Hurricanes aim to ‘finish the job’ after falling short in 2025. Stanford rout was a start

Before they took the field for their season opener more than 3,000 miles away from home, the Miami Hurricanes heard from some familiar voices.

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There, at their team hotel in San Jose, California, were four members of last season’s team that saw the Hurricanes accomplish so much yet come up just short.

Edge rushers Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor, nickel cornerback Keionte Scott and wide receiver CJ Daniels — all drafted after last season, all set to play on Sundays when the NFL begins its season next week — still remember the heartache they felt on Jan. 19 when they lost to Indiana in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on their home field at Hard Rock Stadium. They know how agonizingly in reach that dream of being national champions was only to see it fade away.

“It was 228 days since we were in that locker room together,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said.

Friday, on the other side of the country, marked the Hurricanes’ first opportunity since that fateful day to get back on the path toward pursuing a championship.

“Remember what happened the last time we stepped on the field,” safety Zechariah Poyser said, recounting the message. “Finish the job.”

While the Hurricanes have a long way to go in order to finish the job, they certainly started it in the best way possible. No. 7 Miami routed the Stanford Cardinal 45-6 in a game where just about everything went in UM’s favor. It was the largest margin of victory for the Hurricanes (1-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) in a season opener against a power conference opponent since a 51-3 win over Wisconsin to begin the 1989 season — the year they won their third of five national championships.

“You couldn’t draw it up any better,” said quarterback Darian Mensah, Miami’s third transfer quarterback in as many years and the one Miami hopes leads them to that final step of winning a championship. “That’s what you want. You want to go out and punch a team in the mouth, and we did that.”

Mensah paved the way for the offense with a near perfect performance. He completed 27 of 30 passes for 401 yards and five touchdowns without an interception. Twelve of those completions, 234 of those yards and three of those touchdowns went to sophomore superstar Malachi Toney, who wasted little time flashing the Heisman pose each time he found the end zone.

Read more Hurricanes aim to ‘finish the job’ after falling short in 2025. Stanford rout was a start

But even with Toney in the limelight, it opened the door for Mensah to take advantage of lax coverages elsewhere when Stanford (1-1, 0-1 ACC) tried to hone in on Toney. Mensah completed passes to seven other players throughout the night. Cooper Barkate, who transferred with Mensah from Duke, and Daylyn Upshaw each had touchdowns. Josh Moore had three catches and nearly hauled in a one-handed touchdown of his own in triple coverage. The run game, while lackluster most of the night, produced 121 yards on the ground and picked up eight of Miami’s 27 first downs.

“Everybody can eat in this offense,” Toney said.

The defense can hold its own as well. The Hurricanes held Stanford to 299 yards and to just two field goals. The Cardinal went 5 for 15 on third down and went three and out on four of 11 drives.

“It’s just the standard of our defense,” said edge rusher Marquise Lightfoot, who had a team-high nine tackles against Stanford. “We knew what we came in working for, and we accomplished it. Still a lot more work to do, but I’m glad we got our feet wet.”

Added Poyser: “That’s the expectation we have for ourselves. We just try to go out there and dominate.”

Miami flashed dominance so much last season, especially toward the end when it needed to be dominant. After dropping its second game of the season at SMU, the Hurricanes rattled off four consecutive wins to get the final at-large spot into the 12-team College Football Playoff field. They followed it up with upset wins over Texas A&M, Ohio State and Ole Miss to reach the national championship game before falling to Indiana.

This team, these Hurricanes of the 2026 season, are trying to move forward. The sting of the title-game loss will remain, but a little reminder from the past — directly from the players who experienced it — certainly has the chance to leave a lasting impact for the future.

“That just tells you about the brotherhood,” Toney said.

The Hurricanes’ performance on Friday was pretty telling, too.

“It was good to see our guys come out and take care of business,” Cristobal said. “Never took their foot off the gas.”

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One down. A long way to go if they want to finish the job.