Golden Hurricane blow over Chippewas in Miami Beach Bowl
MIAMI -- John Bonamego called last week a "business trip" for his team after Central Michigan football was selected to play in the 2016 Miami Beach Bowl against the University of Tulsa.
It appeared the Golden Hurricane had the same mind set.
Tulsa (10-3) was all business from the get-go and defeated the Chippewas (6-7) in every statistical category in a 55-10 victory on Monday in the third annual Beach Bowl at Marlins Park.
CMU ended its season losing five of its last seven games.
"I felt like we matched up a little better than what we did today. Wejust weren't able to finish off drives and hurt ourselves with penalties," Bonamego said. "Defensively, we weren't able to get off the field.
"When you perform that way against a good football team, you're going to get beat."
Struggling to Score
In his final game in Maroon and Gold, senior quarterback Cooper Rush was under pressure most of the contest, throwing 3 interceptions and completing 24-of-49 passes for 241 yards.
"We weren't able to convert third-and longs," Rush said. "It was very frustrating."
Rush finished 22 yards short of breaking former Chippewa Dan LeFevour's Mid-American Conference record of 12,905 career passing yards.
"I was just trying to get completions at the end," Rush said. "I was sick of seeing incompletions."
Senior running back Jahray Hayes scored the only Chippewa touchdown of the day with a 13-yard scamper late in the fourth quarter. Senior kicker Brian Eavy added a 26-yard field goal in the first half.
Former CMU basketball player Austin Stewart lead the Chippewas in receiving with 55 yards on 4 catches.
Spreading it out
Tulsa's spread offense was a challenge for the Chippewas through the entirety of the game.
The Golden Hurricane went no huddle almost every play and used bubble screens and half-back draws before taking their deep shots.
UT quarterback Dane Evans broke the Beach Bowl record with 304 yards passing and 5 touchdowns on 28-of-38 passing. Evans was named Most Valuable Player of the game.
Tulsa receivers Josh Atkinson (131 yards, 1 touchdown) and Keevan Lucas (72 yards, 3 touchdowns) each took advantage of the Chippewa secondary without All-Conference junior cornerback Amari Coleman.
Running backs James Flanders (100 yards) and D'Angelo Brewer (105 yards) each went over the century mark as the Golden Hurricane added 227 yards on the ground.
"They have playmakers at every position," Bonamego said. "Their tempo is really hard to defend and they just ware you down. It's a great system."
Tulsa became the first FBS Division-1 team to have a 3,000 yard passer, two 1,000 yard running backs and two 1,000 yard receivers in the same season.
Rush and 16 other seniors competed in their final game on Monday.
Bonamego told the seniors before the game to enjoy the moment and have fun.
CMU falls to 3-7 all time in bowl games. The Chippewas' last bowl victory came in 2012 at the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit.
