By Jordan McPherson
The Miami Hurricanes entered Hard Rock Stadium on a mission.
They had a statement to make.
And while it wasn’t pretty late, what a statement they made.
The 10th-ranked Hurricanes opened Year 4 of the Mario Cristobal era with a thrilling 27-24 win over the sixth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Sunday in front of an announced crowd of 66,793 — most clad in orange — to give themselves early momentum for a season with College Football Playoff aspirations.
Carter Davis hit a 47-yard field goal with 1:04 left to play to give Miami (1-0) the lead for good after the Hurricanes blew a 14-point second-half lead.
The defense, which was steady for three quarters before Notre Dame (0-1) started rallying in the fourth, held the Fighting Irish on their last attempt to complete their comeback and sealed Miami’s win. Akheem Mesidor and Rueben Bain Jr. combined on a sack of quarterback CJ Carr on the final play of the game.
“We knew that this game was going to be about: Who’s got one more shot in them?” Cristobal said. “Who’s willing to go and just not let anything get in the way of doing their job? That was a challenge to our players ... They took to that challenge, and they ate it up. Man, they got after it. They got after it all night, all the way to the end. Sometimes, domination takes play on the final play of the game as crazy as that sounds, but that’s what happened.”
The Hurricanes needed that to happen after the game nearly slipped out of their grasps.
After going up 21-7, Miami’s offense went three-and-out on four consecutive drives to allow Notre Dame to get back into the game.
The Fighting Irish got within 21-14 on a 1-yard pass from Carr to Jordan Faison five seconds into the fourth quarter.
After the teams exchanged field goals, Notre Dame then tied the score with 3:21 left on a 7-yard rush by Carr to cap a three-play, 75-yard drive.
But Miami didn’t fold. The offense found life again when it mattered, going 46 yards over 10 plays to set up Davis’ game-winning field goal.
“Being able to execute in those situations ultimately wins you football games,” quarterback Carson Beck said, “especially close ones like tonight.
It was arguably Miami’s biggest season opener in more than two decades, the first time UM played in a top-10 matchup to begin the season since 2004 and the fifth time overall in school history. The Hurricanes are now 4-1 in those games, also winning in 2004 (No. 5 Miami’s 16-10 overtime win over No. 4 FSU), 1988 (No. 6 Miami’s 31-0 win vs. No. 1 Florida State) and 1984 (No. 10 Miami’s 20-18 win at No. 1 Auburn) while losing in 1955 (No. 9 Miami’s 14-6 loss at No. 10 Georgia Tech).
And on Sunday, the Hurricanes did it with a complete team effort and a blend of highlight worthy moments and sound execution of fundamentals.
Beck, making his Miami debut after transferring in from Georgia, completed 20 of 31 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns. He threw first-half touchdown passes of 28 yards to Malachi Toney and 20 yards to CJ Daniels, the latter made possible by Daniels making a leaping one-handed grab in between a pair of Notre Dame defenders to give Miami a 14-7 lead going into halftime.
The Hurricanes followed that up by taking up more than half of the third quarter with a 12-play drive that went 75 yards and was capped by redshirt sophomore running back CharMar “Marty” Brown bullying his way through a pile at the goal line for a 5-yard touchdown.
“All them boys pushing me, it was great to have them behind me,” Brown said.
Miami’s offense sputtered after that until the decisive final drive.
The Hurricanes’ revamped defense, under new defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman, came up with big moments when it needed. They broke up three passes, forced two turnovers — a Justin Scott forced fumble recovered by Jakobe Thomas in the first quarter and a Bain interception in the fourth quarter after Damari Brown made the initial deflection — and had five tackles for loss, including three sacks.
“It’s night and day from last year,” linebacker Wesley Bissainthe said of the defense as a whole.
Miami’s win adds to the mayhem at the top of the polls that came from the first full weekend of the college football season.
Top-ranked Texas lost 14-7 to No. 3 Ohio State. No. 4 Clemson lost 17-10 to No. 9 LSU. No. 8 Alabama lost 31-17 to unranked Florida State.
And on Sunday, No. 10 Miami beat No. 6 Notre Dame.
“Don’t count us out,” Mesidor said. “Don’t ever count us out.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2025 at 11:12 PM.
