The Miami Hurricanes suffered their first loss of the season against Louisville on Friday night.
The defeat cut off Miami’s direct path to the ACC title game — they would need other teams to lose — but a playoff berth is still likely if the Hurricanes, now ranked ninth in three major polls, bounce back and win the rest of their regular-season games.
UM coach Mario Cristobal is confident his team can do that.
“I don’t worry about that because at the end of the day, we have good people, really good competitors, and we cannot lose sight (that) this is the same team that started off 5-0 against a really tough schedule,” Cristobal said. “Same people, the same players and the same coaches.”
In other close games this season, Cristobal and players have talked about the benefit of learning lessons without the consequence of a loss. But last week, those mistakes caught up with the Hurricanes, and they fell to a strong opponent.
“You know what we learned?” Cristobal said. “We learned the lesson of if you don’t perform, if you don’t coach at the highest level every single week, humility’s right around the corner. And with as poorly as we did things on Friday, we still had the ball at the 30-yard line with the ability to at least tie or win the game.”
Miami’s season is still far from over. Even if the Hurricanes miss out on the ACC title game, they could still make the College Football Playoff if they win the rest of their games. Miami will have tough road tests against SMU and Pittsburgh, but computer models still think UM is a playoff contender. ESPN’s Football Power Index model gives Miami about a 45 percent chance to make the playoff, and The Athletic’s model gives the Hurricanes an 83 percent chance.
Cristobal said the team has to directly address the issues it had against the Cardinals in order to correct them in time for their Saturday matchup with Stanford, which just upset FSU last Saturday night.
“You go at it directly with honesty, with transparency and you make sure that everybody gets back to work and make sure that we address the things that need to get better and push forward,” Cristobal said. “There’s no looking back. That thing is done. You’ve got to go forward.”
Mesidor dealing with foot issue
Hurricanes veteran Akheem Mesidor briefly left UM’s loss to Louisville due to injury before returning later in the contest.
Cristobal said Mesidor is doing “pretty well” bouncing back from the injury.
“He’s done pretty well,” Cristobal said. “Obviously, it was tough for him to finish the game. He was a little bit banged up, but he seems to be on track to be healing.”
Stanford rookie to watch
Miami’s next opponent, Stanford, had one of the ACC’s top players in last week’s games.
Running back Cole Tabb, a redshirt freshman, was named the conference’s Running Back of the Week and Rookie of the Week. Tabb rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries in the Cardinal’s upset win over FSU.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/10/20/cristobal-hurricanes-bounce-back/
