MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Miami beat its archrival — and staked a claim to moving atop the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2002.
Darian Mensah threw for 326 yards and three touchdowns, the last of them a 3-yarder to Malachi Toney in the second overtime, and No. 3 Miami held on to beat archrival Florida State 43-35 in a back-and-forth classic on Saturday night.
“This is what great teams do, find a way to win,” Mensah said.
No. 1 Georgia lost to Auburn and No. 2 Notre Dame lost to BYU, making Saturday the first instance of the nation’s two top-ranked teams falling on the same regular-season day since Nov. 17, 2012, according to Sportradar.
That clears a path for Miami to be No. 1 when the new poll comes out Sunday.
“We have a good enough sample size of 2026 to know that’s absolutely insignificant and irrelevant with the changing of the guard from week to week,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “It just has no value to our processes and whatnot. I’ll focus on the real ‘1’ that’s important — the 1-0.”
Toney had 11 catches for 154 yards and two scores, plus threw a 2-point conversion pass to Cooper Barkate after his OT score for Miami (6-0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference).
Bryce Fitzgerald — who left the game with injury early before returning — sealed the win with an end-zone interception for the Hurricanes on the final play, amid claims from Florida State (3-4, 1-3) that it should have been ruled a touchdown.
“I thought it was a touchdown … but we’re not the ones out there calling the shots,” said Florida State quarterback Ashton Daniels, who threw for 298 yards and four scores. “We can’t control the decisions and all that. We don’t understand it. It hurts, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Mensah completed 23 of 34 passes for Miami, which has now won seven of its last 10 games against the Seminoles. Javian Mallory rushed for 108 yards and two touchdowns, including one in the first OT and Mark Fletcher Jr. added a rushing score for the Hurricanes.
Duce Robinson had a pair of TD catches late for Florida State, including a 75-yarder that tied the game with 2:49 left in regulation and a 20-yard score to open the first overtime. Robinson was the intended receiver on the last play as well, but the Hurricanes found a way.
“This rivalry is bigger than me,” Toney said. “I haven’t been alive for half of it, but I’m still playing for the standard that the generations before me created.”
Florida State, which next hosts Clemons on Oct. 31 after its bye, appeared to give itself a chance when Daniels connected on a fourth-and-21, 36-yard heave that would have made it 43-41 — only to have the play called back by holding.
Florida State disagreed with that call as well. “Go watch the film,” said embattled Florida State coach Mike Norvell, whose team is now 10-22 in its last 32 games.
The next play was an even longer heave into a maze of bodies in the end zone, called an interception before going to review. Fitzgerald was ruled to have come down with the ball, and the Hurricanes stormed the field in celebration.
“Since the start of football, if it’s a tie it goes to the receiver,” Norvell said. “I guess they had a different angle.”
The entire game saw one team going up by a TD, then the other team coming back to tie it.
Miami, which next hosts Pitt on Saturday, had leads of 7-0 and 14-7; FSU tied the game both times. FSU went up 21-14; Miami answered to tie that time. The Hurricanes went back on top; FSU answered. FSU scored first in overtime; Miami answered.
In the end, Florida State — which lost top rusher Ousmane Kromah late in the first half with a left leg injury — ran out of answers.
“We overcame the adversity,” Toney said. “That says a lot about our identity.”
The takeaway
Florida State: The Seminoles’ loss last week at Louisville was sparked by a fourth-down stop near the goal line, and Florida State had two such fourth-down misfires from inside the Miami 5 on Saturday.
In the end, not kicking field goals in those situations proved costly.
Miami: Mensah had gone 153 passes to start his Miami career without throwing an interception, a streak that ended when he tried to force one to Barkate in the end zone during the third quarter. Ashlynd Barker made the interception for Florida State, preserving what was then a 14-14 tie.
