Miami vs. Notre Dame: Elite Offense Meets Top Defense

2026 Hurricanes or what? You know, I didn't really think much of that Wake Forest win earlier. Now I'm kind of looking at it, and you just mentioned Miami's got the only top 15 win. Notre Dame doesn't have a top 15 win. Miami's got a top 15 win. But when you look at that schedule there, Central Michigan, a down Clemson, a down Florida State. I mean, Manny, who are the Miami Hurricanes? How good are they, or is Saturday going to tell us more? Well, I think they're without question one of the most elite offenses in the country, if not the number one offense. They've got two of the best players in the country, Darian Mensah, Malachi Toney. You can't fake that. They're doing it every single week against everybody, against double coverage, against triple coverage. It doesn't matter what defenses throw at them. They're putting up points every single week. So without question, they're an elite offense. I think the real question here is, is there anybody out there in the country that can score with Miami week in and week out? Obviously, North Carolina surprised us. Playing a close game in Chapel Hill. They didn't have an elite offense with Billy Edwards, but they played like one. So the question is, does Miami face somebody who can stop this offense and allow, you know, their offense to play with this group and keep pace with them? There's not a lot of good teams in college football these days in terms of well-rounded. Everybody's got warts. Everybody's got something wrong with them. I think Miami is one of the few that has the least amount of problems. How about Notre Dame? Let's go over there. And one of the things you just mentioned, it's got to be on that defensive side of the football, right? That's going to be the matchup on Saturday. Miami's high-powered offense versus that Notre Dame defense. In your opinion, watching Notre Dame, I watched them struggle against Navy in the first half this last week. And, you know, you watched them a little bit against BYU. BYU ends up losing to a 4-4 UCF team. How good is this Notre Dame team? It's a great question. I think, look, offensively, CJ Carr is one of the best quarterbacks in the country, but he doesn't have a Malachi Tony. He doesn't have a bunch of tremendous weapons and skill players around him. I think they're moderate to good players, but not great elite special players. I think defensively is where Notre Dame hangs its hat in the majority of these matchups. They've got some elite corners and safeties in the secondary. I like what they've got on the defensive line as well. So to me, that's what Notre Dame is. Is there a team that... Doesn't have necessarily a special offense, just a special quarterback and a bunch of really good players on defense. And it's a great matchup because this is, without question, the best team Miami will face in the regular season. And I would say the same thing for Notre Dame. Miami is, without question, the best team they're going to face. Do you think this is the most explosive offense in Hurricane history? It's hard to argue against it when your quarterback's completing 80% of his passes, right? And the offense is still running for close to 200 yards, if not 200 yards. I haven't looked at the numbers of late. Look, they've got, without question, a bunch of weapons all over the place. Cooper Barkay doesn't get the same attention Malachi Toney does, and when he's one-on-one, he wins a lot of his matchups. I think Elijah Lofton is a really special weapon as well at tight end and catching balls out of the backfield. You saw him hurdle a guy, hop over a guy last week at North Carolina, keep his feet, and turn that into a 7-8 yard gain. So they've got a bunch of playmakers on that side of the ball. I think it very well could be the most explosive offense Miami's ever had.