No. 9 Miami Hurricanes use strong second half to blow out Stanford Cardinal
The Miami Hurricanes got back on track Saturday night.
One week after dropping their first game of the season in shutout fashion, the ninth-ranked Hurricanes overcame a slow start to rout the Stanford Cardinal 42-7 at Hard Rock Stadium.
Miami improves to 6-1 on the season (2-1 in Atlantic Coast Conference play) and is now bowl eligible after picking up its sixth win. Stanford falls to 3-5 and 2-3 in ACC play.
“We just started clicking,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said, “and playing more like Miami Hurricane football.”
But the game wasn’t a blowout until the second half. The teams went into the break tied 7-7, with Stanford scoring on its opening drive and Miami scoring on its final drive of the half. The Hurricanes broke the game open with a 21-point third quarter off three Mark Fletcher Jr. rushing touchdowns after Miami took advantage of excellent field position the entire quarter.
UM started all four of its third-quarter drives in Stanford territory, the first two thanks to long punt returns from freshman phenom Malachi Toney and the second two following interceptions from linebacker Wesley Bissainthe and Xavier Lucas.
Fletcher scored on runs of 1, 3 and 7 yards in the frame for his first career three-touchdown game.
The junior now has nine rushing touchdowns on the season and 22 for his career to pass Clinton Portis for 10th all-time in UM history. He is the 14th Hurricanes player since 1995 to have a game with three rushing touchdowns.
“I think Mark Fletcher again showed why he’s such a great player and so important to this football team,” Cristobal said. “You give him the carries necessary to get him going, and I think the tone and the perspective of the game changes.”
Before that third-quarter outburst, sixth-year senior CJ Daniels tied the game late in the second quarter with a 5-yard touchdown catch over Stanford’s Collin Wright on a fade route with 1:15 left in the first half to cap a 15-play, 71-yard drive.
“That was huge for us,” quarterback Carson Beck said.
Jordan Lyle added a 17-yard rushing touchdown of his own in the fourth quarter to push Miami’s lead to 28 with 9:34 left to play. The Hurricanes subbed in a slew of backups on both sides of the ball after that. Girard Pringle Jr. then capped scoring with a 3-yard rushing touchdown with 26 seconds left to cap a 12-play drive led by backup quarterback Emory Williams.
It’s the first time Miami has scored five rushing touchdowns against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent since doing so against Toledo in 2018.
“We work hard every day, so it’s good to put it on display,” Fletcher said. “We just had to continue to execute. And that’s what we did.”
Beck completed 21 of 28 passes for 189 yards and the touchdown to Daniels. Fletcher had 106 rushing yards on 23 carries. Tony Johnson had a team-high 69 receiving yards, while Toney caught five passes for 52 yards and had 73 yards on a pair of third-quarter punt returns.
All the while, Miami’s defense, playing without one of its star players in edge rusher Akheem Mesidor, was stellar. After giving up a touchdown on Stanford’s opening drive — a 9-yard Caden High catch from Ben Gulbranson to cap a 12-play, 74-yard drive — the Hurricanes held the Cardinal scoreless on their final 10 drives.
Stanford’s total yardage after that first drive: 70 yards.
The Hurricanes defense had six tackles for loss (including two sacks), the two interceptions, six more pass breakups and five quarterback hurries.
“We just had to go out there and execute,” Bissainthe said. “That’s all it was. We just had to calm down and everybody go out there and do their job.”
Miami next travels to play SMU on Nov. 1.
This story was originally published October 25, 2025 at 10:06 PM.
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