Blue Raiders Cap Season With Bahamas Bowl Victory

Courtesy Sam Doughton and Anthony Fiorella / MTSU Athletics

Middle Tennessee football battled back after trailing at halftime, outscoring Toledo in the second half to power past the Rockets 31–24 in the 2021 Bahamas Bowl on Dec. 17.

Nicholas Vattiato earned offensive player of the game honors after completing 23 of 35 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns, while D.Q. Thomas earned defensive player of the game honors, leading the Blue Raiders with eight tackles and helping to hold the Rockets to just 4 out of 15 attempts on third down in the afternoon.

The game marks Middle Tennessee’s first bowl win since triumphing over Arkansas State in the 2017 Camellia Bowl. The Bahamas Bowl victory improved MTSU’s record on the season to 7–6.

True freshman quarterback Vattiato, who was pressed into a starting role in the ninth game of the season after an injury to Chase Cunningham, came up huge at the Bahamas Bowl. His biggest play was a 59-yard touchdown pass to Jarrin Pierce that gave Middle Tennessee a 28–17 lead.

*MTSU QB Nicholas Vattiato; photos by Nathan Wallach*

With under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter of the Bahamas Bowl, MTSU offensive coordinator Brent Dearmon sent the play to the huddle. The Blue Raiders were hanging on to a 21–17 lead. Vattiato called the play and looked in the direction of senior wideout Pierce for a moment before the team broke the huddle.

Recognizing the coverage was exactly what he’d seen when they practiced this play, Vattiato’s mind raced before the ball was snapped. While the 18-year-old quarterback’s mind might’ve been racing, his even-keeled demeanor helped lead him and his team to this moment.

As the 2021 season began, Vattiato’s role was like most other true freshmen quarterbacks in the college football landscape. He was relegated to the scout team, taking reps against the starters on defense while doing his best in practice to help conduct the offense of the Blue Raiders’ opponent that week. With veterans Bailey Hockman, Chase Cunningham and Mike DiLiello in front of him, Vattiato was destined to be redshirted.

But following a loss to UTSA earlier in the season, Hockman left the program and Chase Cunningham took over as the starter.

MTSU found itself back to the .500 mark for the year after the eighth game of the season, a blowout win on homecoming against Southern Mississippi. That win, however, would come at a cost, as the Blue Raiders learned that the knee injury that Cunningham suffered in the game was season-ending. Vattiato and DiLiello remained as the only quarterbacks on the roster that had taken any snaps during the year, with most of DiLiello’s coming from a wildcat package and Vattiato’s in a mop-up role at the end of games.

A day prior to the game at Western Kentucky, Dearmon told Vattiato that he would be the starting quarterback for Middle Tennessee.

It wasn’t the cleanest of games; Middle Tennessee fell to 4–5 with the 48–21 loss and Vattiato tossed five interceptions, but the Blue Raiders earned two more wins before the end of the regular season, good enough for a Bahamas Bowl bid against the Toledo Rockets.

The Blue Raiders got on the board first in the Bahamas, as Vattiato found Yusuf Ali on a quick hitch route, and the wide receiver lowered his shoulder into the end zone for a six-yard touchdown catch.

After a pair of touchdowns from the Rockets on explosive plays, MT responded with two spectacular catches of their own: a 23-yard, one-handed grab from Pierce and a 17-yard, high-point catch from Izaiah Gathings to place the ball at the Toledo 1, where Frank Peasant pounded the rock into the end zone, tying the game 14–14.

Toledo took a 17–14 lead into the locker room at halftime. The score would remain the same until the first play of the fourth quarter, when DiLiello came in and ran the QB option up the gut 17 yards to give MTSU a 21–17 lead.

A stalwart defensive stand gave the Blue Raiders the ball at their own 41. That’s when Pierce pulled out a double move on second down and sprinted past the secondary to glide under a pass from Vattiato and ease into the end zone for the 59-yard touchdown.

“It’s really kind of funny, because we ran the same play in practice all week and Jarrin was so wide open I missed him,” Vattiato said of the play, which turned out to be the longest play in MTSU bowl game history. “When we got to the sidelines, I smiled and grabbed [Pierce] and told him ‘I wasn’t going to miss you that time,’” Vattiato said.

Shortly after, Zaylin Wood grabbed an MTSU interception after Jordan Ferguson struck Toledo quarterback Dequan Finn’s arm as he was passing. Wood tracked down the wobbly pass and four plays later MTSU added a field goal, going on to win the game by a final score of 31–24.