Notre Dame Stuns No. 1 Miami 31-24 as Irish Survive a Wild Rally in South Bend

The field was already filling up before the final whistle had finished echoing around Notre Dame Stadium. Fans poured over the barriers and streamed toward midfield, surrounding a Notre Dame team that had just done the thing it had been waiting a year to do. The Fighting Irish had beaten No. 1 Miami 31-24 on Saturday night in South Bend — building a three-touchdown lead, watching it nearly disappear, and then ripping the ball away on the game's final possession to end it.

It was, by any measure, the biggest win of Notre Dame's season, and one the program had been carrying around since last year. The Irish were left out of the twelve-team College Football Playoff field last season because of a head-to-head tiebreaker loss to these same Hurricanes. On Saturday, with the top-ranked team in the country standing across from them and their own playoff hopes hanging in the balance, they got their revenge.

The first half belonged entirely to Notre Dame, and mostly to quarterback CJ Carr. The sophomore was calm, precise and utterly unbothered by the occasion, finishing the night 29 of 40 for 319 yards and three touchdowns without turning the ball over — his fifth straight game without an interception. Two of those touchdown passes came in the second quarter, another followed in the third, and by the time the Irish had built a 24-3 lead, the Hurricanes looked beaten. Their quarterback, Darian Mensah, had been held to just three first-half points by a Notre Dame defence that swarmed everything Miami tried.

But the number one team in the country does not go quietly, and the second half was a different game entirely. Miami outscored Notre Dame 21-14 after the break, chipping away at the lead one drive at a time. Luke Talich broke up one potential game-tying score. Still Miami came again, and with 44 seconds left they had the ball back, down seven, with one last chance to force overtime. Their final hope was a hook-and-ladder play. It didn't work.

The game ended the way great college football games are supposed to end — with a defensive play. Leonard Moore forced the fumble on Miami's last possession, Jaiden Ausberry fell on it, and that was that. Notre Dame 31, Miami 24. The fans stormed the field. The Irish had their first ranked win of the season, after falling short of one against BYU back on October 17, and they had it against the best team in the country.

"I'm happy for this university. I'm happy for these players. There's a lot of support from Notre Dame Nation. This is a special moment for them," head coach Marcus Freeman said on NBC afterwards. "They're a dang good football team, and they beat a dang good football team."

The win moves Notre Dame to 8-1 with three weeks left in the regular season, and it should move them up several spots when the next College Football Playoff rankings are released on Tuesday — they debuted just in front of the cut line for the twelve-team bracket, at the No. 11 seed. Miami, meanwhile, falls to 8-1 and loses for the first time this season, a defeat that will cost the Hurricanes the top spot and hand the inside track to No. 2 Georgia, who demolished Ole Miss 42-7 on the same night. A year after Miami ended their season, the Irish ended Miami's perfect one.