Through four FBS games, the numbers make one thing pretty clear: this Miami team has been better than last year’s group was at the same point.
Same record. Similar ranking. Very different path to get there.
Last season’s first four FBS opponents were Notre Dame, USF, Florida State and Florida. This year it has been Stanford, Wake Forest, Clemson and Central Michigan.
That is a softer opening stretch, even with three conference road games mixed in, and it also helps explain why the comparison needs some context. The numbers here come from TeamRankings and only count FBS opponents, for Miami and everyone else.
Still, the production jumps off the page.
On offense, Miami is scoring 42.8 points per game in 2026, up from 32.5 last year. The Hurricanes have moved from 49th to 6th in yards per play, from 33rd to 6th in yards per pass, and from 81st to 25th in yards per rush, where they’re averaging 5.0 a carry. The run rate has dropped from 55.8 percent of plays to 50 percent, while giveaways have gone from 0.8 per game to 0.5.
Up and down the board, this is a better offense.
Darian Mensah is a huge reason why, and there’s no hiding the enthusiasm around him. “I love Darian Mensah.
I think he's the best quarterback in the country and I'll hype him to the moon.” But the quarterback leap can’t be viewed in a vacuum.
Last year Miami opened against Notre Dame, and Carson Beck was still working back from an injury. Mensah arrived in the spring healthy, and the receiver room looks deeper now than it did a year ago, when JoJo Trader was still being worked into the mix.
There’s also a different kind of balance to the passing game. As Ahmmon put it: "It feels like we go into a fight and it's truly, what way do you want to get beat up?"
Ahmmon said. "Do you want us to throw for 350 yards and four or five touchdowns?
Or you want to play two high safeties? OK.
We're going to run the football."
When asked whether Beck’s injury was the reason Shannon Dawson didn’t open things up more last season, Ahmmon didn’t pretend to know. "I'm not a genie," he said.
"Maybe we can ask him. Maybe he won't tell us."
The offensive line numbers are just as encouraging. Miami is running the ball better while protecting the quarterback at essentially the same level as last year, when the sack rate allowed was 3.28 percent and this year it sits at 3.70 percent. That’s being done with a younger front, which makes the improvement more notable, even if this group still hasn’t been tested against the kind of pass rushes the 2025 line saw early.
There’s a reason for the caution, though. This schedule has given Miami room to build.
The line is doing what it has to do right now, and that matters. Ahmmon pointed to Samson Okunlola after the Clemson game, saying he handled Will Heldt well.
"Samson was hemming him up all game," Ahmmon said. "He definitely won't be here next year.
I can tell you that."
He said Clemson’s best pressure came on stunts through the A and B gaps, plus one snap where Matthew McCoy got bull rushed right after returning from his arm injury. Ahmmon also singled out SJ Alofaituli, who drew criticism earlier in the season but held up at right guard against Clemson. Outside of a third-and-1 where Miami was stuffed, he said, the play in front of him didn’t break down because of him.
"He wasn't the reason plays were getting blown up, and that's all you wanted to see," Ahmmon said. "Don't be the reason the plays don't work."
That kind of steadiness helps explain why Miami is sitting sixth nationally in scoring and sixth in yards per play. It isn’t one player carrying everything, no matter how good Mensah, Mark Fletcher Jr. or Malachi Toney have been.
The defense has followed a similar arc, even if the gap between the two seasons is tighter. Miami is allowing 10.5 points per game in 2026, which ranks second, after giving up 16.3 a game last year, when it ranked 17th.
The Hurricanes have been almost identical in yards per play, at 4.3 this year and 4.4 last year, while the pass defense numbers have stayed close as well, with 6.1 yards per pass in both seasons. The run defense is where the improvement stands out most: 1.9 yards per rush this year, compared with 2.8 last year.
That’s a big jump, especially considering the concerns around losing Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor. The sack rate has also climbed from 7.33 percent of dropbacks to 8.14 percent, though Ahmmon thinks that number still leaves room for more.
He said teams have been trying harder to get the ball out quickly and avoid sacks, which has cut down on clean chances. Even so, he believes Miami should already have more sacks on the board.
"Damon Wilson II is finding his identity in this defense week by week and Marquise Lightfoot has been a wrecking ball off the edge."
And on the missed chances? "We probably should have at least another five, six sacks as a group, just off the missed ones where we have them dead to rights," Ahmmon said.
The takeaway numbers are close, with Miami at 1.5 per game this year after 1.8 last year, but the overall defensive shape still looks strong. The bigger point, though, is how this season has unfolded.
Last year Miami started fast, then hit a rough patch later against Louisville and SMU. This year, the early growing pains came first.
Stanford forced Miami to figure things out on the fly. Wake Forest brought a road test, and the Hurricanes finished it.
Clemson threw blitzes, mug looks, man coverage and stunts at them, and they handled it.
"I like how we're on the steady increase," he said. "I want to see us continue to go like this throughout the year and not start up here, take a dip halfway into the season, and then have to try to bring it back home."
He also pushed back on the idea that the schedule has been easy.
"I truly believe Wake Forest is a quality team," Ahmmon said. "That's probably one of those games in years past where we go on the road on a Friday night and we lose."
So the numbers say Miami is better. The bigger question is how much better, because the hardest tests still haven’t arrived.
The pass protection hasn’t faced its toughest challenge yet, and the secondary hasn’t either. If Miami gets healthy during the bye and gets those corners back, then the real answer starts to come into focus: whether a top-ten offense and a top-two scoring defense can keep looking this sharp when the schedule finally tightens.
In Other News...
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Lowe is now taking a hard look at what comes next, and a recent visit to Tennessee suggests he is keeping his options open. He came away sounding encouraged by the Volunteers defensive line rotation and the opportunities that could be available there, a notable development for a player whose next stop will be watched closely by Miami fans who remember just how much upside surrounded his arrival in Coral Gables. [Read more 🡒]
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The concern now is less about the record than the wear and tear that comes with it, especially after a game that featured strong all-around play and a defense that handled Clemson comfortably. With a week off to reset, Miami gets a chance to evaluate who came out of the matchup fully intact and who needs extra time before the next stretch of ACC play, a detail that could matter just as much as the standings later on. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Just Sent A Message But One Concern Wont Go Away
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Still, the celebration came with a reminder that a long season rarely stays simple. Marquise Lightfoot went down with an injury in the Clemson game, leaving Miami with one issue it cannot ignore as the stakes rise and the schedule gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]