MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – In the tough moments after Miami’s magical season ended with a gut-wrenching loss in the College Football Playoff Championship, Carson Beck sat in front of countless bright lights and cameras trying to make sense of what had just happened.

Bryce Fitzgerald, meanwhile, wandered the end zone at Hard Rock Stadium while crimson and cream-colored pieces of confetti fell around him, and Indiana celebrated its first national championship on the other side of Miami’s home field.

And in the tunnel leading into a quiet Miami locker room, a group of Hurricanes greats including Ed Reed, Reggie Wayne and Andre Johnson did their best to offer as much encouragement and support as they could to the current Hurricanes, a group who’d just finished an improbable, history-making postseason run that put Miami back on college football’s biggest stage for the first time in more than two decades.

No, the Hurricanes hadn’t won the national championship they’d so desperately wanted, falling just short of the title after a 27-21 loss to the Hoosiers. But through all their disappointment, there was plenty of pride, too.

Pride in the fact that this team was the first in program history to win 13 games. Pride in the fact this team rallied after a tough midseason stretch to win four straight conference games in dominating fashion and push its way into the playoff. Pride in the fact that this team, led by a group of gritty veterans and homegrown stars, had forged a remarkable turnaround, helping Miami go from 5-7 just three years ago to championship contender.

There was no reason, their head coach said, for any of them to hang their heads.

“Any loss, of course, is always going to be painful, but I’d like to reflect upon the fact that these guys won 13 games this year and won [three] postseason playoff games,” Mario Cristobal said. “Got to the playoffs for the first time in Miami history and beat four top 10 teams, beat seven top 25 teams, won the Fiesta Bowl, won the Cotton Bowl, and I’ll take full blame, [we] were one drive short of winning the national championship.

“I don’t see anything negative, but I do see pain in moments like this and we should, if we’re a competitor that’s worth anything. You feel it and you use it and you give those feelings a direction. I know the guys coming back will, and I know that the guys moving on will also use that as fuel.”

In the coming weeks, the Hurricanes will start preparing for the 2026 season, but before that work begins in earnest, here’s a look back at a run that won’t be forgotten in Miami any time soon.

Luck of the Ibis

Every season opener brings with it a sense of anticipation.

But when that season opener is a top 10 matchup against a longtime rival, well, that will definitely get hearts pumping.

On Aug. 31, 10^th-ranked Miami welcomed sixth-ranked Notre Dame to Hard Rock Stadium and as they have so many times before, the Hurricanes and Irish delivered a memorable game.

For Miami, the season opener marked the debut of several standouts who’d make a difference all season long.

Beck – a Georgia transfer who wasn’t sure quite what to expect from himself after undergoing offseason elbow surgery – was solid, completing 20 of 31 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns.

His first scoring pass came early in the second quarter when Beck capped an eight-play, 70-yard drive with a 28-yard touchdown pass to freshman Malachi Toney, one of the jewels of Miami’s 2025 recruiting class.

The freshman – just 17 at the time – kicked off what would be a record-breaking season with six catches for 82 yards. He’d eventually go on to earn ACC Rookie of the Year honors.

Meanwhile, fellow receiver CJ Daniels – an LSU transfer – had one of the season’s most memorable catches with his one-handed, 20-yard touchdown grab just before halftime.

For much of the night, the Hurricanes and Irish found ways to respond each time the other made a big play, but in the end, it was a 47-yard field goal from Carter Davis with 1:04 left that lifted the Hurricanes to a 27-24 win.

“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,” Beck said that night. “But man, the biggest thing that I’m so proud of our guys is that 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.”

It was a win Miami celebrated that night – and one that would prove a massive difference-maker for the Hurricanes later in the year.

State Champs

After dispatching Notre Dame, Miami turned its focus to the rest of its non-conference schedule and a slate of Sunshine State matchups against Bethune-Cookman, USF, Florida and Florida State.

The Hurricanes came out of that stretch unscathed, with a pair of top 25 wins to boot, given that both USF and Florida State were ranked when they faced Miami.

In those four games, the Hurricanes outscored their opponents 148-44, though the Seminoles gave the Hurricanes their toughest test.

Miami, playing in its first road game of the year when it traveled to Tallahassee on Oct. 4, built a 28-3 third-quarter lead before Florida State rallied in the fourth to score 19 unanswered points.

A 35-yard field goal with 20 seconds left pulled the Seminoles within 28-22, but Miami recovered the ensuing onside kick, took a knee and held on for the six-point win.

It marked the second straight year the Hurricanes were able to claim the “state championship” after beating the likes of USF, Florida and Florida State. And after the win over the Seminoles, Miami’s coaches and players made it clear being the state’s top team – and beating Florida State – would always be among their top priorities.

