Miami's unbeaten run ended with a 24–21 home loss to Louisville, and the Cardinals earned every bit of credit. Jeff Brohm's team hit Miami with early aggression — a fake field goal and multiple looks at quarterback — and made the key plays late to close it out. Louisville won the turnover battle 4–1 and scored 14 in the first quarter before holding on in the fourth. Here are the five biggest takeaways for Miami going forward.
1. Carson Beck reverted to his 2024 floor — and that was the difference
Beck's night was his worst of the season: 25-of-35 for 271 yards with four interceptions, a career high, and zero touchdowns. Entering the game he'd been efficient (73% completions, 11 TDs) and ranked top-20 nationally in QBR, but the turnover avalanche flipped a winnable game given how even the yardage was (Louisville 367, Miami 334). With merely "okay" quarterbacking, Miami likely escapes. Instead, a -3 turnover margin decided it. A performance like Friday night's was thought to be behind Beck as he was building steam in the Heisman race (which has now completely evaporated).
Overall, Beck deserves blame here, but moving forward it simply can't happen again. The schedule that's up ahead doesn't present top-tier challenges but if there is another game like that... the ACC title hopes will be gone.
2. The run game was non-existent
Miami managed just 63 rushing yards on 24 attempts (2.6 per carry) and it is something that likely will be noticed as the dust settles. 63 yards on the ground is well below the Hurricanes' pregame baseline — roughly 164 rushing yards per game and 4.45 yards per carry through five contests. The lack of a ground attack hurt the offense's balance and left Beck in too many obvious passing situations. Averaging just 2.6 YPC is also very uncharacteristic for Miami this year.
Considering the movement the OL has been able to get against teams like Notre Dame, USF, UF, and FSU, it would have been nice to see more calls for runs as the game continued on. Also, the offensive line gave up 0 sacks, so it wasn't like they got manhandled up front. If Beck is throwing the ball to the other team, then it would have been nice to lean on a run-game, but it simply was not good enough against Louisville. Against better opponents down the road, that isn't sustainable, especially if Beck throws three to four picks.
3. The season is not over
Recent history says one bad Saturday doesn't kill a season and with the 12-team CFP format in place, that is true. Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois last year back in September and still reached the national championship game. Ohio State lost to Michigan in the last game of the season and went on to win the national title.
It will be acknowledged that one loss was very early in the season and the other was in perhaps the biggest rivalry in the sport... but this is where Louisville deserves some credit and Miami deserves some grace. Louisville will probably be ranked come Sunday and Miami remains 5–1 with everything to play for. If Miami wins the ACC, this will just be one small bump in the road.
4. The defense did tighten after the first quarter
It wasn’t perfect, but the defensive unit settled in after the opening surge. Louisville posted 14 in the first quarter, then only 10 the rest of the way (0 in the second, 3 in the third, 7 in the fourth). Miami held the Cards to 3.8 yards per rush as a team, generated five tackles for loss and a sack, forced a fumble, and gave the offense late chances to win the game. That's a performance good enough to win most weeks with cleaner offense and shouldn't have given any Canes fans flashbacks from last year.
Now, another turnover or two would have been nice. A sack from Heisman candidate Rueben Bain or veteran Akheem Mesidor would have helped. And was it a bad look that Miami defensive players celebrated stopping a touchdown when it was 4th and 2 because they thought it was 4th and goal? Yes. But, this game wasn't on the defense after the opening quarter.
5. Malachi Toney is the most dangerous skill player on offense
The freshman wideout again looked like Miami's best playmaker: nine catches for 135 yards and a 12-yard rushing score. This takeaway is probably the most obvious of the five considering he leads the team in receiving yards this season. But, when Miami needed juice, Toney provided it — on the perimeter and on designed touches — showing how central he's become to the offense.
What's next for Miami
- Oct. 25 — Stanford at Hard Rock Stadium
- Nov. 1 — at SMU (Dallas)
- Nov. 8 — Syracuse at Hard Rock Stadium
- Nov. 15 — NC State at Hard Rock Stadium
- Nov. 22 — at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg)
- Nov. 29 — at Pittsburgh