Miami’s pass protection has become one of the clearest issues on a team that still sits at 8-1, and the trip to Notre Dame only put a brighter spotlight on it.
Darian Mensah spent much of Saturday under fire in South Bend, taking pressure on 20 of his 52 dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. That 39.2 percent pressure rate was Miami’s second-highest of the season, just behind the 39.4 percent mark Mensah saw against FSU.
The Hurricanes now turn to a home game against Duke on Saturday at noon on ABC, with Miami favored by 13 1/2 points, and the focus inside the program is simple: clean up the protection before the stretch run begins.
“We’ll never be satisfied in what we do, so we’re always trying to get better,” offensive tackle Matt McCoy said. “We’ll have good games, we’ll have bad games, but every day in practice, we’re trying to get better.”
The Notre Dame game was Miami’s roughest pass-blocking outing of the season by a wide margin. The Hurricanes earned a 28.6 pass-blocking grade from PFF, which was 22.9 points lower than any other game this year. Mensah, who likes to stay in the pocket and work through his reads, scrambled a season-high six times, per PFF.
This wasn’t a case of one lineman getting singled out and the rest holding up. Every Miami offensive lineman gave up at least one pressure. Left tackle Samson Okunlola was charged with seven, McCoy allowed six, right guard SJ Alofaituli gave up five, right guard Ben Congdon allowed two, and center Ryan Rodriguez allowed one.
“There were some really good moments in strong pockets, and there’s some other ones where we got to do better,” UM coach Mario Cristobal told WQAM on Monday. “But all in all, they fought their butts off.
Proud of them. Going to keep getting better.”
Shannon Dawson pointed to the game script as part of the problem. Miami fell behind early and had to lean heavily on the pass to try to climb back in, which let Notre Dame tee off.
“We’ve got to try to get back into the game. We’ve got to take some risk,” Dawson said.
“And so when you do that, they know you’re throwing it. We know we’re throwing it.
Look, it’s going to get muddy. All they’re doing is twisting, and they’ve got damn good D-linemen, and they’re rushing.
So is there going to be some people that muddy the pocket? You’re damn right.
“We had to abandon the run for about a quarter and a half there because we’re trying to get back in the game. Well, that makes it tough on the O-line.
And so, yeah, it’s going to be a little muddy at times when you’re in that situation, offensively. It’s not a deal where we can keep them off balance with run game, play action, and kind of pick and choose what we can do when the game’s even.
But you’re down three touchdowns, we’ve got to throw it. They know we’ve got to throw it.
And guess what? Pass protection’s hard.”
The bigger concern is that Saturday wasn’t an outlier. Through nine games, Miami has allowed 89 quarterback pressures, according to PFF - six more than it allowed across 16 games last season. The numbers also show a major drop from a year ago: Miami posted an 88 pass-blocking grade in 2024, best in the nation, while this year the Hurricanes sit at 57.6, which ranks 102nd nationally.
Even so, there has been some progress. The Notre Dame game was the low point, but two of Miami’s three best pass-blocking grades against Power 4 opponents came in the two weeks before that loss.
“You can get better, a lot, every week in everything we do,” McCoy said. “Communication, physicality, we do that each week.
So we work on that each week. There’s always something we can work on each week.”
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Marcus Freeman's CFP Reaction Will Spark A Big Notre Dame Debate
Marcus Freeman wasted little time weighing in on the College Football Playoffs move to 24 teams starting in 2027, and his reaction was pretty easy to read from a Notre Dame perspective. Speaking after the official announcement, the Irish coach said the expanded format would benefit Notre Dame, a program that has long lived with the pressure of making its case for a postseason spot without the safety net of a conference championship game.
Freeman also made clear that the new setup wont feel like a win for everyone, but for Notre Dame it opens more doors and more chances to get in. That is exactly why his comments are likely to stir debate around the program, because the Irish have spent years navigating the tension between independence and access, and this change only sharpens the question of how the playoff should reward teams like Notre Dame. [Read more 🡒]
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For Notre Dame, the addition keeps the schedule lined up with the kind of high-profile nonconference tests the program has long valued. Washington brings real pedigree into the series as a current Big Ten member with a football history that includes multiple conference and national championships, which gives the matchup a little extra heft beyond the usual future scheduling announcement. The only question now is how much both programs will have changed by the time the first kickoff finally arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Has The Edge But Boston College Brings A Real Trap
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Boston College, though, has enough veteran experience and transfer portal help to make this feel less comfortable than the rankings might suggest. It has the look of a classic trap game, the kind that can echo a past meeting from 1993, where the favored team still has to handle a physical, older opponent that knows how to make things awkward if the favorite is even a little off. [Read more 🡒]