MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. _ Ahead of Miami's game against South Florida rival FIU, Hurricanes coach Mark Richt hinted that maybe, just maybe, it was time.
He'd learned all he could about his young quarterbacks in practice. The only way he'd truly be able to evaluate their progress, he said during a radio interview, was in a game.
And so, after the Hurricanes went scoreless on their first two series against the Panthers, Richt turned to redshirt freshman N'Kosi Perry.
And Perry _ who became a fan favorite as starter Malik Rosier struggled at times with some accuracy issues _ took ample advantage of his opportunity.
The quarterback connected on his first 10 pass attempts and led the Hurricanes on two quick touchdown drives. His stellar play continued throughout the afternoon and that, combined with a dominant effort by the Hurricanes defense, helped No. 21 Miami secure a 31-17 win over FIU on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.
Though Perry saw significant playing time in Miami's 77-0 rout of Savannah State two weeks ago and got on the field last week late against Toledo, it was this day, this game, that seemed his real coming out party.
The quarterback, rated the sixth-best quarterback in the 2017 recruiting class by 247Sports.com, finished the day 17 of 25 for 224 yards. He had touchdown passes of 26, 12 and 17 yards and his play throughout the first half made it virtually impossible for Richt to pull him and reinsert Rosier.
Making Perry's performance even more impressive? The fact the Hurricanes were without two of their top receivers for most of the afternoon.
Former freshman All-American Ahmmon Richards missed his third consecutive game while dealing with a bone bruise on his knee and sophomore Jeff Thomas, who had a team-high 304 receiving yards before kickoff, left the game in the first quarter while reportedly dealing with dehydration.
Without those two targets, Perry turned to veteran Lawrence Cager and Mike Harley, both of whom delivered.
Cager's 26-yard touchdown catch with 14:54 left in the second half staked the Hurricanes to a 14-0 lead and his second score, a 17-yard touchdown catch with 7:50 left in the third pushed Miami's lead to, 31-0.
Harley, meanwhile, helped Perry move the offense downfield more than once, his career-high seven catches accounting for 76 yards. And the Hurricanes (3-1), who ran the ball well against Toledo last week, continued that trend Saturday, outrushing the Panthers 248-17.
Travis Homer finished with a game-high 114 rushing yards, notching his first 100-yard performance of the year. He also gave the Hurricanes (3-1) their first touchdown of the day, a 35-yard run.
As well as Perry and the offense played, scoring 31 unanswered points, Miami's defense put together yet another solid performance.
Though FIU (2-2) scored 17 points _ all in the fourth quarter while many of the Hurricanes reserves were on the field _ Miami limited FIU to 187 yards of total offense, with 139 of those coming in the fourth quarter. The Hurricanes had 11 tackles for loss, two sacks and held the Panthers to just 3 of 14 on third-down conversions.
