Kaaya throws 4 TDs, Dorsett's 201 yards on 4 catches lift Miami over Arkansas State, 41-20
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Phillip Dorsett had 201 receiving yards and two touchdowns on only four catches, Brad Kaaya threw four touchdown passes and Miami easily beat Arkansas State 41-20 on Saturday.
Dorsett became the first FBS player since 1997 to top 200 yards on no more than four catches. Kaaya finished with 342 yards, including scoring throws to Clive Walford and Braxton Berrios, and the Hurricanes finished with 488 yards of offense.
Duke Johnson had 14 carries for 90 yards and a touchdown, and Gus Edwards added another rushing score for Miami (2-1).
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fredi Knighten threw for 217 yards, ran for a touchdown and caught a scoring pass for Arkansas State (1-2). Johnston White had a rushing touchdown with 9:59 remaining for the Red Wolves.
The Hurricanes visit Nebraska next week, the first time those teams will have met since the Rose Bowl at the end of the 2001 season — when Miami rolled to a 37-14 win that finished off the school's fifth and most recent national championship.
The deep ball — a Miami staple in recent years — had seemed almost forgotten in the season's first two games, when the Hurricanes failed to complete a single pass of at least 40 yards.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It was back Saturday, early and often.
Dorsett and Kaaya hooked up on a 63-yard scoring pass on Miami's second play from scrimmage and the Hurricanes were off and running. Dorsett's other catches went for 51, 24 and then another 63 yards again for another score in the third quarter.
Dorsett's 201 yards were the third-most in Miami receiving history, topped by only Eddie Brown's 220 against Boston College on Nov. 23, 1984 — the game where Doug Flutie's pass to Gerard Phelan won it as time expired — and Wesley Carroll's 208 yards at California on Sept. 15, 1990.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Miami had touchdowns on its first three drives, including a 33-yard run from Johnson. The Hurricanes are now 13-0 all-time when Johnson rushes for at least one score.
Edwards rumbled 27 yards to make it 27-7 late in the half, before Knighten caught a 19-yard pass from receiver Tres Houston to get the Red Wolves within 13 at halftime.
But Kaaya put the game away in the third with touchdown passes to Dorsett and Berrios, and Miami took a 41-14 lead into the fourth. Arkansas State was in Miami territory with a chance to get within two scores, but Thurston Armbrister sacked Knighten with 5:01 remaining to essentially seal the outcome.