It didn’t take Malachi Toney long on Friday night to remind the college football world just how good he is.
After his record-setting freshman year helped the Miami Hurricanes reach the College Football Playoff National Championship Game last season, the star wide receiver opened his sophomore campaign with 12 catches for 234 yards and three touchdowns as No. 7 UM routed the Stanford Cardinal 45-6 at Stanford Stadium to begin its 2026 season.
The 234 yards? A school record and the fifth instance in UM history of a player having a 200-yard receiving game. He joins Eddie Brown (220 yards on Nov. 23, 1984, against Boston College), Charleston Rambo (210 yards on Nov. 6, 2021, against Georgia Tech), Wesley Carroll (208 yards on Sept. 15, 1990, against California) and Phillip Dorsett (201 yards on Sept. 13, 2015, against Arkansas State) in that regard.
The 12 catches? One shy of his career high of 13, which is also tied for the school record.
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And the three touchdowns? A single-game best for Toney after having two games with multiple touchdown catches.
And with each of those touchdowns — from 23-yards out on Miami’s first drive, 2 yards on its second and 47 late in the third quarter — Toney struck the Heisman pose.
Toney finished the first half with 10 catches for 182 yards — the most by a UM player in the first half of a game — and the two touchdowns. Four of those receptions went for more than 20 yards.
According to the Associated Press, Toney is just the fifth receiver in the past decade to have double-digit catches, at least 180 yards and at least two touchdowns in the first half of a college football game. The others: LSU’s Malik Nabers in 2023, Alabama’s DeVonta Smith in 2021, Ole Miss’ Elijah Moore in 2020 and TCU’s Josh Doctson in 2015.
While Toney was active early and often, he was merely one key piece in a loaded offense for the Hurricanes (1-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which racked up 544 yards and had the backups in the game by the third quarter.
Quarterback Darian Mensah, making his Miami debut after transferring from Duke, completed 27 of 30 passes for 401 yards and five touchdowns without an interception before giving way to backup quarterback Luke Nickel late in the third quarter.
Mensah’s other two touchdown passes went to Daylyn Upshaw (5 yards with 1:55 left in the second quarter) and Cooper Barkate (34 yards with 11:51 left in the third quarter). Mensah completed passes to seven different players. Barkate, who came to Miami from Duke with Mensah, caught four passes for 67 yards.
The run game had 121 yards on 32 carries. CharMar “Marty” Brown scored a 5 yard touchdown in the second quarter.
The offensive line, which is replacing four starters from last season’s team that reached the national title game, held its own for the most part. Miami started Samson Okunlola at left tackle, SJ Alofaituli at left guard, Ryan Rodriguez at center, Max Buchanan at right guard and Matt McCoy at right tackle. True freshman Jackson Cantwell rotated with Buchanan at right guard.
Meanwhile, the defense, which is replacing a lot of talent from last season’s team, held Stanford (1-1, 0-1 ACC) to 299 yards and out of the end zone. The Cardinal scored a pair of first-half field goals on drives that went 63 and 69 yards. Stanford went 5 of 15 on third down and was hampered by a slew of inopportune penalties that Miami capitalized on.
The Hurricanes, meanwhile, only had one sack (Armondo Blount in the first half) against a Stanford team missing three starting offensive linemen and did not record an interception. They had four pass breakups and held Stanford quarterback Warren Davis to 21 of 41 for 214 yards.
