Malachi Toney didn’t always picture himself staying home. In fact, if one of college football’s most iconic figures hadn’t stepped away, he might be wearing crimson instead of orange and green.
“What turned me to Miami was Nick Saban stepping down,” Toney said. “I used to love Nick Saban.
Yeah. So it was Nick Saban.”
That one move at the top of the college football world changed everything for Toney - a South Florida native who grew up idolizing the Alabama program. The structure, the accountability, the championship-or-bust mentality - it was the gold standard, and for a long time, it was his north star. But when Saban retired, so did that vision.
And so, instead of heading to Tuscaloosa, Toney made a decision that brought him full circle: he committed to Miami. He chose to stay home and play for Mario Cristobal - a coach who, like Saban, believes in building from toughness, discipline, and relentless preparation. Cristobal, after all, is a Saban disciple himself, molded in that same system that turned Alabama into a juggernaut.
“Yes,” Toney said when asked if Cristobal’s Saban roots helped seal the deal.
But this wasn’t just about coaching trees or program prestige. For Toney, this was personal.
This was about home. Liberty City.
South Florida. The same streets and fields that shaped him now serve as the backdrop for his college career.
And that means something.
There’s a photo floating around - young Malachi, just a kid, holding up the U at a Miami football camp. It’s one of those snapshots that feels almost too perfect in hindsight.
“When I was looking at it, that was one of the moments just like that was crazy,” Toney said. “You would never think that would happen.
So all glory to God. I’m thankful and blessed to be here.”
Now, he’s not just playing for a program. He’s playing for a community. For a region that doesn’t always get to see one of its own rise to the national stage while staying rooted in the place that raised him.
“It means a lot. We earned this opportunity.
It’s a blessing,” Toney said. “Not too many kids growing up, not too many people get to experience this opportunity so we’ve got to take advantage of it.”
If Saban had stayed, maybe this story unfolds differently. Maybe Toney’s Saturdays are spent under the lights in Tuscaloosa.
But fate - or perhaps football’s ever-spinning carousel - had other plans. And now, a kid from Liberty City gets to chase greatness in his own backyard, wearing the same colors he once held up with wide eyes and big dreams.