‘That’s the standard’: Hurricanes get back on track with decisive win over Stanford
Things weren’t going right for the Miami Hurricanes early on Saturday night against the Stanford Cardinal. Their first three offensive drives stalled out, ending with a missed field goal, a punt and a turnover on downs. Twenty-five plays, possession for more than 12 of the game’s first 20 minutes, and nothing to show for it except for a one-touchdown deficit.
With UM coming off its first loss of the season a week prior in an upset defeat by the Louisville Cardinals, was there cause for concern?
Not really.
“When we don’t get the result we want early,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said, “you have got to trust each other and have the resilience, not only as players, but as a staff, that if we just stay on course and stay on schedule and follow the game plan at some point in time it is going to break.”
It eventually broke in Miami’s favor, in a resounding way.
The defense dominated after giving up a touchdown on its first drive. The offense marched down the field drive after drive following those first three failed attempts, taking advantage of short fields presented to them by punt returns and takeaways.
The end result? A much-needed 42-7 Miami win over Stanford to right the ship as the Hurricanes continue their quest to make the 12-team College Football Playoff.
“It was huge,” quarterback Carson Beck said. “Every single week, that’s our goal to go 1-0. You hear that all the time from coach Cristobal and all the players, right? We preach that every single day.”
That mantra, a cliche one around college football and sports in general, is magnified now for the Hurricanes (6-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) given Miami’s standing. That Louisville loss eliminated a lot of the Hurricanes’ margin for error over the second half of the season. UM is still in a position to make the College Football Playoff should it win out the rest of its schedule, but a second loss down the stretch would put them on shakier ground.
That’s why a performance like Saturday was so important.
Not just the win, but how they won.
Miami, which fell one spot in the latest AP poll released Sunday afternoon and is tied with BYU for No. 10, scored 42 unanswered points after falling behind 7-0 10:25 into the game. The Hurricanes scored on six of their final seven possessions, with the only missed chance for points came when they went for it on fourth and 1 on the Stanford 21 midway through the third quarter and came up a yard short.
The momentum shifted in Miami’s favor on its final drive of the first half. Beck led a 15-play, 71-yard drive that ended with a highlight catch from CJ Daniels, who hauled in a 5-yard touchdown over Stanford cornerback Collin Wright on a fade pass.
“To be able to get a touchdown there at the end was honestly huge,” said Beck, who completed 21 of 28 passes for 189 yards and the touchdown one week after throwing a career-high four interceptions in the Louisville loss. “Our defense played amazing in the first half to be able to keep it so close, and then ultimately coming out of half, we were able to kind of turn it up a little bit and start rolling.”
How exactly did Miami roll in the second half?
Running back Mark Fletcher Jr. scored three touchdowns in a 21-point third quarter that turned a tied game into a blowout. Fletcher finished the game with 106 rushing yards for his third 100-yard rushing game of the season and fifth of his career. Miami ultimately scored five rushing touchdowns in the second half, with Jordan Lyle and Girard Pringle Jr. each adding scores in the fourth quarter.
The defense forced two interceptions that set up short fields and held Stanford (3-5, 2-3 ACC) to just 70 yards over its final 10 drives, including just 47 yards in the second half. UM logged six tackles for loss, six pass breakups and five quarterback hurries.
Malachi Toney, the 18-year-old freshman phenom, broke two long punt returns in addition to having another five catches for 52 yards.
“That’s the standard,” Toney said in a postgame interview on ESPN.
Added Fletcher: “We just executed. We just had to keep on pounding.”
And that’s exactly what Miami plans to continue doing for the next five weeks, starting next with a road game at SMU on Saturday (noon, ESPN).
In a college football season filled with parity — only five power conference teams remain undefeated (the Big Ten’s Ohio State and Indiana, Southeastern Conference’s Texas A&M, ACC’s Georgia Tech and Big 12’s BYU) — the Hurricanes know they have to remain vigilant as they enter the final month of the regular season vying for one of a dozen playoff spots. They’re also one of seven ACC teams with no more than one loss in conference play, setting up what could be a wild finish in the race to get to Charlotte for the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 6, with the winner of that game getting one of five automatic bids into the playoff field.
But they’ll worry about all of that when the time comes. For now, the focus is on what’s in front of them.
“Just try not to look too far forward,” Beck said. “Just be present. I feel like so many times you look back at what’s happened or you look too far forward to what can be, and you miss out on the right now. Just stop, smell the roses and enjoy the process and enjoy the time that you’re in.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2025 at 11:45 AM.
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