The Miami Hurricanes dominated the Stanford Cardinal 42-7 on Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium, a bounce-back win which comes after UM’s first loss of the season at the hands of Louisville last week.
After getting off to a slow start with the game tied at 7-7 heading into the break, Miami commanded the second half, tallying 35 points and 228 total yards, while containing the Stanford offense to 52 yards.
This win is huge in restoring confidence in the program and reminding everyone that even after a loss, the mission is still the same — 1-0 every week.
Defense dominates after a rough first drive
The Hurricane defense started the night in an unideal fashion, giving up a clinical 74 yard touchdown drive to the Cardinal offense on their opening drive of the game.
However, the rest of the game was a different story — utter and complete domination.
After that first drive, Miami never let the Stanford offense back into the endzone again and limited eight of Stanford’s ten remaining drives to less than ten yards. Not to mention that the ’Canes snagged two interceptions on the night from sophomore cornerback Xavier Lucas and senior linebacker Wesley Bissainthe.
Typically when nearly half of a team’s total yardage comes in one drive that must mean the defense had changed their gameplan, right? Well, according to players that was not the case.
In the post-game press conference, Bissainthe and Lucas were asked about what changed for the defense after the first drive and one word came up more than anything else: “execute.”
After the score they kept their composure and just “executed” the gameplan to the levels expected of Miami football.
Not once, not twice, but three times; Fletcher has a career night
The previous two games going into the Stanford matchup were tough on the Miami running back room, rushing for only a combined 160 yards across the two matchups.
Fortunately, Saturday’s bounce-back game was a bounce-back for the running back room as well.
The ’Canes rushed for 199 yards and five touchdowns with more than half of both those stats produced by lead back, Mark Fletcher Jr.
Fletcher had himself a career night, rushing 23 times for 106 yards, while making his way into the endzone on three different occasions, which is a personal high for him.
His three-touchdown night marked not only a career-best performance, but it also moved him into prestigious territory on the Miami all-time record books. Fletcher now sits at 23 career rushing touchdowns, which moves him past 2001 champion Clinton Portis for 10th all-time in a UM career.
With at least six games left in his Miami career, Fletcher could find himself near the top of the list before it is all said and done.
Rookie of the year, Toney cannot be stopped
It seems like Malachi Toney will be the hottest topic nearly every week for the remainder of the season.
The freshman wide receiver continued his top form this week as he led the team in all-purpose yards, totaling 138 yards on the night. And in usual fashion, those yards came from everywhere on the field. Toney had five receptions for 52 yards, he rushed for 13 yards and he returned two punts for an impressive 73 yards combined.
Even though there is no Freshman of the Year award for college football, Toney would be hard to beat.
On the season, he has 43 receptions for 562 receiving yards (Second among freshmen and first among true freshmen in the country), three receiving touchdowns and one rushing touchdown. Toney is red-hot and does not seem like slowing down as he aims for the Miami freshman single season receiving yard record set by Ahmmon Richards back in 2016 when he had 934 yards.
Miami heads out of the state for the first time this season next week, visiting the SMU Mustangs (5-3, 3-1 ACC) in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, Nov. 1. Kickoff at Gerald J. Ford Stadium.