On way to a possible national title, Miami gives a shoutout to Texas A&M and SMU
SMU should have crushed the Canes’ chances to make the playoffs, a reality that a lot of the UM players accepted in the immediate moments of their upset defeat in Dallas on Nov. 1.
“As soon as we lost that the game I went into the bathroom and I just sat there for 15 minutes, just not knowing what to think. Is our season over? What’s next? What are we fighting for? What am I fighting for?” Miami senior defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor told the Star-Telegram last week.
“That wasn’t the case, but I did have mixed feelings. I didn’t know what to think after that game.”
Two days later, Miami coach Mario Cristobal did his best sales job in front of players at a team meeting in an effort to convince them that their season was not over, even though they had two losses with four games remaining.
“He said, ‘We can still win out, but we have to win out every single game. We have to go 1-0 every week; that’s what we need,” Messidor said. “Once we lost to SMU, our chances to make the playoffs were 3 percent. We needed stuff to happen around the country. We needed certain teams to lose, and we needed to win out. The dominoes fell in the right position, and we ended up here.”
The U is here in the playoff semifinals thanks to its three visits to Texas: Dallas, College Station and Arlington. The loss at SMU worked out in the end, and Miami’s two playoff wins came at Texas A&M, and versus Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl.
Of the four remaining teams in the playoffs, No. 10 Miami is the lowest-seeded team. The Hurricane play No. 6 Ole Miss on Thursday night in the Fiesta Bowl.
Miami’s loss at SMU was not a season-ender
Miami led SMU by three points late in the fourth quarter before the Mustangs came back to tie with 25 seconds remaining. In overtime, SMU’s T.J. Harden scored a walk-off touchdown, which prompted a field rush from fans, some of whom suffered serious injury on the jump from the stands to the turf.
Some older SMU fans had tears in their eyes to celebrate something they never thought they would see, SMU defeating a top-ranked team on the Hilltop.
Some Miami players had tears of their own. They just blew it against unranked SMU. It was not that bad of a loss; SMU finished a respectable 9-4, which included a win over No. 17 Arizona in the Holiday Bowl.
“People forget that we were the No. 2 team in the country at one point. And then I threw four interceptions in a football game that we lost [a 3-point defeat vs. Louisville on Oct. 17],” Miami quarterback Carson Beck said after the Cotton Bowl. “Then we play SMU, and they had not lost a conference home games in years.”
But the loss effectively knocked Miami out of the ACC title game, and forced them having to hope and pray for an at-large bid to the playoff.
Miami loved its time in Texas, specifically at Texas A&M
Almost to a man, the Miami players said its opening round playoff game at Kyle Field on Dec. 20 was one of the best experiences of their careers. Not just because they won, but the atmosphere.
“That was in my top three,” Miami running back Mark Fletcher said. “If it was at night, it would have been the best thing ever.”
Kyle Field was not quite full when it hosted Miami, but the crowd of 104,122 was the biggest the Hurricanes players have ever seen.
“Besides playing at Hard Rock Stadium [home of the Hurricanes], it was my favorite place to play,” Mesidor said. “I loved the 100,000 deep all rooting against you, I loved that feeling. I loved the adversity. I loved silencing the crowd. I just loved knowing I am in enemy territory, and there is 100,000 of them.”
The atmosphere for Miami at Texas A&M is why college football can make 48 dumb decisions every day, and get away with all of them.
With the game tied at three in the final minutes, the noise level on the field sounded like multiple 747s were inches away from your ears. When Miami’s Malachi Toney scored the game-winning touchdown on an 11-yard shovel/handoff with less than two minutes left, the only sound you could hear was from the Miami players celebrating.
“It was a surreal experience, but at nighttime it would have been the real true experience of what the 12th man is like,” Miami defensive end Rueben Bain said. “But overall I was excited, and hearing all of the fans go crazy and then go quiet.”
One week later, Miami visited Arlington, where it upset No. 2 Ohio State by 10.
Whatever happens to Miami the rest of the way, its time in Texas this season was memorable.
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 4:30 AM.
