SoFla Guide Editors
Miami needed two overtimes, a two-point conversion thrown by a wide receiver and a replay review to beat Florida State 43-35 at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday night, ESPN reported. The win moved the No. 3 Hurricanes to 6-0 and 4-0 in the ACC, alone at the top of the conference. It also put them one poll away from the program’s first AP No. 1 ranking since December 8, 2002, according to Yahoo Sports. Yes, the Larry Coker days. Yes, it has been that long.
Two overtimes, one Malachi Toney
The night in Miami Gardens belonged to Malachi Toney, who did basically everything short of selling parking passes.
His biggest moments came in the second overtime. Toney caught the go-ahead touchdown, then lined up and threw a pass to Cooper Barkate for the two-point conversion that pushed Miami ahead 43-35, Yahoo Sports reported. A receiver catching the go-ahead score and then throwing the conversion in a rivalry game in double overtime is the kind of thing you’d get yelled at for trying in a video game.
Florida State then got the ball needing a touchdown and a two-point try of its own to keep playing. What followed is the part South Florida and Tallahassee will argue about until at least Thanksgiving.
The call everyone is talking about
Facing fourth-and-21 in the second overtime, FSU quarterback Ashton Daniels threw to Micahi Danzy for what appeared to be a touchdown, according to Yahoo Sports. It did not count. Officials flagged offensive lineman Xavier Chaplin for holding, a 10-yard penalty that moved the ball back to the Miami 46 and turned fourth-and-21 into fourth-and-31, per Yahoo Sports and Pro Football Network.
On the next snap, Daniels went to the end zone for Duce Robinson. Miami’s Bryce Fitzgerald was ruled to have intercepted it, ESPN reported, and the ACC replay center upheld the call after review. Game over.
Fan and social media reaction reportedly disputed the holding call widely, per Yahoo Sports and Pro Football Network, but as of Sunday no official statement from the ACC or any officiating body has confirmed or overturned the ruling. So the penalty stands, the interception stands, and the final score stands.
FSU coach Mike Norvell was clearly not thrilled. “We had opportunities, but those guys competed until the very end,” he said, via Yahoo Sports and SI.com, before adding that he was “just sick.”
He also pointed to the officials themselves. “It’s unique when you have the same crew, back-to-back years in game-ending situations that go down the last play,” Norvell told ESPN. “I watched the play. Since the start of football, a tie goes to the receiver, but I guess they had a different angle that you could see something different.” Norvell was referencing a disputed game-ending call involving the same crew in an FSU game against Stanford last season, according to ESPN.
Miami coach Mario Cristobal saw the final play differently, and he was fairly honest about why Canes fans might have been nervous during the review. “I thought Bryce snatched that thing and pulled it into his lap,” he said, via ESPN. “But I know we’ve sat in this stadium before on a couple of those, so let’s try not to make that a habit going forward.”
Fitzgerald, for what it’s worth, has a knack for this. He also recorded a game-ending interception against Texas A&M in the College Football Playoff first round during Miami’s 2025 playoff run.
So is Miami finally No. 1?
Here is why the question is suddenly live. The AP reported that five of the top seven teams in its Top 25 lost on Saturday, the first time that has happened in the poll’s history going back to 1936. Miami, ranked No. 3 in both the AP and Coaches polls coming in, did not lose. You can do the math on where that might leave the Hurricanes when the new poll drops.
The program’s last turn at No. 1 came on December 8, 2002, under Coker, when Miami was the defending national champion, per Yahoo Sports. That run ended with a 31-24 double-overtime loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl on January 3, 2003. A roughly 24-year gap is a long time for a place that used to treat the top spot like a reserved parking space.
Cristobal, now in his fifth season, would like everyone to calm down. Asked about the prospect of a No. 1 ranking, he told ESPN: “I think we have a good enough sample size of 2026 to know that that’s absolutely insignificant and irrelevant with the changing of the guard from week to week. Just has no value to our processes. I’ll focus on the real one that’s important, 1-0.”
Spoken like a coach who just watched most of the top seven lose on the same afternoon.
What’s next
The Hurricanes sit at 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the ACC, alone atop the conference standings, with the rivalry edge now at 38-33 all time in Miami’s favor after entering the game up 37-33. The next AP poll will answer the ranking question. Whether the ACC says anything about the holding call is another matter entirely, and so far it has not.
For FSU, Saturday goes down as a game it very nearly stole in a stadium where, by Cristobal’s own admission, Miami has sat through a few nervous replay reviews before. For Miami, it’s a win, a 6-0 record, and maybe, finally, a number it hasn’t seen next to its name since 2002.
