No. 3 Miami Hurricanes rally, hold off Florida State Seminoles for double OT win
The old adages about rivalry games rang true on Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium.
The No. 3 Miami Hurricanes came into the game undefeated and riding high. The Florida State Seminoles came to South Florida still looking for answers and hoping to salvage what is already looking like a lost season halfway through their campaign.
And yet here the Hurricanes were, trailing their in-state rival entering the fourth quarter in a game that eventually needed more than four quarters to complete.
But in the end, when Miami needed to the most, the Hurricanes came to life to stave off FSU’s upset bid.
The Hurricanes outlasted FSU for a 43-35 double overtime win, with Darian Mensah throwing a 3-yard touchdown pass to Malachi Toney, Toney throwing a pass to Cooper Barkate for the two-point conversion, and the defense holding off the Seminoles on their counter attempt, with Bryce Fitzgerald getting the game-sealing interception. It was the first overtime game between Miami and FSU since 2004.
Miami improves to 6-0 and 4-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. FSU falls to 3-4 and 1-3 in league action.
“Credit to our guys,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said, “because I could sit here and rattle off a million mistakes and errors that we need to correct, but we just kept playing. We just kept battling. Just kept on just finding a way until we finally got the momentum and made a couple plays that were the difference in the game.”
Miami avoided following suit with the majority of college football’s top teams this week as four other top-eight teams lost on Saturday, with a fifth also guaranteed to be defeated by the end of the night.
No. 1 Georgia lost to unranked Auburn. No. 2 Notre Dame lost to No. 8 BYU. No. 5 Indiana lost to No. 4 Ohio State. No. 6 Alabama lost to No. 14 Tennessee. And No. 7 Texas lost to unranked Florida.
“We’re the only team that can beat us,” Hurricanes quarterback Darian Mensah said.
But Miami came close to doing that and falling victim to an upset loss like so many of its peers at the top of the poll.
A penalty filled first half — including defensive back Zechariah Poyser being ejected for targeting and three other personal foul calls — led to Miami only being up 14-14 at the half. Miami got touchdowns on a Mark Fletcher Jr. 7-yard rushing touchdown and a 14-yard pass from Mensah to Toney. FSU, meanwhile scored on an Ashton Daniels 23-yard pass to Desirrio Riles and a Daniels 2-yard rush. Daniels’ second score, which tied the game with 1:40 left in the first half, came one play after FSU running back Ousmane Kromah, left the game with a severe left ankle injury that required an air cast.
The Seminoles took a 21-14 lead over the Hurricanes with 4:09 left in the third quarter on a Daniels 28-yard touchdown pass to Quintrevion Wisner that came after the Miami offense turned the ball over on downs near midfield. UM’s offense failed to produce on its first three drives out of the break, with Miami quarterback Mensah throwing his first interception of the season and then Miami turning the ball over on downs on consecutive possessions.
Mensah, who went the first 152 passes of his UM career before throwing an interception, then got his offensive line together. His message was succinct: “We’re not going to lose this game.”
What followed were the two key drives that swung everything back in Miami’s favor.
After the UM defense forced an FSU punt, the Hurricanes went 72 yards on four plays, highlighted by a 35-yard pass from Mensah to Toney and a 30-yard Toney rush before Mallory found the end zone to tie the game at 21-21 with 9:33 left to play.
Miami’s defense forced and recovered a fumble on FSU’s next possession, with Xavier Lucas (playing in his first game since the season opener) recovering a Wisner fumble forced by Ethan O’Connor. Ten plays and 61 yards later, the Hurricanes briefly re-took the lead on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Mensah to Elija Lofton with 2:49 left to play.
FSU then tied it on their next play on a Robinson 75-yard touchdown catch, beating Lucas in coverage on a deep pass, to make it 28-28 2:39 left to play.
The Hurricanes got into FSU territory on its final possession of regulation but stalled out at the FSU 46 resulting in a punt. The Seminoles ran two plays to send the game to overtime.
Daniels found Robinson for a 20-yard touchdown on the opening possession of overtime. Miami responded with a 25-yard Mallory rushing touchdown.
After Miami scored in the second OT period, Omar Thornton sacked Daniels on first down, forced an incompletion on second down, got FSU to commit a false start and forced another incompletion to set up fourth and 21. Daniels appeared to find Robinson for a 36-yard touchdown but FSU was called for holding. Fitzgerald intercepted Daniels’ final heave to the end zone to seal the game.
Mensah completed 23 of 34 passes for 326 yards, three touchdowns and in interception. Toney caught 11 passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns. Mallory ran for 108 yards and two touchdowns.
“When your team is right and the heads are right and the hearts are right, there’s no bad play, there’s no injury, there’s no swing of momentum, no penalty — there’s nothing that you can’t overcome,” Cristobal said. “We created a lot of our issues tonight, and Florida State in a lot of plays tonight as well. We just kept coming, and the energy was changing bit by bit by bit, and everybody had a hand in it.”
This story was originally published October 17, 2026 at 10:57 PM with the headline "No. 3 Miami Hurricanes rally, hold off Florida State Seminoles for double OT win."
.JPG)
