It’s been a two-month sprint. We went from Selection Show to Signing Day to the Playoffs to the Portal to the Courthouse. There were no breaks. Thanks to all of you, CanesInSight is about to hit 8 million posts (and counting). Now that things are more settled, I wanted to reflect on the 2025 Canes.
This season was about the wins. Miami won a school-record 13 games. We beat four Top 10 teams and seven ranked teams. We beat every single rival possible- Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida, Florida State, Virginia Tech. And in each game, we were clearly the better team.
We also buried narratives. There was no November swoon. We killed the Fiesta Bowl curse. Two decades of SEC dominance? Dead and buried. We beat their two best teams with our C+ game. There are no more ghosts.
This run validated the Cristobal Era in three ways. First, it validated his roster-building. We played all the best teams and stacked up physically. When we played our in-state rivals, the talent gap was demoralizing. We're in the top weight class again.
Second, this run validated Mario's core values. As it turns out, the 12-team playoff is a lot like the past 150 years of championship football. Run the ball, play defense, win in the trenches. We're built to win in Winter.
Finally, this run validated Mario’s culture. Our game tape is littered with violence. Skill players blocked and linemen ran to the ball. We pushed piles like a rugby scrum. Everything he preached showed up on the field in the biggest moments. That’s culture, and it goes beyond talent acquisition.
This team restored the feeling we lost in the 2005 Peach Bowl. How many times have we gotten stomped since then? Now, we always show up to fight. We’re 23-6 over the past two years, and those six losses are by a combined 25 points. No matter how we're playing, we're always going to be physical.
My kids don’t understand why I wasn’t angrier after the Indiana loss. It’s hard to explain because they haven’t lived through the past two decades. Probation. Bryan Pata. Sean Taylor. 48-0 in the Orange Bowl. Shreveport. El Paso. Blue fields. Halfback passes in a blizzard. FIU. Middle Tennessee State. After all that, I can't get too mad about losing to a deserving champ in an instant classic.
More than anything, this run cemented Miami’s place in the new age of college football. The sport is moving fast and we're at the forefront. The old SEC Era is done. Our game against Indiana was the highest-rated, non-NFL sporting event in a decade. We got 8 million more viewers than Ohio State v. Notre Dame last year. The Hoosiers brought viewers, too, but there’s a reason Saturday Night Live was running skits about us. Miami football is the biggest show in town again.
It's hard to overstate the buzz in the city. When I go to my son's baseball practice, every kid is asking me about Malachi Toney like he’s LeBron James. People who never saw a great Canes team (and that's everyone under 30) finally understand what it looks like. You don't have to watch a documentary to see our logo on ESPN. For the next generation of recruits, we're a blue blood with no asterisk.
It's always great to be a Miami Hurricane, but it's never felt better than right now. Good things come to those who wait. And the wait is finally over.
