7 telling stats from the Miami Hurricanes’ win over Louisville to improve to 7-0

The No. 6 Miami Hurricanes made their way out of another close conference game, holding off Louisville’s second-half comeback bid to beat the Cardinals 52-45 at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium.

The win moves Miami to 7-0 and 3-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

Here are seven key stats from the win.

▪ Two minutes, 10 seconds: Despite the game being close throughout and Louisville tying the Hurricanes on two separate occasions in the second half, Miami only trailed on Saturday for 130 seconds.

And that was in the first quarter.

Louisville went up 7-3 with 7:15 left in the opening frame after scoring on a 43-yard Isaac Brown rushing touchdown. One drive later, Miami marched 70 yards down the field on five plays, capped by a 27-yard touchdown pass from Cam Ward to Jacolby George — Ward’s first of four touchdown throws of the game — to retake the lead 10-7 with 5:05 left in the quarter.

Miami never trailed after that, although Louisville tied the game 31-31 with 6:59 left in the third quarter and again evened the score at 38-38 with 13:22 left to play.

▪ 50: Saturday marked the fourth time this season the Hurricanes have scored at least 50 points. That’s a school record.

There were three previous instances in which Miami had three games over the course of a season with at least 50 points scored, and they happened in three consecutive seasons: 1999, 2000 and 2001.

The other three games this season in addition to Saturday in which Miami put up at least 50 points were UM’s 56-9 win over Florida A&M, 62-0 win over Ball State and 50-15 win over USF in consecutive weeks to close out the nonconference schedule.

The Hurricanes are averaging 48.3 points per game, second in the country behind Indiana (48.7).

▪ 219: The Hurricanes ran for a season-high 219 yards on Saturday against Louisville and utilized the depth of their running back room to get it done.

Mark Fletcher made his first start and ran 13 times for 79 yards. Ten of those 13 carries came in the first half. Once the second half began, coach Mario Cristobal leaned on Damien Martinez and Ajay Allen. Martinez ran 12 times, including nine second-half carries, for a team-high 89 yards and a 30-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. Allen ran five times, all in the fourth quarter, for 31 yards and a touchdown.

And Ward added 29 yards on the ground despite being sacked three times.

▪ 8: An area that needs to drastically improve is the defense’s knack for giving up big plays. The Cardinals had eight plays from scrimmage — five passing, three rushing — that went for at least 20 yards, including two of their touchdowns (the Brown run in the first quarter and a 21-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Shough to Ja’Corey Brooks that tied the game 31-31 in the third quarter). Louisville’s Caullin Lacy also returned a third-quarter kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown.

Overall, the Hurricanes gave up a season-high 448 yards to Louisville. Through three ACC games, Miami is allowing an average of 404 yards and 39 points per game.

▪ 300: Ward’s stellar start to his UM career continued against Louisville. He completed 21 of 32 passes for 319 yards and four touchdowns. He is the first player in UM history to throw for at least 300 yards in seven consecutive games.

On the season, Ward has completed 68.7 percent of his passes for 2,538 yards and 24 touchdowns against one interception.

He is one touchdown pass away from becoming the eight player in UM history to throw for at least 25 touchdowns in a season and first since Tyler Van Dyke in 2021.

The school record for touchdown passes in a season is 29 by Steve Walsh in 1988.

▪ 100: The Hurricanes had two receivers eclipse 100 receiving yards on Saturday, with Sam Brown logging a season-high 125 yards on three catches and Xavier Restrepo getting 101 yards on seven catches.

It’s the first time this season Miami had multiple 100-yard receivers in the same game and the first time overall since Oct. 5, 2019, when Brevin Jordan and Jeff Thomas each got over 100 receiving yards in a 42-35 loss to Virginia Tech.

Restrepo, meanwhile, is now 21 receiving yards away from passing Michael Irvin for third on the UM all-time receiving yards list, 108 yards from jumping Reggie Wayne for second and 145 yards away from breaking Santana Moss’ school record of 2,547 yards. He needs 13 more catches to break Mike Harley’s school record of 182 receptions.

▪ 2018: Linebacker Raul “Popo” Aguirre scored the Hurricanes’ first defensive touchdown of the season when he scooped up a fumble in the end zone in the second quarter. According to UM, it was Miami’s first fumble recovery for a touchdown since Sept. 27, 2018 — a span of 76 games — when Jonathan Garvin accomplished the feat against North Carolina.