Duke Johnson finished with four touchdowns, scoring them three different ways and leading Miami past Bethune-Cookman 38-10 on Saturday.
Johnson had a 95-yard kick return for a score, a 50-yard touchdown reception and scoring runs of 1 and 28 yards.
The Hurricanes (2-1) fell behind the Wildcats 7-0 for the second straight year before pulling away from their Football Championship Subdivision opponent and winning their sixth straight home opener.
Johnson now has six touchdowns in his first three college games, four of them going for more than 50 yards. He finished with 246 all-purpose yards and became the first Miami player with a four-touchdown game since Willis McGahee scored six against Virginia Tech in 2002.
Isidore Jackson had a 1-yard touchdown run for Bethune-Cookman (2-1).
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Johnson finished with 94 rushing yards and quarterback Stephen Morris shook off a rusty start and completed 20 of 35 passes for 211 yards for the Hurricanes, who return to Atlantic Coast Conference play at Georgia Tech next weekend.
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Rodney Scott led Bethune-Cookman with 72 rushing yards. The Wildcats had won eight straight games going back to last season.
The Wildcats took a 7-0 lead on Miami for the second straight year, when Jackson's score capped a six-play, 20-yard drive set up when the Hurricanes' Phillip Dorsett fumbled a punt return.
Last season, the Wildcats kept their edge on the Hurricanes for much of the first half.
Not this time. The lead lasted for all of 12 seconds — thanks to Johnson, whose home debut with the Hurricanes was one to remember.
After Jackson's score, Johnson took the ensuing kickoff, followed Dorsett through some gaping holes and sprinted untouched to the end zone, tying the game at 7-7. It was Miami's first kick-return touchdown since Lamar Miller scored against Ohio State two years ago, and the longest by a Hurricane since Devin Hester ran one back 100 yards against North Carolina State in 2004.
To think he was just getting started.
Miami took the lead after going 50 yards in nine plays midway through the second quarter, Johnson getting the last yard after taking a pitch and running left, cutting inside Bethune-Cookman safety D.J. Howard and diving just past the goal line for a 14-7 Miami lead. The Hurricanes forced a three-and-out on the next Bethune possession, and Jake Wieclaw's 20-yard field goal with 35 seconds left sent Miami into halftime leading 17-7.
And then Johnson dazzled again in the third, catching a short pass from Morris, waiting for some blocking to develop and sprinting 50 yards for his third score of the afternoon.
His fourth score came with 8:25 left, a 28-yard rush that pushed the lead to 31-10.
According to STATS LLC, the last Football Bowl Subdivision player with at least two rushing, one receiving and one return touchdown in the same game was East Carolina's Chris Johnson — now of the Tennessee Titans — in 2007.
Eduardo Clements had a 10-yard touchdown run with 3:56 left for Miami, which lost linebacker Denzel Perryman, safety Andrew Swasey and long-snapper Sean McNally to injuries. None of the three returned.
