No. 7 Miami walks into Saturday afternoon with plenty on the line, and Duke brings along a familiar face to make the matchup even more layered.
The Hurricanes host the Blue Devils in a key ACC game that could push Miami into the conference championship picture. Miami sits at 8-1 overall and 6-0 in the ACC, while Duke comes in at 7-2 and 4-2. A Miami win, paired with a loss by SMU to Wake Forest and a Louisville loss to North Carolina, would lock the Hurricanes into the ACC Championship Game.
That backdrop comes after Miami slipped six spots in the latest College Football Playoff rankings following its 31-24 loss at Notre Dame last week. The Hurricanes were also playing without leading receiver and Heisman Trophy candidate Malachi Toney, who is expected to miss at least the final three regular-season games after undergoing TightRope surgery for a severe high ankle sprain.
Miami nearly pulled off a comeback anyway, clawing back from a 24-3 deficit and coming within a ruled-incomplete Elijah Lofton catch of tying the game in the closing minutes.
“It is playoff football,” said Miami head coach Mario Cristobal, who took over after Manny Diaz left the program following the 2021 season. “There are probably eight (ACC) teams that are in line to win a conference championship.
It is one game at a time. They have a great defense and they have an offense that is one of the best in the country at points per drive.
It is going to be a challenge.”
Without Toney, Miami quarterback Darian Mensah leaned heavily on Lofton and Cooper Barkate, both of whom transferred from Duke in the offseason. Barkate delivered his biggest outing of the year against Notre Dame, finishing with nine catches for 75 yards and two touchdowns.
Cristobal said the team had to absorb the loss of Toney and keep moving.
“Initially, it’s a shock and we can’t ignore that,” Cristobal said. “We can’t pretend it is no big deal.
But this is a reason why we preach and teach getting everybody on the roster ready to play. We met as a team and addressed it.
[Toney] loves nothing more than playing football and it was time to move forward and we did a good job of doing that.”
The storyline on the other sideline is just as pointed. Duke coach Manny Diaz returns to the place where he once led the Hurricanes, and he doesn’t see Mensah’s offseason move from Durham to Miami as something that changes the chessboard much.
“I don’t think it’s any different than him knowing our tendencies and seeing our defense every day. I don’t see anyone having any clear advantage there,” Diaz said on Monday.
“It’s an important game for our conference. It’s an emotional game, but you can’t afford to play emotionally.”
Duke is dealing with injuries, too. Diaz said safety Patrick Smith-Young and offensive lineman Cole Allen are out for the season after surgeries tied to injuries they suffered in the Blue Devils’ 41-3 win at NC State last week.
Still, the Blue Devils have a star of their own in sophomore Nate Sheppard, who leads the nation with 21 total touchdowns. He is second nationally in rushing yards with 1,189 and in rushing yards per game at 132.1, trailing only Boise State’s Dylan Riley.
Sheppard piled up 217 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries against NC State, and he also caught a 4-yard touchdown pass.
Diaz made it clear Miami knows exactly what the main problem is.
“There’s no question,” Diaz said when asked whether Sheppard is a deserving Heisman candidate. “I mean again, how many times can we say it?
A team knows that the No. 1 thing you have to do against Duke is stop No. 20 ... 200 yards, three touchdowns again.
You know, everybody’s playing great around him.”
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