Notre Dame played in the national championship game in January while Miami missed the College Football Playoff field.
Getting to that game is the goal to start this season when the No. 6 Fighting Irish face the No. 10 Hurricanes on Sunday night at Miami Gardens, Fla.
Miami lost No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward from the 2024 team and replaced him with former Georgia quarterback Carson Beck.
Riley Leonard completed his eligibility for Notre Dame and redshirt freshman CJ Carr won a tightly contested quarterback competition with third-year sophomore Kenny Minchey.
“I had to make a difficult decision, and I did,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman said of choosing Carr, who will make his first college start in the primetime matchup. “As I told both of them, ‘We’re going to need both of them this year. We’re going to need both, and they both have to be mature enough to handle that decision and understand they’re chasing their full potential.’ No matter if you’re named starting quarterback or you’re the backup quarterback, you have to continue to work.”
Getting the quarterbacks up to speed is a big deal if Notre Dame wants to repeat last season’s success. The Irish went 14-2 and lost 34-23 to Ohio State in the title game.
Miami (10-3) won its first nine games last season and had a headlining quarterback but was passed over as an at-large team by the CFP committee.
Enter Beck, who passed for 7,426 yards and 52 touchdowns with 18 interceptions over the past two seasons for the Bulldogs.
Beck said he doesn’t feel like he has to match Ward, who passed for 4,313 yards, 39 TDs and seven interceptions. He compared his current lot to stepping in as the replacement for Stetson Bennett at Georgia.
“The last school I was at I followed up the two-time national champion, so I didn’t really feel any pressure there,” Beck said. “It’s a game. I’ve played football my whole life. I’ve played quarterback since I was 7 years old, and it’s something that I love to do and I’ve got a lot of good talent around.”
The Hurricanes experienced some difficulties on the defensive side last season. They allowed more than 30 points on six occasions, including 42 in each of their last two games — losses to Syracuse to end the regular season and to Iowa State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
Sixth-year defensive end Akheem Mesidor (5.5 sacks last season) is looking forward to the unit facing the Irish. He’s also aware Miami is just 8-18-1 all-time against Notre Dame.
“These are the games that you train all offseason for, top-10 matchups, two great teams going at it and battling,” Mesidor told reporters. “I’m expecting Hard Rock to be packed because this is not just any regular game. You look back at Miami versus Notre Dame history, it’s always been a great matchup and a pretty crazy game.”
The scouting report for Miami’s defensive players likely doesn’t begin with Notre Dame’s quarterback. Running back Jeremiyah Love, who rushed for 1,125 yards and 17 touchdowns last season, is an NFL prospect and scored least one touchdown in 13 consecutive games.
Love said he’s ready for an increased workload as the Irish try to take pressure off Carr.
“I would say I’m more of a physical back,” the 6-foot, 214-pound Love said. “I can hold off bigger defenders, partly because of my weight gain, working in the weight room.”
The Fighting Irish were an elite defense last season. They led the nation with 33 takeaways while ranking fourth in both scoring defense (15.5 points per game) and passing yards allowed (169.4 yards per game).