“It’s such a big deal. This has nothing to do with me, but I played here and I know what it means to play in this game, especially up here in Tallahassee and what a victory means, especially in a game [where] it’s been years since both teams were ranked in the top 20,” Cristobal said. “So many high school rivalries, players playing against each other. … It lasts an entire year and man, it’s such an important thing. I mean, being a University of Miami Hurricane means that this game, you find a way to get it done.”

Midseason Setback

While an ugly fourth quarter ultimately didn’t cost Miami against Florida State, the Hurricanes weren’t as fortunate over the course of the next few weeks when some miscues and mistakes popped up against a pair of conference foes.

After their win over the Seminoles, the Hurricanes returned to Hard Rock Stadium to continue ACC play against Louisville and the Cardinals wasted little time using some trickery to put the Hurricanes in a quick 14-0 hole.

While ultimately Miami cut into that deficit, the Hurricanes struggled to run the ball against Louisville and worse, Miami had four turnovers and committed nine penalties.

The result? A 24-21 Louisville win and Miami’s first loss of the season.

The Hurricanes bounced back after a week later with a big win over an overmatched Stanford team before heading back out on the road for an ACC showdown against SMU.

And the Mustangs, who earned a spot in last year’s College Football Playoff, were able to – like Louisville – capitalize on a series of Miami mistakes.

One of the Hurricanes’ 12 penalties extended SMU’s final drive in regulation and helped set up what would be a game-tying field goal for the Mustangs.

Miami had the first possession in overtime but was unable to score after Beck’s third-down pass inside the SMU 10 was intercepted.

SMU went on to score on its ensuing possession sealing a 26-20 win and hand the Hurricanes their second loss of the season and more critically, their second loss in conference play.

“You’ve got to be a grown man and face reality. We didn’t take care of business and that’s completely on us,” Cristobal said after the loss in Dallas. “If you’re raised the right way and you have the right stuff inside of you, you go right back to work. You don’t know how things shake out. This is certainly a wild college football season, and the focus has to be on us taking care of our business.”

The Hurricanes’ two losses took a toll, knocking Miami from No. 2 in the AP Top 25 poll that was released on Oct. 5 to No. 18 in the poll released on Nov. 2.

Worse, when the initial College Football Playoff rankings were released on Nov. 4, Miami came in at No. 18 – well out of the 12-team playoff field. That prompted more than a few college football analysts across the country to write off the Hurricanes’ championship hopes.

Playoff Push

Not long after Miami’s disappointing loss to SMU, the Hurricanes gathered for a team meeting that many of them would later say was a turning point in their season.

For Cristobal, the goal of the meeting was simple: remind the Hurricanes what kind of team they really were.

So, the coach and his staff played a series of clips from Miami’s first five games of the season, games in which they’d delivered the big plays and big wins that had made them one of the nation’s top-ranked teams.

There was no audio over any of the highlights, no sound in the darkened team meeting room. Instead, there was just what Cristobal called “the power of choice.”

That day, the Hurricanes made the decision to get better and to focus not on the games in which they hadn’t been at their best, but on what was ahead of them, one week at a time.

A 38-10 win over Syracuse followed. Then came a 41-7 victory over NC State. Miami then traveled to Virginia Tech and put together a 34-17 win over the Hokies. And finally, the Hurricanes ended the regular season with a 38-7 road win over Pittsburgh.

During the course of that four-game stretch, Miami’s offense found a spark in Toney, who showed his ability to not only catch the football, but throw it and run it, too. The Hurricanes’ defense was a force, holding its last four opponents to an average of just 10.3 points per game.

And little by little, the Hurricanes rose in the polls, including in the College Football Playoff rankings. Still, during much of that stretch Notre Dame – the same team Miami beat in its season opener – was ranked higher.

Understandably, that didn’t necessarily sit well with the Hurricanes or their fans.

“I think we’ve shown that we can compete with anyone and that we have a really, really talented team, not just a few talented players here and there, but a really talented team that is really efficient and that plays really, really well in all three phases of the game,” Beck said after the Pittsburgh win when asked how he’d pitch Miami’s playoff resume to the CFP selection committee. “Again, like I said, I think we compete with anybody and we’ve done a good job of focusing on what we need to focus on to get to this point. It’s kind of up in the air and not in our hands at this moment, but I think we’ve done what we’ve had to do.”

Still, despite Miami’s strong regular-season finish, a tiebreak kept the Hurricanes out of the ACC Championship Game and there was little they could do but wait through college football’s conference championship weekend to learn their playoff fate.

“It’s Crazy to See How Far We’ve Come”

The first weekend of December brought an end to Miami’s agonizing wait.

On the afternoon of Dec. 7, the College Football Playoff committee announced its final playoff rankings and the 12-team playoff field.

In those final rankings, the Hurricanes finally jumped over Notre Dame to grab the No. 10 seed – and the last at-large berth in the playoff field.

