No. 5 Miami Hurricanes rout No. 18 USF Bulls for second ranked win of the season
The Miami Hurricanes left no doubt on Saturday night.
They were not going to be the USF Bulls’ latest victim.
The fifth-ranked Hurricanes used an all-around effort to make quick work of the No. 18 Bulls in a 49-12 win at Hard Rock Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 66,591.
Miami is now 3-0 to start the season, with ranked wins over then-No. 6 Notre Dame and now USF. The Bulls, who opened the season with a pair of ranked wins over Boise State and Florida, fall to 2-1.
USF entered the game having been just the fourth team since the start of the AP poll in 1936 to win its first two games of a season against ranked opponents while being unranked itself.
They were trying to become the first team to open a season 3-0 against three ranked teams since the Hurricanes did it in 1987 on their way to their second of five national championships.
Miami made sure that didn’t happen.
“There was a lot of motivation going into this thing, besides the fact that they were ranked football team because I have a lot of respect for their coaches and their players,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said, “but it’s an insane game. You have to play at your very best because you’re never all the way out of these games. Our guys really took it personal to not let anything get in the way of doing their job. Intensity, physicality, urgency and discipline all came together very nicely for us tonight.”
The game was delayed one hour and 41 minutes early in the second quarter due to inclement weather. The Hurricanes were leading 14-3 at that point, went up 28-6 at halftime and held on from there.
Quarterback Carson Beck completed 23 of 28 passes for 340 yards and three touchdowns passes — two to freshman wide receiver Josh Moore in the first quarter and one to CharMar Brown in the fourth quarter — and a pair of interceptions while also running for a touchdown.
Mark Fletcher Jr. added two rushing touchdowns of his own — of 38 yards in the second quarter and 13 yards in the third quarter — while leading Miami’s run game with 120 rushing yards on 16 carries. Fletcher now has multiple games of at least 100 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns against ranked opponents after also doing it as a freshman against then-No. 9 Louisville. No other UM player has done that since 2005.
UM put in its second-team offense for the final drive, with Emory Williams orchestrating a seven-play, 57-yard drive capped by a 5-yard Girard Pringle Jr. rushing touchdown to wrap up scoring with 1:48 left to play.
The defense bent at times but didn’t break often. Bulls dual-threat quarterback Byrum Brown got his yards, completing 20 of 36 passes for 274 yards, but USF didn’t reach the end zone until the fourth quarter on a 12-yard touchdown from Brown to Christian Neptune that cut Miami’s lead to 35-12.
Brown rushed for just 2 yards on 13 carries, which also factors in losing 16 yards on two sacks.
“We knew that game plan really pretty much revolves around him,” Hurricanes edge rusher Akheem Mesidor said. “He makes that offense go. All we were focused on was just containing him, knocking the pocket back, just trying to keep him in the pocket, and forcing the football. And I think we did a pretty good job.”
Nico Gramatica hit a pair of first-half field goals from 45 yards and 28 yards for USF. The next seven drives included four three-and-outs, a pair of turnovers — a Bryce Fitzgerald interception in the second quarter and a Chase Smith fumble recovery in the third quarter — and a turnover on downs after USF marched down to the UM 8 yard line before the Bulls finally got into the end zone.
But at that point, the clock on USF’s Cinderella story to begin the season had already stuck midnight.
(It was actually 9:03 p.m., but close enough.)
The Hurricanes wrap up non-conference play next week against the Florida Gators, with kickoff on Sept. 20 from Hard Rock Stadium either at 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m.
This story was originally published September 13, 2025 at 9:37 PM.
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