MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Miami came into its game against USF as the higher-ranked team, but all the talk throughout the week centered on the Bulls, thanks to their two upset wins.
The No. 5 Hurricanes heard the talk and delivered their own message in a 49-12 victory Saturday night. Miami shut down dual-threat quarterback Byrum Brown, holding him to 274 yards passing and a touchdown with just 2 yards rushing, while rolling up 576 yards of total offense.
Miami led comfortably enough in the fourth quarter that backup quarterback Emory Williams finished the game. After wins over ranked Boise State and Florida to open the season, USF suffered its largest loss as an AP-ranked team in school history.
"Our guys didn't want to be part of the narrative of somebody else's success, stepping stone kind of season," Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. "That's been the story all week. There was a lot of motivation going into this thing, besides the fact that they were [a] ranked football team, but it's an in-state game, and you have to play at your very best because you're never all the way out of these games.
"Our guys really took it personal to not let anything get in the way of doing their job. Intensity, physicality, urgency and discipline all came together very nicely for us tonight."
Miami has won each of its past four games against USF by 25 or more points, putting up at least 500 yards of offense in each victory. Last year, with Cam Ward leading the way on offense, the Hurricanes won 50-15.
With Carson Beck at quarterback, the Hurricanes look like they have not missed a beat. Beck threw for a season-high 340 yards and three touchdown passes -- two to true freshman Joshua Moore -- and Mark Fletcher Jr. ran for 120 yards and two touchdowns.
Brown came in as the dual-threat quarterback, but Beck finished with more rushing yards, as he had six carries for 28 yards and a touchdown. Beck became the first Miami player with three passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown against an AP-ranked opponent in a game in the past 30 seasons.
He and his teammates tamped down any notion they were trying to remind USF about which team runs the state, saying their focus was on getting better.
"Each opponent is a faceless opponent," Beck said. "We're not worried about a jersey. We're not worried about the color of the jersey. We're not worried about the name. Our preparation has just been so good."
USF coach Alex Golesh took the blame for not preparing his team well enough to stay competitive with the Hurricanes, saying "we didn't look like us" in the first half -- which was delayed by nearly an hour and a half by lightning. Miami led 28-6 at halftime.
"As a program, we're going to be in that same exact situation again," Golesh said. "It may be this year. It may not be. As a program, we'll get there as fast as we possibly can. Tonight, you saw a team that will fight, but the margins against another really good football team are really, really tight, and we didn't win in the margins."
Miami won everywhere, and though the extra motivation from the storyline surrounding its opponent didn't hurt, Cristobal pointed out that his team is internally driven and eager to improve every week. No matter the opponent.
"We just want to get better," Cristobal said. "The amount of time and effort, like true connection that they have, and the way that they disallow things to get in the way, supersedes all that stuff. I think it's deeper than just noise. I mean, you'll never not accept some extra noise, some extra fuel. But these guys are internally driven, and I think it showed up strong tonight."