It wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t clean, but it was a win.
Faced with adversity in their first road game of the season, Miami fought and found a way to win. The Miami Hurricanes played a dominant three quarters and braved out the Seminoles’ attempt to storm back. And at the end of 60 minutes Miami had another ranked victory and clinched its second straight State Championship with a 28-22 win.
While the Hurricanes offense flashed for stretches again, it was the Hurricanes defense that stole the show.
The big question heading into this game: Could Miami hold down the explosive FSU offense led by the dynamic duo of Tommy Castellanos and Duce Robinson?
Florida State’s offense tried its best to confuse Corey Heatherman’s defense with a multitude of formations, motions, and trick plays. While the Seminoles generated a few explosive plays, for every Castellanos scramble or chunk play, Miami was able to recover and not let things spiral. They rallied to the ball, forced turnovers, and played sound football under Heatherman’s system.
“I thought after the first drive, where they drove down and we held them to a field goal, we really got our cleats in the ground and started playing really good football.” head coach Mario Cristobal said.
Leading the charge was safety Jakobe Thomas, who flew around the field all day.
Miami’s big defensive plays came in the form of three turnovers, the highlight of which was a spectacular play by Thomas. He recovered and tracked a streaking Florida State receiver to pick off Castellanos, turning what would have been a walk-in touchdown into Miami’s ball. Just eight plays later the ’Canes turned that interception into a touchdown to give Miami its 25-point lead that it entered into the 4th quarter with.
Thomas, with his activity around the ball, notched 5 tackles, one TFL, one sack, and that interception. He was the lightning that Miami needed to chase and track the shifty Castellanos, and throughout the game he showed why he was such a crucial offseason addition via the transfer portal.
Offensively the expectation was for Miami to pound the rock against an FSU team that was bullied by the Cavaliers on the ground, but early on that was unavailable to the Hurricanes.
Miami was faced with plenty of stacked boxes as the Seminoles dared Carson Beck to beat them through the air, and Beck and Shannon Dawson responded to the challenge to the tune of 241 yards and four touchdowns.
Beck went to his go-to targets, transferring to CJ Daniels and freshman Malachi Toney early and often, combining for 185 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns. Daniels got the Miami offense going after he beat his man on a deep post for a 47-yard connection, followed up a few plays later by a Daniels touchdown catch.
On Toney’s end, he was reliable and explosive as always. The play after true freshman Bryce Fitzgerald took an interception across midfield, Beck lofted a pass off a flea-flicker into the hands of true freshman Malachi Toney for a 44-yard score.
Between the flea-flicker and shot to Daniels, Miami showcased an explosive downfield passing attack. For Beck, having that element as part of the offense is exciting to see.
“Usually you hope for one of them to play a game, or you call one or two or three of them and you hit one of them.” Beck explained. “But to be able to hit some like we did today is always fun.”
The flea-flicker wasn’t the end of Toney’s day, though. In a critical opening drive in the second half, Miami was faced with fourth and short and dropped back to pass. Toney, as he has so many times, found the open spot in the defense and reeled in the conversion. Not satisfied, he turned upfield and turned on the jets, running past the defense to extend Miami’s lead for another 40-yard touchdown. It was another game that showed that Toney is far ahead of the curve as a freshman and is a superstar that the Miami fans will have for a long time. Beck praised Toney and how mentally he’s been as impressive as he’s been physically.
“[Toney’s] such a smart kid.” Beck said. “Obviously he’s uber talented, but he puts in the work, and he deserves all the success he’s getting.”
But after three quarters of domination, the game started to slip away from Miami. The Hurricanes managed just 17 yards in the fourth quarter. This let the Seminoles back into the game with multiple quick touchdown drives, with four explosive plays in the fourth quarter. It seemed that Miami had lost all momentum, unable to get a stop and unable to move the ball to burn the clock.
But with the 25-point gap Miami built and with so little time, Florida State was unable to mount a comeback, and Miami again took home the title as the best in Florida.
“It’s playoff football,” Cristobal said. “If you refuse to acknowledge the holes that need to be fixed in order to keep getting better. You’re not going to last very long.”
Miami can celebrate its road win against the Seminoles with this next week off. When they come back from their second bye, Miami will take on the 4-1 Louisville Cardinals back at home in Hard Rock Stadium Friday, Oct. 17th, at 7 p.m.
