SOUTH BEND, Ind. — CJ Carr threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns, and No. 11 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.
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), which came into the game knowing another loss to Miami could doom its national championship hopes.
Not to worry. The Hurricanes (8-1) 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 quarter. 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 hadn’t completed 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 at kickoff and fell into the mid-30s as the night went on, 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.
