Miami (FL) football declared themselves “state champions” after taking down Florida State Saturday. With the exception of Notre Dame, every 2025 Hurricanes victory was against a Florida representative.
Except the road win for Mario Cristobal and company comes with concerns on the side of the top five program.
Miami remains No. 2 in the country per the latest AP Top 25. Although they've surfaced as the No. 1 per CBS Sports' College Football Power Rankings.
Yet the Hurricanes faced trouble routing the Seminoles in the end after a fast start. FSU managed to expose some flaws on the side of the ‘Canes moving forward. The kind Miami must fix before facing a similar scenario in 2024: Start fast but stumble in the end.
Hurricanes still lacking consistent offensive explosion
The games against Florida and Florida State have shined a light on Miami's inability to be consistently explosive.
Miami settled for 26 against Florida — featuring averaging just 4.5 yards per play. The ‘Canes settled for only 344 total yards too inside Hard Rock Stadium.
This time Shannon Dawson's offense mustered only 14 first downs. Granted, Dawson hit FSU with explosives out the gate — including Carson Beck hitting Malachi Toney on this trick play.
CARSON BECK 44-YARD FLEA FLICKER TO 17-YEAR-OLD MALACHI TONEY 🪄 pic.twitter.com/u4MbEGzmOA
— ESPN (@espn) October 5, 2025
Toney scored on 44 and 40-yard touchdown receptions. CJ Daniels burned FSU too on a 24-yard strike, which included him trolling the famed Seminoles war chant.
But Daniels' second TD became the final one on the night. FSU forced two punts and a turnover on downs the rest of the night. Miami never surpassed 10 yards through a completion or run during that sequence.
It's the opposite of the Florida win, when the ‘Canes scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter on their final four drives. But Miami's inability to put teams away immediately could end up costing the ‘Canes soon.
Ground attack is struggling for Miami
Beck has played efficient football and tossed four touchdowns on the Seminoles. But he needs help behind him…from the running backs.
Mark Fletcher Jr. settled for 40 yards on only 12 carries. Keelan Marion managed to get a 22-yard gain on a designed jet sweep. But no other Miami RB option surpassed 19 rushing yards.
And this ground game faced a defense that allowed 211 yards to Virginia, including the three Chandler Morris touchdowns on designed QB keeper runs.
The Gators even did everything in their power to contain the Miami rushing attack. Fletcher may have gained 116 yards, but his longest run was a 20-yarder. Dawson and Cristobal must find new ways to reignite the rushing element before defenses will look at Miami as one-dimensional.
Third down offense is final reason to panic
Miami's reasoning for its offensive struggles late involves the third down offense.
The unit converted just five of their third downs — out of 14 attempts. That's a dismal 35.7% conversion rate.
As improved the defense is, Miami can't ill afford to rush them back onto the field and must limit the three-and-outs. A gassed Rueben Bain Jr., Akheem Mesidor, Wesley Bissainthe and others swings the momentum to opponents.
Miami is winning off breakout plays from the WR room, a consistent Beck and a maligned defense. But the nation's second-best team is far from complete. They have areas to fix to finalize their first national title run since 2002.
