No. 1 Miami put on a show in its Week 8 win over Pittsburgh, rolling to a 52-23 victory while honoring the 2001 national championship team in throwback uniforms at home.
The Hurricanes looked the part, too. Miami got standout production from its biggest stars and meaningful contributions from first-year players in front of a packed recruiting section.
The loudest statement came from Malachi Toney, whose latest explosion should keep him squarely in the Heisman conversation. He torched Pitt for 16 catches, 194 yards and three touchdowns. That 16-reception outing broke the single-game Miami record he had already set earlier this season, and it left him one shy of the ACC record.
Through seven games, Toney now has 66 catches for 952 yards and 11 touchdowns. For comparison, when Devonta Smith won the Heisman in 2020, he had 65 catches for 903 yards and 10 touchdowns through the first seven games. Another monster day only strengthened the case that Toney is producing at that level.
Darian Mensah kept stacking his own résumé as well. He went 31-for-37 for 387 yards and four touchdowns, giving Miami another surgical performance from the quarterback spot. Mensah has now logged 14 games in his career with at least three passing touchdowns, and six of those have come with the Hurricanes.
His efficiency has helped power an offense that already has six games of 40 points or more this season. If Miami reaches two more such games, it would match the school record of eight in a season. The 2002 and 2024 teams are tied for that mark.
Mensah’s connection with Toney has become the engine of the attack, and the results keep piling up.
On the defensive side, true freshman safety JJ Dunnigan made his presence felt again. He finished with five total tackles, one tackle for loss, one forced fumble and one sack, another reminder that the hype around him was real from the moment he arrived on campus.
Javian Mallory also continued to make the most of his chances. He ran for 47 yards on seven carries, averaged nearly seven yards per attempt and scored twice. The freshman was productive despite a limited workload, and Miami keeps finding reasons to get him involved.
There was one area that still needs cleaning up, though, and it came up against Pittsburgh. Miami’s offensive line has been uneven to start the year, and the guard play remains the biggest issue.
Mensah was pressured 14 times, a number that does not usually show up against Alex Mirabal’s unit. Ben Congdon allowed four of those pressures, according to PFF, while Seuseu Alofaituli was flagged for three penalties.
In Other News...
BYU Faces A Complicated Ranking Drop After Costly Upset
Miami had no trouble staying put at No. 1 in the AP college football rankings after handling Pittsburgh, with quarterback Darian Mensah and wide receiver Malachi Toney again helping set the tone. The Hurricanes keep looking like the standard at the top, while the rest of the national picture got a shakeup behind them.
BYUs double-overtime loss to unranked UCF is expected to send the Cougars tumbling after they entered the weekend at No. 2, and Ohio State appears poised to move up into the No. 2 spot. What happens after that is less clear, with Notre Dame, Indiana and Georgia all in the mix for the top six and the final order depending on how pollsters weigh a messy weekend around the country. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Faces One Growing CFP Problem Despite Holding No 1
Miami held onto the No. 1 spot in the latest AP Top 25, collecting 59 first-place votes and keeping its place atop the sport as the College Football Playoff picture continues to sharpen. Ohio State moved up to No. 2 after overtaking BYU, while Texas made the weeks biggest climb among the contenders after its win over Ole Miss. Elsewhere in the poll, USC and Iowa fell out after losses, and Oklahoma State and Wisconsin moved into the rankings.
For Miami, the ranking is a reminder that being first is only part of the equation at this stage of the season. The Hurricanes are still in position to control their own path, but every shift around them matters as the field tightens and the margin for error shrinks. With Ohio State surging and Texas now pushing upward, Miamis hold on the top line may be secure for the moment, but the broader CFP pressure is only getting heavier. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Just Raised The Stakes For Everyone Chasing Them
Week 8 turned into a shakeup weekend across college football, and Miami came out of it with even more momentum than it had going in. The Hurricanes rolled past Pittsburgh to improve to 7-0, then moved to No. 1 in the AP poll as several teams ahead of them stumbled around the country, from BYU and Texas Tech to Iowa.
For Miami, the ranking is only part of the story. The bigger takeaway is how quickly the chase group is thinning out, with Indiana and Alabama escaping their own scares while others fell outright, and that kind of chaos tends to sharpen the spotlight on a program that has suddenly made itself the standard everyone else is trying to catch. [Read more 🡒]