Canes Rewind: A Look Back at the Win over Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Each week this season, we’ll take a look at the game that was for the Hurricanes.

Here are some key storylines, numbers of note and quotes from No. 10 Miami’s 10-3 win over No. 7 Texas A&M in a first-round College Football Playoff game on Saturday at Kyle Field.

With the win, Miami improved to 11-2 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the CFP where it will face No. 2 Ohio State in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. Texas A&M meanwhile, finished its season 11-2.

The Recap

Despite closing out the regular season with four dominant wins over ACC opponents, the Hurricanes had no idea what to expect during the College Football Playoff Selection Show earlier this month.

They were hopeful they’d get in, but two midseason losses had put them on the bubble. Ultimately, the selection committee deemed Miami a championship contender and the Hurricanes earned the last at-large berth into the playoff.

That was a milestone moment for the program.

Another came on Saturday.

The Hurricanes, playing in their first College Football Playoff game, traveled to one of the sport’s biggest venues and ultimately, silenced the more than 104,000 fans who packed into every corner of Kyle Field on the campus of Texas A&M.

It was hardly an easy task.

Aggies fans made their presence felt throughout the afternoon. Swirling winds made throwing and kicking the ball an adventure. And Texas A&M – the seventh seed in the playoff – featured a talented, mobile quarterback and a defense that led the nation in sacks and was an absolute force on third down.

Still, behind a dominant defensive performance of its own and a career day from veteran running back Mark Fletcher Jr., the Hurricanes earned a hard-fought 10-3 win to advance to the Cotton Bowl, where they’ll face second-seeded Ohio State in a playoff quarterfinal.

The Aggies managed just one 35-yard, fourth-quarter field goal and were held to their lowest scoring output of the year after averaging 36 points per game during the regular season.

Miami, meanwhile, put together two scoring drives, one that gave the Hurricanes the first points of the game after a 21-yard field goal from Carter Davis with 10:34 left in the third quarter and another capped when quarterback Carson Beck connected with freshman wide receiver Malachi Toney on an 11-yard scoring play with 1:44 left.

On that scoring drive, the Hurricanes put the ball in Fletcher’s hands, the running back carrying the ball five times and picking up 75 yards, to set up what would be the eventual game-winning touchdown.

But with nearly two minutes left in regulation, Texas A&M did have an opportunity to try and tie – or potentially win – the game.

The Aggies marched down the field and put themselves in position to do exactly that when they got to Miami’s 5-yard line with 39 seconds left.

But on third-and-goal, Miami freshman Bryce Fitzgerald picked off Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed to seal the win for the Hurricanes.

“I think it was important, first, to get in the playoff. Then to go and win at a place like this, right, in front of 100-plus thousand people, on the road, [against] a team that was arguably top 2 or 3 until their last [regular-season] game, and to get it done in this type of environment, we needed that,” Miami head coach Mario Cristobal said. “If you could draw it up how we wanted it, we wanted to go there. We wanted to come here and do it against a great football team. What does it mean for us? Continued progress, the vision. … We’ve never altered course despite all the challenges that come with it. But that’s part of it.

“Again, really proud of our players. It’s all about them and that staff because, again, 40-plus days ago, we were lower than low and [we] found a way to just bring a different level of energy every single day and lift each other and the program up. And here we are with a chance to keep playing and that’s all that matters now; 1-0 [this week].”

Numbers to Know

172 – Total rushing yards for Fletcher, who had a career day. The running back had a 56-yard carry on Miami’s touchdown drive that not only set up Toney’s touchdown but proved to be the Hurricanes’ longest play of the day.

7 – Sacks totaled by the Miami defense, which kept a steady dose of pressure on Reed all day. Rueben Bain Jr. had four of those sacks to lead the Hurricanes. Saturday’s win marked the second time this season Miami has totaled seven sacks in a game. The Hurricanes did the same in a win over Syracuse last month.

6 – Interceptions on the season for Fitzgerald, who had two picks in the win over Texas A&M. That is tied for second nationally behind only Louisiana Tech’s Jakari Foster, who has seven interceptions on the year.

89 – Catches on the year for Toney. That’s a new single-season Miami record. Toney, who already owns Miami’s freshman receiving record, broke the mark of 79 catches in a season set by Charleston Rambo in 2021. Toney now needs just eight yards to top the 1,000-yard mark for the season.