And for Cristobal and some of the veteran Hurricanes who’d been on Miami’s roster in 2022 when that team went 5-7, it was vindication and another step forward for the program.

“To see this turnaround is honestly just such a great feeling,” said defensive end Akheem Mesidor. “You see Coach Cristobal’s works, bringing guys in. You see [defensive line coach Jason Taylor’s] work; a bunch of guys, a bunch of people, players, and staff members who helped completely change the trajectory of this program. It’s an amazing feeling.

“When I look back at that team, and I look at this team, it’s crazy to see how far we’ve come.”

As the No. 10 seed, the Hurricanes were handed a significant test for their first playoff game: a showdown with No. 7 Texas A&M in College Station.

It ultimately proved a test the Hurricanes would pass.

In front of more than 100,000 raucous Aggies fans, Miami outlasted Texas A&M, 10-3, in a defensive showdown where points were plenty hard to come by.

Still, a late touchdown from Beck to Toney and a game-sealing interception by freshman safety Bryce Fitzgerald gave the Hurricanes their first postseason victory since 2016 and booked the Hurricanes another trip to Texas, this time to face defending national champion Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve in the CFP quarterfinals.

For many outside Coral Gables, the talk heading into that game was on the last postseason meeting between the Hurricanes and Buckeyes: the 2003 Fiesta Bowl.

But Cristobal and his team made it clear: their only focus was on this game and this Buckeyes team.

Their laser focus paid off, with Miami putting together an impressive 24-14 win that featured another strong rushing performance from running back Mark Fletcher Jr., a 72-yard pick-six by Keionte Scott and another impressive outing by the Miami defense, which notched five sacks and held the Buckeyes to just 45 rushing yards.

That win just before the calendar sent the Hurricanes to the CFP semifinals and the Fiesta Bowl, where a matchup against Mississippi awaited.

In Arizona, the Hurricanes and Rebels put together a thriller that featured four fourth-quarter lead changes and was ultimately decided when Beck engineered the game’s final scoring drive, a drive that went 75 yards in 15 plays and ended when the quarterback scrambled into the end zone on a 3-yard touchdown run with 18 seconds left.

Miami’s defense kept Ole Miss out of the end zone in the final seconds, the Hurricanes clinched a 31-27 win, and after running through a brutal, three-game playoff gauntlet, Miami was back in the national championship game, where it was set to face top-seeded Indiana.

“It was just like everyone counted us out. I told everyone in the locker room the day after the SMU game we can’t lose faith. We’ve got to keep going. We can’t lose faith,” receiver Keelan Marion said after the Fiesta Bowl. “We got in the huddle [after] they scored; we’ve got three minutes left. I told everybody in the huddle, ‘We’ve got three minutes left for our lives. … Lay everything on the line. Three minutes of our lives right here to take it back home.’ You saw what happened.”

One Last Game at Home

The Hurricanes’ return to Miami after the Fiesta Bowl was cause for plenty of celebration.

Their plane was greeted by a water-cannon salute at Miami International Airport. Their buses were cheered by fans and well-wishers as they made their way back to campus and in the days leading up their College Football Playoff Championship showdown against top-seeded Indiana, all of South Florida seemingly celebrated.

But for players like Rueben Bain Jr., Wesley Bissainthe, Fletcher, Toney and the rest of the Hurricanes who call South Florida home, the championship game was particularly special.

For them, it was a chance to win a title in front of family, friends and the communities that had been so instrumental in getting them to this moment.

“I don’t have [any] words. It feels like a dream, just a local kid growing up in Miami, able to play in the National Championship in Miami,” Bissainthe said. “[There’s] nothing else I could ask for, something I worked my whole life for. I’m very excited for this moment.”

Unfortunately for Miami, the Hurricanes would be no fairy tale ending to this magical season.

Indiana weathered the Hurricanes’ second-half surge and, led by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza – a Miami native himself – the Hoosiers held on for a 27-21 win.

It was as tough a finish as the Hurricanes could have imagined.

Miami had the ball and a chance to score in the game’s final minutes, but the last pass of Beck’s collegiate career was intercepted with 48 seconds left and, in the end, it was the Hoosiers, not the Hurricanes, who celebrated one last time.

Still, there’s no doubt the 2025 Hurricanes left a legacy at Miami that won’t be forgotten and through the tough moments on the final night of the season, their coach had nothing but the highest of praise for all of them.

“I think it can’t be understated what these guys have done. I can’t understate that,” Cristobal said. “The ability to take a team on November 1^st that was lower than low and to find a way every single day [to] hold people accountable, demand the best of them, bring energy and enthusiasm to practice and get the results on a weekly basis, [to go] 1-0 for I think seven weeks straight, it is a testament to what they are. It’s a testament to their choice and their determination and being true men of action.

“They’re the best thing that’s happened to Miami, the University of Miami, and our community in 25 years.”