Middle Tennessee State Trolls Miami Again With Bowl Game Rings
Following a historic 8-5 regular season and a 25-23 victory in the Hawaii Bowl, the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders recently unveiled their newest piece of hardware to commemorate the occasion. The bowl ring features the Middle Tennessee State logo in the center surrounded by diamonds, outlined by a border that dons the “Hawaii Bowl Champions” monicker, and features each athlete’s name along one of the sides.
On the other side, however, the Blue Raiders elected to include a somewhat surprising feature: the final score of MTSU’s 45-31 victory over the University of Miami.
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Of course, who can forget when Middle Tennessee State surged onto everyone’s radar back in September of 2022 after the Blue Raiders stunned a top-25 Miami Hurricanes team?
The game was an absolutely dominant performance from MTSU. The Blue Raiders never trailed in the contest, they tallied over 500 yards of total offense and put on a display of offense that featured 408 passing yards and three touchdowns from starting quarterback Chase Cunningham with one of those touchdown passes coming on a 98-yard connection with receiver DJ England-Chisholm. “It was a butt-kicking from the very beginning,'' MTSU coach Rick Stockstill said.
Long-time Florida State fans might recognize the name of the Blue Raiders’ head football coach. Prior to his tenure as the head coach of the MTSU football program, Rick Stockstill attended Florida State University. As a quarterback under Coach Bobby Bowden in the 1980s, Stockstill was a three-year letterman, a team captain, and earned honorable mention All-American honors in 1981, but he was 0-2 all-time versus the Miami Hurricanes.
Coach Stockstill finally got his revenge in September of 2022 and led the MTSU Blue Raiders to their first victory over a top-25 opponent in over 20 tries. In true Seminole fashion, the veteran ball coach couldn’t help but troll the Hurricanes in the days that followed their historic win: "Bunch of my former teammates and all that texted me before the game, good luck, kick their tail and all that stuff,” said Stockstill. “So, I know Tallahassee, I know they’re pretty excited about the mighty Blue Raiders kicking these Hurricanes’ tail, because we kicked their tail and I ain’t afraid to say it.”
Middle Tennessee State was a double-digit underdog prior to taking the field in Hard Rock Stadium on that fateful Saturday afternoon in September. They left with a commanding victory over a storied program, and now, their bowl rings will forever immortalize the day the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders shocked the Miami Hurricanes in their own stadium. A design choice that definitely made college football fans chuckle and undoubtedly earned the respect of the Florida State faithful.
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