SOUTH BEND – Welcome to an impossible exercise for a showdown of two Top 10 teams that carry serious national championship aspirations on what might be one of those nights for Notre Dame football inside Notre Dame Stadium.
Here we pinpoint four players to watch, but four is nowhere enough. Eight might not be. Even a dozen might still be too small a number. There are big-time players capable of making big-time plays across each sideline in this one. The quarterbacks. The linebackers. The running backs. The interior lines. Heck, even the head coaches should be ones to watch. We see you, Mario and Marcus.
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Who do you track in this one? Who don’t you? Keep your head on a swivel while trying to see this guy and that guy and those guys. Let’s at least start with these four and go from there. You’ve been warned. There’s talent everywhere in this one.
Who will deliver?
UM, ND 411: Notre Dame football vs. Miami | How to watch, game time
Analysis: Showdown with Miami will require vintage CJ Carr for Notre Dame
Defensive back Omar Thornton has been an impact guy for the Miami Hurricanes after transferring from Boston College.
No. 1 MIAMI HURRICANES (8-0)
DB Omar Thornton (0)
The step up in competition seems to suit the Carver Ranches, Florida native just fine, thank you. Same goes from stepping from the college football shadows into the white-hot spotlight for a program barreling toward a possible return to the national championship game.
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The 5-foot-11, 201-pound Thornton spent two years in anonymity up there at Boston College, where he produced at an All-Atlantic Coast Conference level. Thornton played in 23 games with 14 starts with the Eagles, where he tallied 111 tackles. Last year in Chestnut Hill, Mass., he made a team-high nine stops against Notre Dame. So, he knows the Irish.
Coming off a season high eight tackles against Clemson, Thornton has been relatively quiet the last three weeks. He’s made only five stops, including just one last weekend at North Carolina. The former high school linebacker has found ways to affect games other than tackles. He’s second on the Hurricanes‘ 28th ranked defense in tackles for loss (6.5) and first for quarterback hurries (five). He has three sacks. He handles his business on the back end of the defense and handles business at the line of scrimmage.
A strong case can be made that Miami Hurricanes sophomore wide receiver Malachi Toney is the most talented football player in the country.
WR Malachi Toney (1)
Toney announced his arrival on the college football big stage not so subtly last season as a true freshman when the 5-11, 183-pounder from Liberty City caught 109 passes for 1,211 yards and 10 touchdowns. Guess what? He might be better as a sophomore.
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Seriously, why isn’t Toney getting more Heisman Tropy love? Through eight games, Tony has tallied 73 catches for 1,027 yards and 13 touchdowns. He averages 14.1 yards per catch. He averages nine catches for 128 yards per game. He gets game planned by every opposing defensive coordinator yet still finds room to roam in secondaries and down the sidelines and, most importantly, into end zones.
Everybody knows Toney’s going to get the ball, but nobody knows how to stop him on an offense with a plethora of playmakers. He had six catches for 82 yards last year against Notre Dame. He might get that Saturday before halftime. Two weeks ago against Pittsburgh, Toney went nuts for 194 yards on 16 catches and three scores.
If he’s running that way Saturday in Notre Dame Stadium, it will be a long night for the nation’s top-ranked defense.
Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr may have to be even better than he’s been in 2026 for the Irish to beat top-ranked and undefeated Miami (Fla.).
No. 6 NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH (7-1)
QB CJ Carr (13)
Nothing in his previous 20 starts will feel like this game for the 6-2, 215-pound junior from Saline, Michigan. Everything that Carr has experienced the last two seasons as a starter has led him to this moment. A moment that has to be his.
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This is why you play quarterback at Notre Dame, where all eyes on you are more focused, more critical, more intense than anywhere else. To have the chance to do something that Carr has the chance to do against that program, on this stage, in this game.
Carr needs to be at a level of excellence he’s rarely been for Notre Dame to win. He must see everything, sense everything, adjust to everything and fear absolutely nothing. Make the checks. Make the reads. Make the right calls at the right time and get this Irish offense going on long drive after long drive. If he’s good, if he’s elite, Notre Dame will win.
If he’s average, and the Notre Dame quarterback cannot ever be average, everything else will be a struggle. This is a game that defines legacies. It’s time for Carr to be special.
Oct 17, 2026; Provo, Utah, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish cornerback Leonard Moore (15) looks on before the game against the Brigham Young Cougars at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images
CB Leonard Moore (15)
Everything about this season has been pointing to and building toward this month, really, this night, for arguably the nation’s premier cornerback and likely Top 10 pick in the spring NFL draft. Unfair? Absolutely, but everything about Moore and his relatively quiet season to date (13 tackles, zero interceptions) has been couched with the same comment after every statement about him.
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… just wait until the Miami game.
The wait is over. The Miami game is here, and Moore, like Carr, must offer a performance that his All-American caliber. Maybe that means shadowing around Malachi Toney and shutting him down. Maybe that means delivering a pick (which would be his first of the season). He must be the best player on the nation’s best defense.
A concussion suffered late at North Carolina forced Moore to skip the Stanford and Navy games. He wasn’t anywhere near his best at BYU. Those concussion cobwebs must clear to help this banged up and bruised group. This is the moment for it to get right.
Notre Dame needs No. 15 to be No. 1. That’s as clear as a November night in Northern Indiana.
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Prediction Time
∎ Mike Berardino
Notre Dame 31, Miami (Fla.) 24: There are no super teams this year.
∎ Tom Noie
Miami 34, Notre Dame 31: The Irish haven’t inspired much confidence the last two games, which makes this one a test too difficult to pass.
∎ Austin Hough
Notre Dame 34, Miami 21: The entire season for the Irish has been building to this moment. They have to win this one, or else everything they talked about since last December will have been for nothing. CJ Carr plays his finest game and Leonard Moore contains Malachi Toney just enough.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Players to watch, predictions as Notre Dame football faces Miami (Fla.)
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
