Nearly 11 years ago, No. 6 Clemson walked into Hard Rock Stadium and handed Miami the worst loss in program history. The final was 58-0 and head coach Al Golden was fired the next day.
Clemson was just beginning the run that would turn it into its best string of seasons in college football.
Miami has clawed its way back into ACC royalty
For most of the decade that followed, the Tigers won ACC championships, reached the College Football Playoff and played for national titles. During that time, Miami had expectations because of the brand that comes with the Hurricanes, but they couldn't find a coach to bring them into the same ballpark. But this Saturday, No. 4 Miami now goes to Memorial Stadium at 4-0 and as a two-touchdown road favorite over an unranked 3-1 Clemson team.
The question now is whether the Hurricanes are becoming what Clemson used to be.
A trip down memory lane
Clemson won six consecutive ACC championships from 2015 through 2020, while adding conference titles in 2022 and 2024. They made the Playoff every season from 2015-2020, as well as in 2024. Two of those trips resulted in national championships (2016 and 2018).
HC Dabo Swinney is now in his 19th season and entered this year as the winningest coach in ACC history. If the conference was going to have a team competing for the national title, the entire college football world assumed it was going to be the Tigers.
Oh, how times have changed.
Mario Cristobal changed everything for Miami
After going 5-7 and 7-6, Mario Cristobal has been able to find his groove, going 10-3 and 13-3 over the last two seasons. The Hurricanes increased their win total each year, posted back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time since 2002-03, finished No. 2 nationally last year and opened this season 4-0 while averaging 51.8 points a game.
Clemson went 11-3 and won the ACC in 2022, 9-4 in 2023, 10-4 with another conference title in 2024, and then 7-6 last year and a Pinstripe Bowl loss to Penn State.
The opposite trajectories beg the question: Is Miami about to take the torch from Clemson as the face of the ACC? Or have they already done that?
A series of unfortunate outcomes for Miami against Clemson
Two years after the 58-0 loss, Miami reached its first ACC Championship Game since joining the conference in 2004. No. 1 Clemson dismantled the No. 7 Hurricanes 38-3 for a third straight conference title. That night was supposed to be Miami's shot at the crown, and the Canes just weren't ready yet.
In 2020, the Manny Diaz-led Miami Hurricanes entered No. 7 and undefeated, while Clemson was still rolling and ranked No. 1. That game wasn't much of a contest either as the Tigers won 42-17 and outgained Miami 550-210.
Cristobal's first Miami team went back to Death Valley in 2022 and lost 40-10, with Clemson holding the Hurricanes to just 98 total yards (including eight yards and one first down in the first half).
Miami, under Cristobal, has made progress against Clemson
The first time the matchup was competitive came the following season in Coral Gables, when Miami beat Clemson 28-20 in double overtime without starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke.
That snapped a four-game Clemson winning streak in the series and gave Miami its first win against the Tigers in 13 years.
That win was the culmination of recruiting wins, the reconstruction of Miami's NFL pipeline, Swinney's aversion to the transfer portal, and years of wanting to be the man without beating the man.
After playing in the national championship game last year, and Clemson's reign slowing down, Saturday is one of those games people may look back on and say the ACC's hierarchy officially moved into a new era.
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