Miami football tops rival FSU 36-14 on homecoming weekend – The Miami Hurricane

On a beautiful Saturday night in Miami Gardens, 66,200 fans packed out Hard Rock Stadium as the sixth ranked Miami Hurricanes (8-0, 4-0 ACC) toppled their in-state rival Florida State Seminoles (1-7, 1-6 ACC) 36-14 on homecoming night for UM.

With under five minutes left in the game, Miami used some trickery to put the game at rest. On second down, Miami quarterback Cam Ward handed the ball off to Damien Martinez, who flipped the ball to tight end Elijah Arroyo, who found Ward wide open in the back of the endzone. 

That touchdown was the exclamation point on Miami’s victory over the Seminoles.

“We’ve been repping that for two weeks,” Ward said. “I’m just happy he called the play.”

Miami picked up right where they left off from its win over Louisville. Ward completed four of his first five throws, capitalizing the drive on a Mark Fletcher Jr. one yard touchdown run.

The Hurricanes rushing attack was dominant this evening, torching the struggling Seminole run defense. Martinez and Fletcher led the way, combining for 219 rushing yards and three touchdowns. 

“[Damien] is feeling really comfortable in the system,” Miami head coach Mario Cristobal said. “What you see is just a very physical tough dude that is tough to bring down.”

Miami’s third drive of the game was led almost entirely through Martinez and Fletcher. In the series alone, Martinez had eight touches, totaling 79 yards, and capping off the drive with an 18 yard touchdown run.

Following Miami’s punt on the second drive of the game, the Hurricanes scored on every possession after. UM finished the game scoring on seven of their eight drives. Three of those drives ended in Andy Borregales field goals.

Despite not having his usual heisman-esque stats, Ward had a fine showing in the victory. The Washington State transfer quarterback threw for 208 yards, completing 63 percent of his throws and catching one touchdown in the process.

“We were not good on offense as a whole,” Ward said. “We don’t settle for field goals, we settle for touchdowns.”

One area of concern for the Hurricanes tonight was inconsistent offensive line play. For most of the season, Ward had been mainly untouched, getting help from the big guys up front. Tonight, the FSU defense got to Ward four separate times.

Miami got a big contribution from its defense tonight, specifically in the secondary. After allowing over 30 points in three straight games, UM held FSU to 14 points on 248 total yards. The secondary allowed just 115 yards from the Florida State quarterbacks.

“The defense was the story of the game,” Cristobal said. “They were putting pressure on the quarterback, they made it really difficult to run the football.”

True freshman Luke Kromenhoek struggled through the air against the Hurricane defense, throwing for just 61 yards while completing 42 percent of his passes. However, the Seminole quarterback was effective with his legs, running 11 times for 72 yards.

With this win Miami secures the Florida Cup for the first time since 2004. This is Miami’s fourth time since 2002 of defeating Florida State and the University of Florida in the same season. It was previously held by UF in 2019. 

UM also clinches a perfect 4-0 record against the state of Florida for the first time since 2009. 

Miami will stay home next week and host the Duke Blue Devils (6-2) on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium. There is no time set for this game at this moment. It will be broadcasted on one of the ESPN networks.