Cote: Miami Hurricanes beat Syracuse 38-10 but have mountain yet to climb | Opinion
The mountain climb began Saturday for the Miami Hurricanes football team. A bit of ground was gained, but there are miles yet to go.
The Canes who were once undefeated and No. 2-ranked have once again made their trek to the College Football Playoff seemingly impossible with two losses in the prior three games, and Saturday’s 38-10 home victory over Syracuse as the No. 18-ranked team pretty much just stopped the bleeding more than it convinced anybody to start believing in The U again.
Odds of ending up one of the 12 CFP teams remain in the 5 percent range, and so do chances of UM making it to the ACC Championship Game. And even that remote likelihood relies on Miami winning out for a 10-2 regular season -- itself no sure thing.
Canes host North Carolina State next, then travel to a down-year Virginia Tech as big favorites to win both. The regular-season finale at No. 24 Pittsburgh will be tough but should also find Miami favored. So 10-2 is possible.
But it will only be enough with help, with luck.
This is the position coach Mario Cristobal’s team has put itself in. No excuses, no sympathy due. Miami was missing a handful of starters Saturday including top running back Mark Fletcher and receiver C.J. J. Daniels. Nobody cares. Just win.
There will be a ton of fortunate bounces enough to see the Canes in the CFP, or there will be a who-cares consolation bowl game and a reprise of lament over whether the Canes will ever be back and ever contend for that long-elusive sixth national championship.
“You know what’s going on, the big picture, the chaos of the next three or four weeks,” as Cristobal said afterward. “We have to take care of our business and that’s what we intend to do.”
Saturday was the start to the stretch run that they needed, that first step up the mountain.
It also was payback, after Syracuse upset Miami in last year’s regular season finale to assure UM did not get an invite to the CFP.
Saturday sure didn’t start out like a payback, though, right?
For almost the entire first half, what was a scoreless game felt like Miami -- a four-touchdown betting favorite -- was losing.
The Canes were playing down to their opponent, getting by on defense, dropping passes ... just thoroughly unimpressive. There was sporadic booing from the less-than-full crowd, and it probably should have been louder, and more frequent.
If this was the launch of the home stretch in which UM would convince CFP voters it still was a playoff-caliber team, there was little early evidence of that from the home team.
The Hurricanes barely caught up to expectations with the 14-0 halftime lead.
Took a trick play for the first points as freshman receiver Malachi Toney tossed a 14-yard touchdown pass to quarterback Carson Beck. Twenty-three seconds later Keionte Scott returned an interception 38 yards for the second TD. Syracuse threatened to halve the deficit in the final seconds but Miami’s Jakobe Thomas recovered a fumble inside his own 10.
But this game would be reminiscent of the 42-7 win over Stanford, when Miami trailed 7-0 deep into the second quarter before busting out and pouring it on. Similar here.
After giving up an Orange field goal, Canes made it 21-3 on Carson Beck’s 61-yard TD pass to Keelan Marion, and 28-3 on Girard Pringle Jr.’s 19-yard scoring run before adding a field goal.
It was 38-3 late when offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa lumbered three yards with a backward pass from Beck and tunred it into a scoring run. Syracuse ended the scoring with meaningless points in the final seconds.
“You gotta use the athleticism somehow,” said a smiling Mauigoa.
Said Beck of that play: “Just give him a catchable ball!”
Not sure even 38-10 over a bad Syracuse team will be enough to begin to wake up CFP voters for a second look at Miami. They’d been unimpressed to slot UM eight full spots in their rankings behind Notre Dame, also a two-loss team -- with one of those losses to the Canes.
“The college football landscape, this thing down the stretch is as unpredictable as it gets, and we will be one of a dozen or so teams that will have an opportunity [to be in the playoffs] if you take care of business,” said Cristobal. “I think we all understand that we have to take care of No. 1, and that’s us. We were frustrated, but we’re not helpless, if that makes sense, because all of our answers are in the room. The self-inflicted stuff we can control, and there’s a strong commitment to doing so.”
Saturday was a start, a nice and needed rebound from the crushing loss to SMU.
Three more big wins, plus bounces and luck, will be needed.
That mountain is not impossible to scale.
Now Cristobal’s Canes must prove they still can.
This story was originally published November 8, 2025 at 7:02 PM.
