The Hurricanes had a lot to work on this week.
After losing their first game of the season, the Hurricanes had to improve their running game and get better at tackling. Perhaps most importantly, quarterback Carson Beck needed to work on avoiding turnovers after throwing four interceptions in the loss to Louisville.
Whether No. 9 Miami (5-1, 1-1 ACC) has fixed those issues will show on Saturday when it faces Stanford (3-4, 2-2 ACC) at Hard Rock Stadium at 7 p.m.
“You can’t let (the loss) define you,” UM running back Mark Fletcher Jr. said. ” … That was a great team. Shoot, we kept shooting ourselves in the foot, and we lost by three points. Like I said, again, not putting nothing past Louisville; that’s a great team. But, shoot, you can’t continue to keep on shooting yourself in the foot, not executing and expect to win the game. It just can’t happen. So, like I told everybody: Don’t panic. Just get back to the work. Get back to what we’re good at, and we’re going to be just fine.”
The Cardinal, which is playing UM for the first time in program history, had a strange offseason, firing its former coach Troy Taylor in March — much later than a team typically would dismiss a coach — amid reports that Taylor had acted inappropriately. Taylor took issue with those reports and sued ESPN for defamation.
Stanford’s interim coach, former Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Reich, has led the Cardinal to three wins so far; their first win was over a struggling Boston College, and their second was against a sub-.500 Mountain West team, San Jose State.
It’s Stanford’s third win that was most surprising, as the Cardinal upset Florida State as an 18-point underdog last week.
Despite the upset, Stanford still ranks as one of the worst teams in the Power 4. Pro Football Focus gives the Cardinal an overall grade of 73.4, which is 115th nationally and the lowest of any Power 4 team. ESPN’s Football Power Index ranks Stanford 80th, and ESPN analyst Bill Connolly’s SP+ has the Cardinal 101st. Stanford is 112th in the nation in points per game and 94th in points allowed per game.
Despite the statistics showing the Cardinal is likely the worst team on UM’s schedule, the Hurricanes cannot take the Cardinal lightly. Although Miami is about a 30-point favorite, UM needs to get back on the right track before facing one of the toughest tests on its schedule, SMU, in a week.
“I think they’ve been through a lot, as a program, with the change and whatnot in coaching and all the things that are going on,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “I think they’ve done a great job at really finding their way, schematically, and from a personnel standpoint, putting guys in position to play really, really well. I think it showed on Saturday against Florida State with them holding one of the best offenses in the country to 13 points and playing a really physical brand of football: knocking a quarterback out the game, really explosive in the run game, really good on third down, really good on third-down defense and red-zone defense, as well.”
The Cardinal could be a good chance for Beck to rebound after arguably the worst game of his career.
Stanford’s defense has been one of the worst when defending the pass this season. The Cardinal has given up the third most passing yards per game in the nation and has only one interception this year, which is tied for the lowest number in the nation. But Beck spoke highly of the unit he is going up against on Saturday, saying the Cardinal has a physical defense. Now it is up to the Hurricanes to get back on track.
“I think we have a lot of mature players on this team and, again, I think the identity of a team is shown when you’re standing in the face of adversity,” Beck said. “We got knocked down. And how are we going to respond? Well, I don’t know that answer yet until Saturday. So again, it’s the same thing every single week, regardless of a win or a loss the week before. We’re focused on each week, individually. It’s one-week seasons, especially from here on out.”
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/10/24/um-stanford-advance/
