SOUTH BEND, Ind. —
CJ Carr threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns, and No. 4 Notre Dame avenged its most damaging loss from last season by running out to a 21-point lead and holding on to beat No. 1 Miami 31-24 on Saturday night.
Video above: Notre Dame coaches reflect on meeting Pope Leo while in Rome
Micah Gilbert caught two of those scoring passes, Jordan Faison had the other and Nolan James Jr. had a rushing score for Notre Dame (8-1, No. 11 College Football Playoff), which came into the game knowing another loss to Miami could doom its national championship hopes.
Not to worry. The Hurricanes (8-1, No. 1 CFP) started slowly on offense in their first game without injured wide receiver and Heisman Trophy hopeful Malachi Toney — and Notre Dame, which lost to Miami 27-24 last season in a game that ultimately kept the Irish out of the playoff, never trailed.
“I’m happy for this university,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said in a televised on-field interview. “I’m happy for our players. There’s a lot of support from Notre Dame Nation and this is special moment for them. … They’re a dang good football team and they beat a dang good football team.”
Darian Mensah threw three touchdown passes for Miami, twice getting the Hurricanes within a touchdown after they trailed 24-3 early in the third. Cooper Barkate had a pair of those scoring grabs, and Elija Lofton had the other.
Lofton nearly had a touchdown catch that would have made it 31-30 — the score of the Miami-Notre Dame game in 1988 — with 3:36 left, appearing to make a fourth-down grab in the end zone and getting his feet down.
But Notre Dame’s Luke Talich — who had an interception in the third quarter — knocked the ball away, with officials ruling that Lofton didn’t complete the grab. Notre Dame took over on downs, ran the clock down to about a minute and held on from there.
Miami coach Mario Cristobal said he was “beyond upset” that Lofton’s play wasn’t ruled a score.
“Obviously, a tough loss to take,” Cristobal said. “Proud of our players for the resilience. … Don’t leave it in the hands of the officials. Play better. Coach better. Find a way to win.”
With Miami falling, only two unbeaten teams remain in the Football Bowl Subdivision — Utah and UCLA, which both moved to 9-0 with wins Saturday. This is the first time since 2003 that only two teams made it through the first nine games unbeaten; TCU and Oklahoma did it that year.
On a night when 43 NFL scouts were part of a jam-packed crowd at Notre Dame Stadium, where it was 40 degrees Fahrenheit at kickoff and fell into the mid-30s as the night went along, the Irish stayed true to their mantra for 2026 — one born from the frustration from not making the CFP field a year ago.
They left no doubt. It got a little shaky at the end, but the Irish’s CFP hopes are very much alive.
