No. 7 Miami turned Thursday night into a full-blown stat avalanche, rolling past Florida A&M 77-7 and setting an ACC record with 856 total yards in a game that was shortened to 10 minutes in the fourth quarter. The Hurricanes tied a school mark for points and set another for first downs with 42, all while the matchup offered little suspense and even less competitive balance.
Florida A&M took the trip for a $720,000 payout, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, and arrived in especially rough shape after a Sunday loss to South Carolina State. The Rattlers had only three full days to recover, and they also lost key players in that game, including their top quarterback and starting center.
That backdrop made the gap between the teams even wider. Miami was a 59.5-point favorite and had no trouble covering, while Florida A&M managed just four first downs.
According to Sports Reference data, it was the first time in the modern era an FBS team finished with a first down edge of 40-5 or better. Miami’s defense barely had to work for long stretches, and the offense faced only three third downs all night.
Florida A&M’s lone touchdown came on a 72-yard fumble return with 6:40 left, just as Miami was moving toward a chance at an 80-plus-point night.
The ending got strange, too. Even after the schools agreed to shorten the fourth quarter, Miami kept pushing.
With less than a minute left and a 77-7 lead, the Hurricanes got the ball near midfield and did not take a knee. Third-string quarterback Dereon Coleman handed off to reserve back Jack Whitehouse on back-to-back snaps, and Miami picked up 26 more yards to break the ACC total-yardage record of 845, which Louisville set in 2016.
Florida A&M coach Quinn Gray called timeout after Whitehouse ran out of bounds with 14 seconds remaining, seemingly frustrated that Miami would not simply end it. The Hurricanes still didn’t kneel after the timeout, with Whitehouse adding another 10 yards before what appeared to be a tense postgame exchange between Gray and Miami coach Mario Cristobal.
Cristobal said the game gave his team a chance to spread work around and evaluate more players.
"We had an opportunity to play a lot of guys to see how they fit in and what their roles can be moving forward," Cristobal said. "Nowadays in college football, that's invaluable.
You have to play guys and you really can't look at the clock and the scoreboard. You just have to continue developing your roster, which I think we attempted to do that tonight."
Miami’s starters were largely out by halftime, when the Hurricanes led 49-0. By the end, three quarterbacks had thrown at least six passes, six running backs had logged carries and 16 Miami players had caught passes. On defense, 26 Hurricanes showed up in the stat sheet, with even more seeing the field.
"You would love to have another quarter of football and not even worry about the scoreboard," Cristobal said. "I adamantly support playing players deep into games that have to be developed.
Those guys that played tonight, they work just as hard as everybody else. Those guys are itching for time."
The Hurricanes have played an FCS opponent every year since 2007 except for the COVID-disrupted 2020 season. That’s hardly unique, but the buy-game model comes with a familiar tradeoff: it brings in cash for the smaller school, while handing the Power Four team a low-risk night and a lopsided result.
In this case, Miami also paid $40,000 for Florida A&M’s band to make the trip, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. And while these games can be useful for getting reserves live reps, they also dull season-ticket packages, clutter TV inventory and do nothing for strength of schedule.
That matters for a team like Miami. The Hurricanes squeezed into the College Football Playoff last season by the narrowest of margins with two losses, and their path this year looks thin again.
Their ACC slate is light, and the only scheduled game against a currently ranked team is a No. 7 meeting with No. 3 Notre Dame on Nov.
- Lose that one and drop another game, and Miami could be staring at the wrong side of the CFP cut line unless it wins the ACC title game.
The argument for replacing FCS games is straightforward: if Miami wants to strengthen its playoff résumé, it would make more sense to schedule another Power Four opponent or at least a solid Group of Six team.
That point gets even sharper if the CFP’s “record strength” metric really does reward quality wins and punish bad ones the way it was described when introduced last year. Under that logic, FCS games should be fading fast for ACC and Big 12 teams chasing playoff spots.
Instead, the calendar keeps producing nights like this one, with Miami playing Florida A&M a week after BYU and Texas Tech opened against FCS opponents and a day before Louisville hosts Villanova.
Cristobal and coaches who want those extra live reps will keep defending the practice. But in a sport constantly searching for new ways to make money, the case for pushing these matchups into preseason instead of the regular season keeps getting harder to ignore.
In Other News...
Miami Secondary Suddenly Faces A Bigger Xavier Lucas Concern
Miamis secondary had already been leaning on youth, and the home opener only sharpened that reality. Xavier Lucas, who started in Week 1, did not play against Florida A&M, and the program offered no injury details for the absence. With the Hurricanes dealing with multiple injuries and absences in the back end, underclassmen like Bryce Fitzgerald and freshman JJ Dunnigan have been pushed into bigger roles sooner than planned.
Mario Cristobal has pointed to the groups versatility as a way to absorb those hits, but the situation also underscores how quickly depth can be tested in the secondary. Miami has spent plenty of time talking about recruiting and development as the foundation for surviving stretches like this, and Lucas status adds another layer of concern for a defense already asking younger players to hold more responsibility. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Fans Still Havent Forgotten The One Florida A&M Shocker
Before Florida A&M and Miami met again in the late 2000s, the series had already built up a long memory for Hurricanes fans, and most of it was not especially kind to the underdog. The two programs first tangled in 1979 and then again over the years in matchups that usually followed the same familiar script: Miami controlling the game, leaning on its talent and depth, and coming away with another win. By the time the teams played through the 2009 meeting, the Hurricanes had turned the series into one of those old nonconference histories that can be retold almost by habit.
Still, the reason this one lingers is that not every chapter fit the pattern, and Miami followers have never entirely let go of the one result that broke through the routine. Even with the Hurricanes holding the clear edge across the series, the trip through those games from 1979 to 2009 shows why certain opponents stick in the memory longer than the record alone would suggest. For Miami, the larger story is dominance, but for fans, it is the shock that kept one Florida A&M afternoon from blending into the rest. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Secondary Injuries Just Forced A Defensive Shuffle Fans Need To Watch
Miami was forced to improvise in the secondary against Florida A&M, and the adjustment offered a clear look at how thin the Hurricanes have become at cornerback. Bryce Fitzgerald slid over from safety to cornerback, while true freshman JJ Dunnigan was pressed into a starting role at safety, a reminder that this defense is already having to lean on flexibility early in the season.
The injury list at cornerback is what created the shuffle in the first place, with OJ Frederique, Xavier Lucas and Ja'Boree Antoine all sidelined. Some of those players are expected back later in the season, but for now Miami has to keep finding workable combinations on the back end, and the way it handles that stretch will be worth monitoring once the schedule gets heavier. [Read more 🡒]