MIAMI (AP) — Jakobe Thomas returned an interception 37 yards for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to give Middle Tennessee a 33-28 victory over Florida International on Saturday night.

Thomas stepped in front of Rivaldo Fairweather, who had caught three touchdown passes, and ran untouched for the go-ahead score with 2:50 remaining. FIU drove to the Middle Tennesse 22-yard line on its final drive, but Haden Carlson threw his fourth interception on fourth-and-10 with 27 seconds left.

Chase Cunningham completed 29 of 42 passes for 279 yards and added 32 yards rushing with a pair of touchdown runs for Middle Tennessee (7-5, 4-4 Conference USA).

Carlson was 29-of-52 passing for 414 yards and threw four touchdown passes to go with his four picks for FIU (4-8, 2-6). Trailing 27-7 midway through the third quarter, Carlson and Fairweather connected on a 75-yard touchdown to pull to 27-14, and again for a 3-yard score that gave the Panthers a 28-27 lead with 10:51 remaining.

___

More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap_top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://bit.ly/3pqZVaF.

Haden Carlson

Thomas, with pick-6, lifts Middle Tennesse over FIU 33-28