No. 13 Miami handles Virginia Tech to stay alive in playoff race

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Carson Beck has been adamant about what the Miami Hurricanes’ approach has to be right now.

Play their game. Win every down, every rep, every moment. Showcase their strengths.

“With each opportunity that we’re given,” Beck said Wednesday, “we just need to execute.”

The Hurricanes, for a third consecutive week since suffering their second loss of the season, have executed.

Beck, in particular, has executed.

And it’s keeping Miami’s hopes of reaching the College Football Playoff alive as the Hurricanes, ranked No. 13 in the latest CFP rankings, beat the Virginia Tech Hokies 34-17 Saturday at Lane Stadium.

Miami improved to 9-2 (5-2 in Atlantic Coast Conference play) heading into a pivotal regular-season finale at Pittsburgh next Saturday. Virginia Tech falls to 3-8 (2-5 ACC).

It was a third consecutive dominant effort for Miami against lesser conference foes even though the final score on Saturday was closer than Miami probably would have hoped.

Virginia Tech cut its deficit to 27-17 with 3:17 left to play on a 3-yard rushing touchdown from backup quarterback William Watson III, who finished the game in place of starter Kyron Drones.

The Hokies then recovered an onside kick and drove down the field again before safety Zechariah Poyser recovered a fumble with just over two minutes left that was forced by Akheem Mesidor.

For good measure, Beck threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Malachi Toney with 20 seconds left.

Overall, the Hurricanes have outscored opponents 113-34 in those three games after a 38-10 win over Syracuse and 41-7 win over NC State before the win at Virginia Tech.

This includes a 58-3 advantage at halftime in those games.

On Saturday, Miami led 20-3 at the break after a pair of Beck touchdowns — 20 yards to tight end Elija Lofton and 3 yards to Mark Fletcher Jr., the latter of whom returned after missing the past two weeks with injury — plus a pair of Carter Davis field goals from 46 and 40 yards.

Virginia Tech’s only points in the first half came on a 30-yard field goal on the Hokies’ opening drive despite having a short field.

The teams exchanged touchdowns to start the second half — VT scoring on running back Jeffrey Overton’s 38-yard run, Miami on a 16-yard completion from Beck to running back Girard Pringle Jr. — to make it 27-10 Miami before Virginia Tech attempted its fourth-quarter comeback bid.

The defense, despite giving up a season-high 194 rushing yards, once again held its own. Miami had nine tackles for loss and five sacks — including three tackles for loss and two sacks from defensive tackle Ahmad Moten Sr. and another two-and-a-half tackles for loss from Justin Scott — while limiting Virginia Tech to 3 for 12 on third down and 3 for 5 on fourth down.

Beck finished the game completing 27 of 32 passes for 320 yards and the four touchdowns. He completed his first 11 passes of the game and had a UM-record streak of 24 consecutive completions dating back to the end of the NC State game. Twelve of those completions on Saturday went to Toney, the true freshman phenom who once again did a little bit of everything (146 receiving yards, 16 rushing yards and a 15-yard completion).

But Beck’s run of playing high-end football has extended back a few weeks.

Offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said he saw things beginning to click for Beck during the SMU game despite it ending in a 26-20 overtime loss that put Miami’s back against the wall with four games left in the season.

“I left that game, and I’m like, ‘He’s about to start playing his ass off,’” Dawson said, “because the balls were going to the right place at the right time, his comfort level in the pocket and the way everything was going. ... His progression in our offense, I’m like ‘He’s about to start taking this and running with it.’”

That he has.

Beck’s stats in the past three games: 80.5% completion rate (66 for 82) for 858 yards and eight touchdowns with no interceptions.

Beck, who transferred to Miami after a down season at Georgia in 2024 plus a torn UCL in his right elbow plummeted his draft stock, said it took himself a while to fully feel like himself again in a live game setting.

“I didn’t play football for eight, nine months and went through a whole elbow reconstruction,” Beck said after the NC State game. “Not only is that a mental thing, that’s a physical thing. We knew that coming into this that it was going to be some type of work in progress. And I knew that mentally, because it’s such a big mental hump. The last time that I went to go throw a football [at Georgia], I got hit, and my elbow tore. So every time I throw the football, it’s like that’s what my mind is thinking about.”

Beck is playing freer now and has begun to showcase what he can do at his best when Miami needs him at his best.

“There’s been some really good moments, and then some others where you wish you would have had more time,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said Monday. “But certainly we feel great about the last couple of weeks of all the things that are transpiring offensively. There’s a very distinctly higher level of just energy approached by everyone in the building and the complementary football when that thing kicks in. Now, it’s special to watch. I think that’s what we all witnessed, and we’re looking forward to improving upon that.”

Another key injury

Safety Jakobe Thomas, who forced four combined turnovers in Miami’s wins over Syracuse and NC State, left the game in the first half with an apparent arm injury. He did not return.

The Hurricanes are already playing without star nickel cornerback Keionte Scott, who is potentially out for the season with an undisclosed lower extremity injury.

Bryce Fitzgerald, who started at nickel corner on Saturday, moved up to safety alongside Poyser in Thomas’ absence.

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