a chance to play spoiler again next Saturday when it visits Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Both schools had games canceled in mid-September by Hurricane Florence. Virginia Tech rallied to defeat rival Virginia 34-31 in overtime Friday night. The Hokies (5-6) lined up the Marshall game in case a scenario to six wins and bowl eligibility became reality.
FIU, which was seeking its first outright division title in school history, got within 3 at 28-25 on Napoleon Maxwell’s 1-yard TD run with 4:47 left in the fourth period. After the kickoff, Marshall turned to its ground game and ran out the clock. Green ran for one first down, Marcel Williams another and Brenden Knox got two on runs of 31 and 11 yards to ice the win.
Knox led the Herd with 109 yards on 19 carries. Green hit on 18-of-27 passes for 176 yards with two scores and two interceptions.
Tyre Brady, playing front of the home folks, had five catches for 45 yards and scores covering 16 and 3 yards.
“At the end we had to put it away and we did,” Herd coach Doc Holliday said. “The offensive line did a good job. That young guy (Knox) had a great day. We beat a good football team.”
FIU had 391 total yards. Maxwell led FIU in rushing with 96 yards on nine carries. Starter James Morgan completed 21-of-33 passes for 177 yards and two interceptions. Christian Alexander took over for Morgan in the second half and led FIU on a TD drive, but he was hurt and Morgan returned.
Talk of the possible game with Virginia Tech was a topic of conversation during the week.
“I worried about the distractions,” Holliday said. “We look forward to this game. Virginia Tech wants to see if they can get bowl eligible. We’ll see what we can do about that.”
Marshall scored on its opening possession, going 80 yards in six plays. Green connected with Brady for 16-yard TD. On its first possession, Morgan had a pass picked off by Omari Cobb and returned 25 yards for a score at 14-0 lead.
The Panthers cut the deficit to 14-10 by halftime. Late in half, each team had missed field goals. Rohrwasser failed from 25 yards and Jose Borregales from 28 with 47 seconds left in half. FIU got within field goal range on its first drive of the third period, but Borreales had a 43-yard try blocked by Juwon Young, who started his collegiate career at the University of Miami.
Later in the quarter, the Herd reached the FIU red zone, but Green had a pass picked off at the 5 to end the drive. The Herd’s other big special teams play came when Brandon Drayton blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone for a 21-10 lead.
FIU’s Christian Alexander later ran 8 yards for a touchdown and caught the 2-point pass from Maurice Alexander on a throwback to pull within 28-25.
This was Knox’s second 100-yard game. He and Anthony Anderson have been sharing the workload after Tyler King and Keion Davis went out with injuries.
“We decided to do our part, go with the flow,” Knox said. “Make something out of nothing. It’s been a blessing and privilege so far. The O line, we have little pep talks. We push each other to be the best we can be. We were talking up (Virginia Tech) after the game. We look forward to this one.”