Mario Cristobal’s Miami Hurricanes stake best-in-ACC claim with big 41-17 rout at Florida | Opinion

Cam Ward was all that, the Miami Hurricanes look like the best team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and Mario Cristobal can breathe easy ... at least for now.

The No. 19-ranked Hurricanes utterly dominated the old-rival Florida Gators, 41-17, Saturday in the Swamp in Gainesville, a verdict of relief as much as exhilaration for Canes fans demanding much from their team and from Cristobal in his Year 3 as UM coach.

Thus impressively began The U’s. 88th season of football, and the 24th since the most recent of five national championships in 2001 -- with the onus on Cristobal to come with the proof that he’s the man to deliver the sixth.

“While all the noise, the juice, the hype is going on around us, the most important thing for us is the work,” Cristobal said. “We’ve got to do it on the field.”

The temperature was 91 degrees at kickoff with a ‘feels-like’ of 103.. It was hotter under the feet of the two head coaches, Cristobal and UF’s Napier, friends and former Alabama assistants. Cristobal at 12-13 in his first two seasons in Coral Gables and Napier at 11-14 in his first two years at UF are under pressure to calm and energize antsy, impatient fan bases.

The Gators, at home, neither calmed nor energized out the gate.

The Hurricanes, on the road, did.

If you’ll pardon the bluntness (cover your eyes, ma), this was an ass-kicking.

“An awesome day,” Cristobal called it.

The coach entered this season neither embattled nor on the hot seat, but close enough to feel each. The importance of Saturday’s victory, the size of it, showed as he trotted off the field, turned to the UF crowd still there, and mocked the Gator chop in a motion full of anger and joy.

“We’ve been living for a team like this for awhile,” ex-Cane Devin Hester said in a sideline interview.

A national audience on ABC and ESPN+ was watching.

Before Saturday, Florida had won 33 consecutive home openers.

(Shoutout to the “They Not Like Us” T-shirts in the crowd, a nod to Kendrick Lamar, with the ‘U’ in us unmistakable.)

Ward, Miami’s prized transfer-portal win from Washington State, shone in his UM debut with 26 of 35 passing for 385 yards and three touchdowns. The Canes, once “Quarterback U,” have not had a highly drafted NFL QB since 1990 but Ward could end the drought. He is second in betting odds for the Heisman Trophy, and Saturday’s debut should do nothing to dampen those odds.

Flatly, Cam Ward looks like Miami’s best QB in years, maybe in a couple of decades.

“Yeah, he’s not bad. Special, special guy, all the stuff you guys were probably wondering about,” Cristobal said.

Said Ward: “Playing [at Florida] is not an easy thing to do. But we’re up for a challenge and we’ve got to rise to the occasion.”

Done.

A mere 2 1/2-point favorite, the Canes dominated with 528 yards’ total offense to 261. UM’s pretty much defense had its way save for allowing a 71-yard TD run that was the Gators’ only big play.

The critical season has unfurled like a dream to UM fans imagining a spot in the ACC Championship Game, and dare say the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.

ACC betting favorite and 10th-ranked Florida State was an upset loser to Georgia Tech last week to open the season in Dublin, Ireland. Then, earlier Saturday, the conference’s second favorite, No. 14 Clemson, lost as expected at No. 1 Georgia.

That leaves the ACC third-favorite, Miami, in position to take the early lead and inside rail in the conference derby ... if the Canes handled their business in Gainesville, and they did, turning the Swamp into quicksand for the Gators.

These old state rivals met every year from 1944-87, but this was only the fourth meeting in the past 20 seasons. And it was no contest.

Canes led 7-0 on their first series and it was Cam-Cam bam! -- Cam McCormick catching a 9-yard scoring pass from Cam Ward.

Both Cams are noteworthy. Ward is the new starting quarterback, the transfer from Washington State, the huge offseason portal get for Cristobal. McCormick is the 26-year-old ninth-year senior (you read that right) who has fought through four seasons wiped away by injury.

It was an 11-play, 88-yard drive that included 36 yards on two runs by Ward.

But an ill-advised Ward pass that was intercepted led to a 41-yard Gators field to make it 7-3 after one quarter. He rolled left and threw right on a play better thrown away.

Miami settled for a 23-yard kick to make it 10-3 mid-second.

A big defensive stop by UM provided a short field capped by a 10-yard Mark Fletcher scoring run and a comfy-ish 17-3 lead with 6:41 left in the first half.

Florida drew within 17-10 on a 71-yard run by Montrell Johnson -- the half’s only big play for what had been a flaccid Gators offense thanks to stout Canes D.

Miami then got major breathing room back just before the half on Ward’s 24-yard scoring strike to reliable Xavier Restrepo to make it 24-10 at the break.

Fletcher’s 1-yard scoring run made it 31-10, and Jacolby George’s 23-yard catch made it 38-10.

A 67-yard interception return by UM’s Mishael Powell underlined the futility of Florida’s comeback hopes.

(Stadium speakers were playing native son Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down” at 38-10. Um, might be time to back down.)

(Cristobal was complaIning about ticket allocation: “I know they only gave us 4,000 tickets, I don’t know how that’s even legal but, I think a lot of more of our fans found a way to get in...”)

Canes fans have been hardened and scarred, by the past two seasons and by most of the every one since the last crown in 2011.

So there are no parades with this.

There is hope, though. Maybe the kind that feels real?

A soft schedule ahead could well find Miami 7-0 when the next real test comes October 26 vs. Florida State.

“Well, as long as we keep winning and don’t mess it up,” said Cristobal Saturday night.

No assurance this big, hope-buoying start will lead to a big season, only that, for Cristobal, it needs to.