No. 2 Miami Hurricanes rally late but fall to Louisville for first loss
On a night when they never led, on a night when so many things went wrong, the Miami Hurricanes still found themselves with the football in their hand and a chance to keep their undefeated season alive.
The Cardiac Canes made their first appearance on Friday night at Hard Rock Stadium.
But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t meant to be.
The second-ranked Hurricanes, down by 14 in the first quarter and by 11 with nearly 13-and-a-half minutes left to play, got themselves within a field goal and got themselves in a position to tie the game only to lose 24-21 to the Louisville Cardinals for their first loss of the 2025 season.
Carson Beck’s fourth interception of the game — to T.J. Capers with Miami in field-goal range and less than a minute to play — sealed UM’s defeat.
Miami falls to 5-1 and 1-1 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Louisville improves to 5-1 and 2-1 in the ACC.
Friday marked the fifth time in UM history — and second in as many seasons — that the Hurricanes lost to an unranked opponent while themselves being ranked in the top five of the AP poll.
The other four instances: Nov. 9, 2024 (a 28-23 loss to unranked Georgia Tech when Miami was No. 4), Nov. 24, 2017 (a 24-14 loss to unranked Pittsburgh when Miami was No. 2), Nov. 19, 2005 (a 14-10 loss to unranked Georgia Tech when Miami was No. 3) and Oct. 30, 2004 (a 31-28 loss to unranked North Carolina when Miami was No. 4).
“A really disappointing evening,” coach Mario Cristobal called it. “We didn’t coach well enough. We didn’t execute well enough and certainly came up short. Just not good enough.”
And yet Miami, favored by 13-and-a-half points, did enough despite a slew of self-inflicted wounds — four turnovers, nine penalties, just 63 rushing yards — to make things interesting until the end.
Louisville had seemed to all but wrap up the game much earlier on a 36-yard catch-and-run touchdown from Miller Moss to Chris Bell, his second of the game, to go up 24-13 with 13:27 left to play. Linebackers Mohamed Toure and Wesley Bissainthe whiffed on the initial tackle, and Bell went untouched the rest of the way to the end zone.
Beck, who was far from his sharpest on Friday, then threw his third interception on the ensuing drive.
But Miami wasn’t going down without a fight.
Nickel corner Keionte Scott forced a fumble against Louisville running back Isaac Brown that safety Zechariah Poyser recovered and returned to the 12-yard line.
True freshman wide receiver Malachi Toney, who had a team-high 135 receiving yards on nine catches, scored a 12-yard rushing touchdown one play later and threw a completion on the two-point conversion attempt to get Miami within 24-21 with 7:37 left.
“The game’s never over until the clock hits zero,” Toney said.
The defense then got another stop, giving UM the ball back at its 15-yard line with 4:05 left to play.
UM marched down to the Louisville 31, converting a pair of third downs to get within kicker Carter Davis’ range for a game-tying field goal, before Beck threw his fourth interception with 32 seconds left on the clock.
Three Louisville kneel downs later, and the clock hit zero.
“We have to protect the ball better,” Beck said. “That can’t happen. It’s unacceptable.”
Miami needed that late rally attempt after Louisville capitalized on a rare slow Hurricanes start.
The Hurricanes had not trailed by more than three points and were behind for fewer than 10 total minutes through their first five games of the season.
Ten minutes into Friday’s game, they were down 14-0.
The Cardinals opened scoring with a 75-yard touchdown drive capped by a 1-yard Miller Moss quarterback keeper. One play before that, the Cardinals ran a fake on a field goal attempt to perfection.
Louisville then went up 14-0 one drive later on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Moss to Bell when a pair of Hurricanes defenders collided trying to cover Bell on a crossing route.
“They did a good job getting the ball out quick and setting up the run, but we just went back to work,” defensive tackle David Blay said. “We made some adjustments to slow them down, focused on our assignments, and tried to finish strong.”
Miami’s defense stepped up after that, limiting Louisville to just three points over its next six drives, but the Hurricanes’ offense couldn’t fully complete the comeback in that span.
The Hurricanes scored on a 2-yard Mark Fletcher Jr. rushing touchdown to get within 14-7 with 2:19 left in the first quarter and added a 27-yard Davis field goal with 1:56 left in the first half to go into the break down 14-10.
Beck made key throws on both of those drives. First he completed passes of 30 and 39 yards to CJ Daniels and Toney, respectively, on the touchdown drive and then he had a 61-yard catch-and-run to Toney on the field goal drive.
But a pair of Beck interceptions in between those scoring drives stunted Miami’s chance to get closer.
Both teams exchanged field goals in the third quarter — a 48-yard shot by Louisville’s Cooper Ranvier and a 41-yard make by Miami’s Davis — to make it 17-13 Louisville entering the fourth quarter.
And then came the mayhem of a finish that saw Miami rally but come up short.
“A tough loss,” Toney said.
Miami next hosts Stanford on Oct. 25 (7 p.m., ESPN). Louisville hosts Boston College on Oct. 25 (7:30 p.m., ACC Network).
This story was originally published October 17, 2025 at 10:26 PM.
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