2003 – The last time Miami posted an 11-win season – until Saturday’s win over Texas A&M.

Quotable

“I think it means a lot. Last year, we had the same [regular season] record, but we got snubbed. It’s not the first time I’ve been in this building. Last time I was in this building, I lost. It was great to come back, get a W. The defense played lights out, man; d-line, linebackers, DB’s, shoutout to young Bryce. It feels great to be able to get our first playoff win, but honestly, it’s really on to the next. You can’t focus too much on it. You can be happy – like, 24-hour rule. Tomorrow, get back in the building, fix what we messed up, and then on to the new game plan. You can’t soak in this too much, or else it will take you down.”

–Defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor, on what it meant for Miami to win its first playoff game

“That’s everything that a running back wants to hear, when they say, ‘We’re going to give you the ball and you do your thing.’ I immediately went to my o-linemen, my receivers, and my tight ends and I said, ‘Hey, y’all know what to do. Get them out of the way. Get them out of the way and I’m going to just do my thing,’ and that’s what they did. That’s why [those] holes opened up like that.”

– Running back Mark Fletcher Jr., on being trusted to carry the ball in the second half, and in particular, on Miami’s last drive of the fourth quarter

“It was that type of game today, it was grind-it-out, playing against a really physical defense. We’re a really physical offense. When you’re playing smashmouth football, at the end of the day, at some point, one side is either going to continue to push and push and push and then it just breaks open and that’s what we were able to do on that last drive, and then obviously, Malachi was able to make the play, to get it in the end zone, and then the defense does their job and gets the stop and closes it out. I thought we played really good complementary football today and just stayed the course and just played super physical.”

– Quarterback Carson Beck, on Miami’s run-heavy offense against Texas A&M

“Yeah, he’s just steady. He’s the leader of our group, along with obviously a couple of the o-linemen that have been here since the beginning. But ultimately, Mark is a guy that’s just as steady as you can get. You can lean on him in tight situations. I thought it was crucial today that we didn’t have any pre-snap penalties in a pretty tough environment, and the communication from back to front and o-line to running back and running back to o-line was elite today. We didn’t play our best, obviously. We did just enough to win the game. But having a guy like Mark, that you can lean on in the end, is crucial.”

– Offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson on the play of Fletcher

“It’s amazing what [defensive coordinator Corey] Hetherman has done for not only the defense, but the program, just turning us around. … It’s crazy for us to win this game in this kind of way and play from the first snap to the last. We were just sitting in the locker room talking about that. From the first snap to the last, the defense came to play and that’s the way it’s going to be, especially when you give somebody like Coach Hetherman, somebody like that, coaching us every play to just come out and give our best.”

–Defensive lineman Reuben Bain Jr., on Miami’s defensive turnaround under defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman, who joined the Hurricanes in January

Up Next

The Hurricanes playoff run will continue on New Year’s Eve as they head to Dallas to face a familiar postseason foe, and the defending national champions: Ohio State.

As the No. 2 seed in the playoff, the Buckeyes had a first-round bye and enter the game with a 12-1 record. Their lone loss came in the Big Ten conference championship game when they were beaten by No. 1 seed Indiana, 13-10.

The Buckeye offense is led by the nation’s most accurate quarterback, Julian Sayin, who has completed 78.4 percent of his passes and thrown for 3,323 yards and 31 touchdowns with just six interceptions. His top target, Jeremiah Smith, has 1,086 receiving yards and, as a South Florida native who played at Chaminade-Madonna in Hollywood, has plenty of connections with players on Miami’s roster.

Entering the Cotton Bowl, the Buckeyes have averaged 34.9 points and 429.5 yards of offense per game, and are the nation’s top defense, allowing opponents an average of just 8.2 points and 213.5 yards per game.

The Hurricanes and Buckeyes have met five times previously, with Ohio State holding a 3-2 lead in the all-time series.

The most famous meeting between the two came in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl when Ohio State escaped with a 31-24 double overtime win that is still a source of conversation – and controversy – decades later in Coral Gables. The Hurricanes thought they had won their sixth national championship before a late pass interference penalty was called on the Miami defense, extending Ohio State’s drive and the game.