Thanks to a top 15 recruiting class and one of the best transfer portals hauls in the country – headlined by former Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Carson Beck – the Miami Hurricanes come into the 2025 college football season with championship aspirations. But the Hurricanes road to their first ever College Football Playoff appearance won’t be easy.
Although the Hurricanes will avoid Clemson, Georgia Tech, Duke and North Carolina in conference play, tricky ACC matchups against Florida State, Louisville and SMU are on the schedule, and a pair of non-conference rivalry games will put Miami in the spotlight early on this season. In addition to a mid-September showdown with the Florida Gators, Miami will also host the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a primetime matchup on the opening weekend of the season.
But just because this nostalgia-infused showdown between the Hurricanes and Fighting Irish will be the game that everyone has their eyes on when August 31st rolls around, Miami head coach Mario Cristobal made it crystal clear that the Hurricanes aren’t thinking about the Irish just yet.
“I think everyone in the world knows who we’re playing game one, so it’s not a focal point as we enter the offseason program,” Cristobal told ESPN’s Greg McIlroy on the Always College Football show. “Obviously, as a staff, you’re always breaking down your opponents and you’re very well aware of how prominently and how successful, and how elite some of the teams are that we play this season, but it’s something that you won’t be hearing in meetings.”
While Notre Dame may indeed be Miami’s toughest test of the regular season, Cristobal knows that there are 11 more games on the schedule, and it’s not always the high-profile opponents who trip you up. Last season is a perfect example, where Miami stumbled twice on the road late in the season against unranked conference foes, costing themselves an opportunity to play in the ACC Championship Game and be one of the twelve teams to make the 2024 College Football Playoff.
There will obviously be a time when Miami’s focus shifts to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Both the Hurricanes and the Fighting Irish will likely be ranked in the top ten of the first AP Poll of the season, but until it’s game week, Mario Cristobal and his staff will keep his players focused on the task of improving each and every day.
“Come two weeks out, all attention will be on Notre Dame. But between now and then, man, it’s all about Miami getting better, getting tougher, getting in the best shape we could possibly be in. The best individual, best position group, best unit and best overall team we could possibly be.”
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