The Miami Hurricanes have spent the past quarter century with one question in their mind. When will the elusive sixth national title arrive? They thought they had found the answer to that when acquired top QB Cam Ward last season. But despite Ward’s flashes of brilliance, Miami’s season unraveled in familiar fashion—Cristobal’s questionable in-game decisions, a lack of depth, and costly late-game blunders turned what could have been a breakthrough year into another frustrating campaign. By the time they took on ISU in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, the writing was on the wall and when Ward didn’t come on in the second half of the game, accusations swirled on social media of the QB turning his back on the team.

Ward often found himself carrying an offense that lacked consistency, forced to overcome a system that never seemed to fully support his skill set. Now, Carson Beck has followed in Ward’s footsteps and may find himself in a similar setup. Even though Beck arrived after an underwhelming season at Georgia, he is a quality addition to the team, but the question is can Cristobal provide him with the tools and propel Miami to the playoffs?

Sure, the Miami Hurricanes performed quite well in the 2024 season initially. They went on a 9-win run that ended with a thrilling 28-23 loss to Georgia Tech. But another loss to Syracuse on the road a game later, saw their season culminate in the defeat to ISU. Despite all of Cam Ward’s heroics, he couldn’t salvage anything from the season as Miami faltered to qualify for the expanded playoffs and didn’t make it to the conference championship game.

The defense remains a problem that Cristobal has to address while adding more options at other key positions is another challenge. On Wednesday, Canes’ insider, Coach Coop discussed at length the challenge that awaits Cristobal and Beck on his podcast. “He (Mario Cristobal) doesn’t have enough proven weapons depending on how you want to look at this because when looking at the wide receiver, tight end, and running back positions for Miami going into this season, there is a lot of promising talent, but the majority of those guys haven’t seen many snaps at the college level yet, at least not in actual games.” Well, that statement may look kind of loaded when you look at what Miami currently has on their roster.

In terms of their rushing power, Damien Martinez has now gone for the NFL. That has left them with Jordan Lyle and Mark Fletcher. While Fletcher did rush for 1,121 yards in total as a rotational role, Lyle didn’t see many snaps in his freshman year and only has 400 rushing yards to his name. Joshisa Trader is also someone in the receiver corps who didn’t see many snaps in his freshman year and only received 91 yards total. Other than him, Chance Robinson is another wide receiver who didn’t even feature for a game in his freshman season. You get the idea, right?

Beck didn’t enjoy protection from Georgia’s O line, which ultimately turned his and the program’s season upside down. Their O-line allowed 37 sacks throughout the season and was quite leaky on occasions. Moreover, their rushing prowess also didn’t work in their favor, as they only averaged 124 yards per game, which was the lowest in Kirby Smart’s era. Moreover, their receiving unit failed to meet expectations, dropping 36 passes during the 2024 season. That’s 665 yards dropped from Beck’s resume right there.

Beck declared for the NFL just five days after undergoing surgery to repair his ulnar collateral ligament on December 23. However, less than two weeks later he announced that he would be entering the transfer portal and committed to the Hurricanes the next day on January 10.

Alex Donno of ‘Locked on Canes’ has also pointed out that if Miami can protect Beck well, they might be rewarded. “You know Carson Beck has seen everything, and if Miami can keep him protected, which is something he didn’t have. Much of their (Georgia) offensive line was not very good last year. I think Carson Beck can have a great year at Miami.” 

Miami had the No. 1 scoring offense in the country (43.9 points per game) and a 10-3 record was a major improvement over their  5-7 and 7-6 campaigns in Cristobal’s first two seasons. But with a talent like Cam Ward on your roster, this would have felt like a missed opportunity for the fans. Their defense, especially was a big letdown.

They ranked 70th in points allowed per game and registered only 18 takeaways in 13 games. Before the season, Cristobal was confident he had enough talent before the season to complement Ward and the rest of the offense but he failed to take into account that his secondary needed depth and upgrade.

Miami’s secondary let them down at critical moments. Hurricanes fans need not be reminded of the defense on third-and-long in the second half at Georgia Tech against a backup quarterback and against Syracuse in the regular-season finale. Notably, they played more man coverage than anyone in the ACC (46.7 percent of snaps) and allowed 12 touchdowns while in man, which is tied for third-most in the league.

As Coach Coop pointed out, “Miami might not even need the number one offense in 2025 to make it to the college football playoffs. I mean really might not have even needed it in 2024 if the defense would have even just been okay and you know when you see some of these teams that made it into the college football playoffs a lot of them their offenses weren’t necessarily out of this world.”

Their poor defensive form led to UM firing defensive coordinator Lance Guidry in December. Since then, they have appointed Corey Hetherman as the new DC while they have moved to hire Damione Lewis as its defensive line coach. It looks like Cristobal is putting together his defensive unit in an attempt to lead Miami to the playoffs and beyond.

It remains to be seen how Carson Beck will turn out for the program, but ESPN’s Paul Finebaum believes this move could help Cristobal breakthrough at Miami.

Paul Finebaum ‘intrigued’ by Carson Beck transfer

It may seem like Beck is now stuck between a rock and a hard place, but Miami may not be such a hard place after all. Their recruitment class of 2025, i.e., ranked 1st in ACC, provides a lot of hope. Furthermore, Cristobal’s latest staff additions surely have a lot to promise and deliver in the 2025 season. Finebaum also believes Cristobal can deliver the results Miami’s fanbase desires.

“I’m probably equally intrigued by Miami now that Carson Beck has landed there,” Paul Finebaum said. “I think that is a program that has come back a long way but because of the way it ended it doesn’t feel like they are quite in the picture, although I feel like Mario Cristobal for all the criticism he gets from some of the pundits, including me, he is close to breaking through.”

Cristobal showed a lot of faith in Beck, with the program forking out $4 million to sign him from the portal despite recovering from an injury. In 2024, he completed 64.7 percent of his passes for 3,485 yards and 28 touchdowns and there is surely promise for Cristobal and Miami fans to bank on.

It now circles back to the same question for the UM fans. Can Cristobal work his magic with Beck by his side to end their title drought?