Rattling off four straight wins to start its 2026 campaign, Miami football looks better than ever.
One of 22 FBS teams with an undefeated record, so far the Canes are meeting the sky-high expectations set for them following their appearance in the national championship.
Now a third of the way through the regular season, it’s time to take a look beneath the Hurricane’s record and see if they’re poised for another deep run into the postseason.
Littered with stars
Every few years or so, top teams usually find themselves in possession of a star that has the potential to win the Heisman trophy and carry their squad to the playoffs. In Miami’s case, they have two this year in transfer quarterback Darian Mensah and homegrown star wideout Malachi Toney.
Mensah has been on another level to start the year.
He became the first FBS player this decade to go his first four games with more passing touchdowns (14), than incompletions (12). He currently sits at seventh in the nation in passing yards with 1,211, second in yards per attempt (11.4), first in touchdowns, first in passer rating (228.0), and first in completion percentage (88.7%). He has yet to turn the ball over and has built up an incredible rapport with seemingly every wide out on the field.
If he keeps up this level of play, Mensah will be a shoe-in for a trip to the Heisman ceremony in New York.
His top target Toney has been on fire as well, establishing himself as a clear top-2 receiver in the country.
Toney is currently third in the nation in receptions (34) and receiving yards (564) as well as fourth in receiving touchdowns (6).
His ability to consistently shred defenses from both the slot and out wide has made him practically unguardable this year. If he’s in the slot, no linebacker in the country can come close to guarding him, and from out wide it seems like cornerbacks can’t do much either. Whether in man or zone, Malachi seems to find the soft spot in a defense without fail.
Besides their Heisman-hopeful duo, Miami boasts more stars throughout the team.
Running back Mark Fletcher Jr. has had a slow start to the season statistically, as he has been pulled early from most games due to the score and is nursing a minor injury. However, he has still been the same bulldozing halfback that helped carry Miami through the playoffs last season.
Expect him to come alive as the season wears on into tougher conference play.
On the defensive side, DL Marquise Lightfoot leads the team in tackles with 17 and sacks with 4. After multiple first round pass rushers left the ‘Canes this offseason, so far he has been the guy to step up.
Injury concerns
Despite their early success, the Hurricanes have lost some crucial pieces to the squad.
The first and most notable being Marty Brown, the second string running back. For Miami in 2025, Brown toted the rock 122 times for 474 yards and seven scores, including two in the playoffs.
Luckily, the Canes have lots of depth at the position, with Jordan Lyle, Girard Pringle Jr., Javian Mallory, and Chris Wheatley-Humphrey all proving to be strong candidates to boost the offense behind Fletcher.
On top of Brown, receiver Joshua Moore is also out for the season. Prior to his injury, he was the team’s second leading receiver behind Malachi Toney. Miami will look to transfer Cooper Barkate as well as youngsters Somourian Wingo and Daylyn Upshaw to pick up the slack.
On the other side of the ball, three injuries to the defensive backfield are Miami’s biggest worry.
Corners Ja’Boree Antoine, Xavier Lucas, and Miami’s best corner O.J. Frederique Jr. are all banged up.
In their absence, the Canes have tried mixing up coverages, trying different players at corner such as young safety Bryce Fitzgerald and JJ Dunnigan.
This is a situation to watch for Miami as we move deeper into the year.
Pump the breaks a little — the schedule hasn’t exactly been the hardest
In their four games so far, Miami has played Stanford, Florida A&M, Wake Forest, and Central Michigan. Those teams hold a combined record of 8-10 with Wake Forest being the only team that is currently above .500.
While Miami has proved its dominance with an average margin of victory of almost 50 points in those four games, it might be a little too early to see what the Canes are really made of.
Saturday’s game against Clemson in Death Valley will be their first real challenge, but all eyes are on Nov. 7 against Notre Dame in South Bend.
That will be this team’s true test.
Four weeks into the year Miami is showing an abundance of promise. There are some small questions, but overall, the near future is very promising for the Canes.
