Canes Rewind: A Look Back at the Win over Notre Dame

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Each week this season, we’ll take a look at the game that was for the Hurricanes.

Here are some key storylines, numbers of notes and quotes from No. 10 Miami’s 27-24 season-opening win over No. 6 Notre Dame on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium.

The Recap

It’s a rivalry that has made history, helped decide national championships and has captured the imagination of college football fans beyond South Florida and South Bend.

Miami and Notre Dame.

On Sunday night, the two teams met again – both ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 poll, both with championship aspirations, both looking to set the tone for their respective seasons.

And just as one might expect given the teams’ histories, it was a doozy – a “muddy and bloody night … like rock ‘em, sock ‘em robots,” Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal said.

In the end, it was Miami that left Hard Rock Stadium with the win, a 27-24 victory that was clinched in the game’s final moments after a 47-yard field goal from kicker Carter Davis and a defensive stand that saw veteran pass rushers Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor deliver big plays just when the Hurricanes needed them most.

“We knew that this game was going to be about who’s got one more shot in them, who’s willing to go and just not let anything get in the way of doing their job,” Cristobal said. “And that was the challenge to our players. Everything was about being 1-0 on every single play and doing our job. And they took to that challenge and ate it up, man. They got after it. They got after it all night, all the way to the end. And sometimes, domination takes place on the final play of the game and as crazy as that sounds, that’s what happened.”

The Hurricanes led for much of the night and opened the scoring when two newcomers, quarterback Carson Beck and wide receiver Malachi Toney, connected on a 28-yard scoring pass early in the second quarter.

Notre Dame tied the game later in the quarter when quarterback CJ Carr capped an 11-play, 68-yard scoring drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Micah Gilbert.

Miami answered on its ensuing drive when Beck completed his second scoring pass of the night, a 20-yard throw to receiver CJ Daniels, who – in traffic between two Notre Dame defenders – managed a spectacular one-handed grab that will be replayed on highlight reels throughout the season.

Beck went on to finish the night completing 20 of 31 passes for 205 yards, while Daniels had five catches for 46 yards.

The Hurricanes pushed their lead to 21-7 in the third quarter after a 5-yard scoring run from Marty Brown, but Notre Dame responded.

Carr connected on a 1-yard scoring pass to Jordan Faison in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. Then came a field goal from Noah Burnette and after that, with 3:21 left, a game-tying touchdown when Carr scampered into the end zone on a 7-yard run.

Miami took over possession with 3:21 left and needed 10 plays to get 46 yards and put the Hurricanes in position for a field goal, a field goal Davis converted.

Notre Dame had one last opportunity to either tie the game, or win it, when it took over with 1:04 left.

But Mesidor and Bain got to Carr, the Canes notched back-to-back sacks to end it, and Miami secured its first win over a top-10 opponent since … it beat Notre Dame in 2017.

“Tremendously proud of this team,” Cristobal said. “The resiliency, complementary football, overcoming a couple of hiccups and whatnot…All in all, just an awesome night for the Miami Hurricanes.”

Numbers to Know

3 – Number of times the ball was deflected before Bain was able to haul in a fourth-quarter interception that led to a 38-yard field goal from Davis. Along with the interception, Bain had a team-high six tackles and, with Mesidor, notched the biggest sack of the night for the Miami defense.

66 – Rushing yards for Hurricanes running back Mark Fletcher Jr. That was a game high and helped Miami outrush Notre Dame 119-93.

17 – Toney’s age on Sunday when he made the first start of his collegiate career. The former four-star prospect had a team-high six catches for 82 yards. Toney reclassified to the Class of 2025 before his final season of high school at American Heritage in Plantation and was able to join the Hurricanes earlier this year for spring drills.

2 – Touchdown passes for Beck, a transfer from Georgia who was injured in last year’s SEC Championship Game and needed offseason elbow surgery to get back on the field. Beck missed all of spring practice with the Hurricanes while going through the recovery and rehabilitation process. Sunday night marked Beck’s first action on the football field since last December. The quarterback completed three of his first four passes on Miami’s opening drive.

6 – Points scored by Davis in the fourth quarter. Davis, a transfer from FAU, connected on field goals from 38 and 47 yards late in the game to help Miami clinch the win.

1977 – Year when Notre Dame last beat the Hurricanes in a game played in Miami.

Quotable

“It means a lot. Everybody knows I’m from down here, so, getting to actually feed into the program that I grew up watching, getting to be the person – a good reason – why this happened tonight, along with my brothers on the field, man, it’s just heartwarming. Just knowing that this is the dream I had coming as a kid growing up in Miami, man, there’s a reason I stayed home, so I could do things like this in front of my family, in front of the city.”

– Defensive lineman Rueben Bain, Jr. on what Sunday’s win meant to him as a hometown Hurricane

“I always have a routine, so I try to do my routine as much as possible [and] try not to let the crowd – which was very active tonight – get into my head or any of my systems. And once I looked up at it and I saw that it was in, I’d say my heartbeat kind of skipped, plus accelerated. I was just so excited for it.”

– Kicker Carter Davis on his go-ahead 47-yard field goal that helped the Hurricanes clinch the win

“I mean, it’s everything. But to be honest, for me, my focus was just on coming in here and competing my butt off and playing as hard as I can and preparing in every single way that I could, as much as I could, and then ultimately, just coming out here and trying to execute. Win, lose, or draw today, we would’ve had 11 more games guaranteed. Obviously, it feels a lot better to come out of here with a win in the fashion that we were able to get it done in. But man, the biggest thing that I’m so proud of our guys is we just played hard, and we never gave up. Even when [Notre Dame] was able to bring it back there in the fourth quarter, we didn’t give up and then we made plays when we needed to. So, again, super proud of these guys.”

– Quarterback Carson Beck, on what it meant for him to get back on the field and play in a game after his season-ending injury last year

“I feel really confident. The way we put pressure on each other every day, it speaks volumes in our room. Just how we compete and how we build each other up. It’s pretty easy to perform because put so much pressure on each other every day.”

– Running back Marty Brown, on how the competition in the running backs room is helping him, and fellow backs Mark Fletcher, Jr. and Jordan Lyle get better

“I thought he did a great job. I think people forget that’s one of the top defenses in the country, right? I mean, they play man coverage as good as anybody. They bring pressure from all over the place. They disguise their coverages well and they’re really good up front. … But Carson Beck, man, he made some unbelievable throws. He got out of the pocket. He scrambled and got some chunk yards with his legs as well. And at the end of the day, he got us down there, along with the rest of the guys. Everyone contributed. But Carson, Game 1, what can I say? I thought he did a great job.”

– Head coach Mario Cristobal, on Beck’s play in his Miami debut

Up Next

After opening the season with a top-10 win over the Irish, the Hurricanes will now set their sights on Bethune-Cookman, which is set to visit Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday.

The Wildcats and Hurricanes have met seven times, with Miami winning all of those games and averaging 50 points in each matchup.

Bethune-Cookman opened the season with a 42-9 loss at FIU last week. Wildcats kicker Juan Dominguez converted on field goals of 35, 22, and 28 yards to cap three scoring drives for Bethune.

Miami and Bethune last played in 2023, with the Hurricanes winning that game 48-7.