'The U' is back at No. 1, but Miami's quest for a legacy worthy of nostalgia is just beginning

Miami hadn't played as No. 1 in 24 years, and with its play and uniforms, 'The U' looked the part in its destruction of Pitt

Oct 24, 2026 at 5:41 pm ET • 7 min read

Saturday's showdown between No. 1 Miami and Pittsburgh was not a normal occurrence, even though the two schools have a long-running history across multiple conferences. No, Saturday marked the first time since 2002 that Miami played a game as the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 poll. 

For 24 years, Miami has been working to get back to the position it held near the end of its magical run through the early 2000s, and Saturday was the first time the Hurricanes could put their newly-minted No. 1 status to the test. 

Tensions have been tight, too, with No. 1 losing in back-to-back weeks. First, Texas lost to Oklahoma, then Georgia lost to Auburn, and now it's opened the door for the Hurricanes, who survived an upset scare against rival Florida State last week, to move up into the top spot. 

But the way Miami performed in a 29-point rout of the Panthers quickly put to bed the idea that No. 1 would be changing hands again after Week 8. The Hurricanes were up 17-0 early and leading 31-7 at halftime, dropping three touchdowns after halftime for extra aesthetics on the 52-23 win. 

Miami's best players lived up to their billing, with Darian Mensah throwing for 387 yards on 31-of-37 passing with four touchdowns and Malachi Toney serving as the receiver for 16 catches on 17 targets for 194 yards and three of those scores. If Miami's ascent to No. 1 brought more attention, there wasn't much from Saturday's win that suggested the Hurricanes are anything but. 

It's yet another marker of success for Mario Cristobal, leading his alma mater back to the ranks of national title contenders that he experienced as a player. Fans yearned for years for "The U" to be "back," but too often over the last 20 years, talented teams fell short. The kind of success the Hurricanes are enjoying now feels sustainable in a way we haven't seen since they were the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 poll.  

And while 2002 was the most recent time Miami was No. 1, Saturday was also special because it was a day Miami chose to honor the 2001 national championship team. 

Mensah and Toney spoke after the game about what it meant to have the program's legends around this year's team, with Mensah pointing out that it was not only "motivating" but also a great opportunity to soak up their football knowledge. Toney mentioned connecting with Andre Johnson and Ed Reed, providing plenty of fun for those seeking even more threads to the last time Miami ran college football. 

Speaking of threads, the nostalgia hit even harder when Miami wore throwback uniforms honoring the 2001 national champions. The orange throwback uniforms over white pants with a white helmet were described by the school as a "legendary look," and it helped that the team put together a final score that would have fit right in with the dominant wins of that title team. 

"They inspired so many future Hurricanes that end up coming here to the University of Miami. Glad to be able to honor them as well, with a victory," Cristobal said of the 2001 team after the game. "They mean a lot to our guys. I think the best thing that's been happening with our program is within our community and the University of Miami alum community, is that we built some really strong equity, so now those guys are becoming our best advocates, which in turn helps the entire organization become more galvanized."

2026 CBS Sports Midseason All-America team: Big Ten edges out SEC, ACC for most selections at halfway point

Austin Nivison

Miami stars have chance to join esteemed legacy

One of the great college football parlor games is to start naming some guys, or specifically rolling through the stellar collection of talent that early 2000s Miami had on the roster. Miami wasn't revolving around one individual star; it was a team that offered a candidate to be the very best at his position at nearly every position on the field. 

It's starting to feel that way again with the 2026 Hurricanes, thanks to the addition of Mensah and the continued development of Toney. Mensah seems to be raising the bar for the QB1 role at Miami, which has become a bit of a glamour position in college football. 

Two years ago, Cam Ward had the production but fell a couple of wins short of their ceiling, while last season Carson Beck led a playoff run, providing key conversions against one of the best defenses in the country. Mensah seems to be delivering Ward's production with Beck's playoff potential, and his play on its own stands out as the best among quarterbacks in the country. 

When we polled our experts for the Midseason All-America team earlier this week, all but one chose Mensah as their first team quarterback. He had a pretty easy case coming into the weekend as the nation's leader in passer rating, yards per attempt and completion percentage while leading the nation's highest-scoring offense. Trinidad Chambliss, CJ Carr and others will certainly have opportunities to jump Mensah before the end of the season, but if the season ended today, then Miami has the best quarterback in the country.  

Toney also finished as the Midseason All-America pick at the all-purpose position, but he's also starting to make his own push for a claim to the crown at wide receiver. Toney's explosiveness was on full display on Saturday at Pitt, with 132 of his 194 receiving yards coming after the catch, providing some truly outstanding moments in the blowout win.

Outstanding is a perfect way to describe how Mensah and Toney have looked this season, and it's how we have seen them both ride Miami's success to a spot in the Heisman Trophy race. With just six weeks left until the ballots are due, Mensah and Toney have both played well enough individually to be slotted among the top handful of names on the oddsmakers' board to win the award, which is given to the most outstanding player in college football. 

It's shaping up to be one of those years when the 2026 Hurricanes could end up being a parlor game of their own, with people remembering how amazing it was that Mensah was throwing passes to Toney or that Mark Fletcher Jr. shared a running back room with Javian Mallory. Only the weeks ahead will determine whether this year's Miami team will leave a legacy worthy of nostalgia. Because now that "The U" is back, the expectation for a nostalgia-worthy legacy includes at least one, if not multiple, trophies. 

Tough tests lie in the weeks ahead

So what's ahead for this rock star crew of ACC heavyweights? First, a trip to Chapel Hill to take on Bill Belichick and North Carolina, which should provide quite the scene under the lights on Halloween. As long as Miami can avoid a spooky lookahead spot in primetime, it will move on to one of the games of the year in college football against Notre Dame in South Bend.  

Miami's ability to handle its business on Saturday against Pitt was a positive sign that this team is not going to be prone to the lookahead or letdown spot after an emotional rivalry win against Florida State. Because it would be tempting to look ahead to the best measuring stick game that Miami will get throughout its regular season schedule. 

Miami wants to make another run at the national championship game, and to do that, it will need to beat multiple College Football Playoff teams. So far, the Hurricanes have been laying waste to teams that, other than Wake Forest, are not College Football Playoff contenders. Notre Dame is not just that; it's a national title contender, and that Nov. 7 collision in South Bend is going to set up an electric modern chapter to a recently revived rivalry. 

After the Notre Dame, win or lose, Miami will again be challenged to manage the fallout and stay in rhythm performing at a high level. The Hurricanes round out their regular season schedule with three straight home games against ACC foes, which is quite the decompression period after a massive win, a heart-breaking loss or anything in between. 

From there, it will be time to perform in the games that determine whether the 2026 Miami Hurricanes will also be remembered like the players who wore the throwback uniforms on display. The expectation is excellence, and anything less could get exposed as a cheap nostalgia hit. Anything less, and Miami won't find itself at the No. 1 spot much longer. 

The great key about having Cristobal as the head coach of this program's resurgence is that he, as well as perhaps anyone in the world, knows what it needs to look like. If there's anyone policing the standard around this newly crowned king of college football, it's going to be their alumni head coach who was built for this moment.