MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- — Miami is unbeaten, ranked No. 4 in the country, got first-place votes in the AP Top 25 for the first time in nearly eight years, has a Heisman Trophy frontrunner in Carson Beck and is coming off its biggest victory margin over a ranked opponent since 2001.

Florida is 1-2, sputtering and is about to face a top-5 team for the second straight week.

That would make it seem like the two programs are headed in very opposite directions. That’s exactly the sort of thinking that Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal is desperately trying to avoid going into a Saturday night matchup between the in-state rivals.

“The part that has to be respected most is their talent level,” Cristobal said of the Gators. “Their coaching, their size, speed, physicality. Schematically, they’re very challenging in a lot of different ways. They’ve been playing elite defense for several games dating back to last season, and offensively, they’ve been very close on several occasions to having some great performances.”

In other words, no, Miami does not expect this to be easy, even after the Hurricanes went into Gainesville last season and rolled to a 41-17 win.

The Gators are trying to avoid their first 1/3 start since 1986, and a loss this weekend would only further turn the heat up on coach Billy Napier — who is 20-21 in his time at Florida, 5-14 in games played in neutral sites or on the road, 4-15 against ranked opponents with the Gators and 0-12 when those games are played away from Gainesville.

“I think that they’re a group that knows how they’re that close,” Napier said. “All parts of our team have to go play at a high level, given who we’re playing. … A lot of our guys are doing a heck of a job. So, yeah, we’re close to being pretty dangerous, in my opinion.”

The state title

This will be the 35th year of Miami, Florida and Florida State all facing off in the same season. Miami plays Florida State in two weeks; the Seminoles and Gators play in November. It might not happen again for years, since Miami and Florida don’t have any future games scheduled.

“The state championship is always going to be one of the highest goals that we have,” Cristobal said. “These guys play against each other. The fan bases, alumni bases, they’re at it all offseason. There’s deep meaning to it.”

The quarterbacks

Beck leads the nation so far with a 79.3% completion percentage this season. Florida quarterback DJ Lagway is 23rd nationally with a 71% completion rate — which might seem surprising after his five-interception game against LSU last weekend.

Only 10 FBS quarterbacks have more completions entering this week than Lagway (71), despite the fact that his six interceptions so far tie for the second-most nationally.

The series

Miami leads the series 30-27 and has won eight of the last 10 meetings. This will be only the fourth time in the last 40 seasons that the Gators have played a true road game at Miami.

It usually doesn’t take a ton of points to win a Gators-Hurricanes game. Miami is 22-3 when scoring 17 points or more; Florida is 13-2 when scoring more than 21 points.

Also, don’t expect a close game just because it’s a rivalry: just over half of the past Gators-Hurricanes games (29 of the previous 57) have been decided by 10 or more points.

Against the state

Miami has won six consecutive games against in-state opponents, including each of the last two weeks against Bethune-Cookman and South Florida.

Florida is 2-4 in its last six games against in-state competition.

Offense vs. defense

The Gators have given up 20 points or less in each of their last seven games going back to last season, their longest such streak since a 12-game run spanning the end of the 2011 season and the first 11 games of 2012.

Miami has scored the second-most points in the country since the start of 2024 with 692, one less than Indiana. The Hurricanes also lead the country in that span with an average of 7.49 yards per play.

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