The Miami Hurricanes are perfectly capable of winning the college football national championship this season even if it’s up for debate as to whether they’ll ever get that shot to prove it.
They are certainly talented enough, with potential NFL draft first-round picks along both lines, a true superstar in receiver Malachi Toney and a veteran quarterback in Carson Beck, who has been on a heater to close the season.
On Saturday in chilly Pittsburgh, Miami wrapped up a 10–2 regular season by reminding everybody of what its ceiling is on the field with a 38–7 victory over the Panthers that seemed over after the first quarter.
The hard part, the part which coach Mario Cristobal may have to come to grips with, is it may not matter yet again. The Canes were good enough to win it all last year with the best offense in the country, but were left out of the College Football Playoff.
They appear headed toward the same fate in 2025, good enough but not great enough to overcome their self-inflicted mistakes that cost them a shot at the playoff despite reaching double-digit wins in consecutive years for the first time since the program joined the ACC in 2004.
“This is a college football playoff team,” Cristobal said on ABCafter the game. “We’ve all seen it, we know it. We’ve got great players in all phases, and we’re playing great football.”
Their last and final statement to the CFP selection committee was a simple one. You wanted consistency after Miami lost two games by a total of nine points to teams that finished with at least eight wins?
How about winning their last four games each by at least 17 points? Limiting Pitt to just 1.4 yards per carry on its home field seems like a step in that direction, as is harassing Panthers quarterback Mason Heintschel into a lackluster 22-of-32 afternoon for just 199 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Forcing a turnover and racking up four sacks for the third time in four games checks that box off, too.
What more does Miami have to say to confirm that it is for real and deserving of at-large consideration?
It has proven, by the eye test the committee likes to use as much as the résumé, that it is the best team in the ACC, even if it won’t earn that league’s automatic bid.
Saturday was another data point to advance that case. Beck went 23 of 29 for 267 yards, three touchdowns and a late interception while trying to do too much in another routine blowout. The Hurricanes rushed for 140 yards, with Girard Pringle Jr. notching 8.2 yards per carry on his 10 touches. Rueben Bain Jr. was his typical hulking self off the edge with 1.5 sacks to go along with five tackles.
Then there was Toney, who lived up to his Baby Jesus nickname by recording 126 yards and a touchdown reception on top of for a score, too. For good measure he added 30 yards on the ground. He’s a lock to be a freshman All-American, but it’s not a stretch that he winds up on the overall honors circuit after looking like the best player on the field by a wide margin.
Yet in this era of superconferences and meandering tiebreakers, Miami is now down to hoping others come through so they won’t have to sweat out Selection Sunday and can instead head to Charlotte next Saturday for the ACC title game. They’ll likely make it back to South Florida by the time California and SMU kick off late on the West Coast and may know if Duke and Virginia won or lost in their critical conference games, too.
If The U wants to play more than just one additional game this season, they’ll have to count on Virginia Tech to upset its in-state rival and for a coach-less Golden Bears to knock off the Mustangs on the off chance they can create a 6–2 tie in the standings to keep playing next weekend.
Should that not happen, it will be a nervous time putting their faith in the hands of the committee—particularly when it comes to honoring their head-to-head win over fellow at-large candidate Notre Dame from the beginning of the season, which the committee has so far refused to acknowledge.
“The best part about football is you get to settle it on the field,” an energetic Cristobal boomed. “Where head to head is always the No. 1 criteria for anything regarding athletics and football.”
Not in this sport, not with this team.
Miami is good enough to make the playoff bracket its own, as much as anybody not named Ohio State or Indiana at least. They made another statement of intent against Pitt on Saturday.
Unfortunately, the program isn’t a stranger to looking like a world-beater for long stretches in a campaign but still winding up on the outside looking in of the CFP bubble.
The Hurricanes are perfectly capable of a lot of things, but holding their fate in their hands isn’t one of them.
