October 4, 2025 Week 6 · Regular Season Belt defended

Miami defends the belt, 28–22, on the road at Florida State.

Home · Challenger

Florida StateAP No. 18 22

Away · Defending Holder

MiamiAP No. 3 28

AP poll, week 6: Miami No. 3 at Florida State No. 18 · No. 1 that week: Ohio State. The belt vs. the polls →

Belt context

Where this game sits in the lineage

Miami came in 21 days into reign #328, which began with a win over South Florida, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. It was the last defense: Louisville took the belt in the very next belt game, on October 17, 2025.

For Florida State this was its 9th shot at the belt; it had held the belt twice before.

It was the 5th of 5 belt games between the two; going in, Miami led the belt series 3–1; all-time Miami leads 4–1. Every meeting →

AI-Written

Recap

Miami's defense and special teams dominated early, with Carson Beck connecting on two touchdown passes to CJ Daniels in the first half to build a 14-3 lead. The Hurricanes extended their advantage to 28-3 with another Daniels touchdown early in the third quarter, but Florida State's offense finally came alive in the fourth quarter, scoring three touchdowns in a furious comeback attempt. Despite the late surge, which included a two-point conversion and a 35-yard field goal, Florida State's three turnovers proved too costly, and Miami's early dominance held up for the win and retention of the belt.

Miami's first-quarter touchdown drive capped by Beck-to-Daniels 4-yard TD pass established early momentum
Florida State's three turnovers (two interceptions, one fumble) in the first three quarters prevented them from staying in the game early
Miami's second and third-quarter touchdown passes to Malachi Toney and CJ Daniels built an insurmountable 28-3 lead
Florida State's fourth-quarter comeback with three TDs including the Castellanos-to-McCoy two-point conversion came too late

Written by Claude from the box score and play-by-play on this page — a plain-English recap of the numbers below, not a substitute for them.

By Quarter

Line score

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
Florida State	3	0	0	19	22
Miami	7	7	14	0	28

Pulled directly from CFBD’s play-by-play record, the same source as every score in the lineage.

Full Box Score

Team stats

CFBD box score

Florida StateMiami

Total yards404338

Rushing yards13297

Passing yards272241

First downs2814

3rd down conv.7/165/14

Turnovers30

Penalties–yards5–4513–114

Time of possession29:3430:26

Full team box score from CFBD’s /games/teams data. This section only appears for belt games from 2003 onward — CFBD doesn’t have team-level stats that far back.

Play By Play

Key plays

CFBD play-by-play

When	Team	Yards	Play
Q1 10:02	Florida State	+23 yd	Jake Weinberg 23 yd FG GOOD
Q1 13:44	Florida State	+28 yd	Tommy Castellanos pass complete to Ousmane Kromah for 28 yds to the MIA 39 for a 1ST down
Q1 4:40	Miami	+47 yd	Carson Beck pass complete to CJ Daniels for 47 yds to the FSU 19 for a 1ST down
Q1 0:50	Miami	+4 yd	Carson Beck pass complete to CJ Daniels for 4 yds for a TD (Carter Davis KICK)
Q2 11:33	Florida State	+43 yd	Tommy Castellanos pass intercepted Bryce Fitzgerald return for 43 yds to the FSU 44
Q2 11:25	Miami	+44 yd	Carson Beck pass complete to Malachi Toney for 44 yds for a TD (Carter Davis KICK)
Q2 4:59	Florida State	+4 yd	Ousmane Kromah run for 4 yds to the MIA 46 Ousmane Kromah fumbled, forced by Zechariah Poyser, recovered by MIA Keionte Scott
Q2 3:00	Florida State	+7 yd	Tommy Castellanos pass complete to Duce Robinson for 7 yds Duce Robinson fumbled, forced by Jakobe Thomas, recovered by FSU Randy Pittman Jr.
Q3 9:09	Miami	+40 yd	Carson Beck pass complete to Malachi Toney for 40 yds for a TD (Carter Davis KICK)
Q3 8:22	Florida State	+20 yd	Tommy Castellanos pass complete to Lawayne McCoy for 20 yds to the MIA 37 for a 1ST down
Q3 7:56	Florida State	+0 yd	Tommy Castellanos pass intercepted, touchback. Jakobe Thomas return for no gain
Q3 5:09	Miami	+22 yd	Keelan Marion run for 22 yds to the FSU 28 for a 1ST down
Q3 3:53	Miami	+24 yd	Carson Beck pass complete to CJ Daniels for 24 yds for a TD (Carter Davis KICK)
Q4 10:04	Florida State	+8 yd	Tommy Castellanos pass complete to Lawayne McCoy for 8 yds for a TD (M. Danzy Run For Two-point Conversion)
Q4 3:22	Florida State	+6 yd	Tommy Castellanos pass complete to Randy Pittman Jr. for 6 yds for a TD (Tommy Castellanos pass to Lawayne McCoy for Two-Point Conversion)
Q4 0:20	Florida State	+35 yd	Jake Weinberg 35 yd FG GOOD
Q4 0:25	Florida State	+30 yd	Tommy Castellanos pass complete to Duce Robinson for 30 yds to the MIA 17 for a 1ST down

Scoring plays, turnovers, and gains of 20+ yards, pulled from CFBD’s play-by-play. This section only appears for belt games with play-by-play on file (2003 onward).

Box Score

Player stats

CFBD player stats

Passing

Florida State

Player	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	QBR
Thomas Castellanos	25/45	272	6.0	2	2	63.8

Miami

Player	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	QBR
Carson Beck	20/27	241	8.9	4	0	89.1

Rushing

Florida State

Player	CAR	YDS	AVG	LONG
Thomas Castellanos	16	57	3.6	18
Gavin Sawchuk	11	47	4.3	15
Ousmane Kromah	6	23	3.8	7
Jaylin Lucas	1	3	3.0	3
Micahi Danzy	2	3	1.5	4
Roydell Williams	1	0	0.0	0
Samuel Singleton	1	-1	-1.0	0

Miami

Player	CAR	YDS	AVG	LONG
Mark Fletcher Jr.	12	40	3.3	10
Keelan Marion	1	22	22.0	22
CharMar Brown	8	19	2.4	5
Jordan Lyle	7	18	2.6	6
Carson Beck	3	-1	-0.3	4
Team	1	-1	-1.0	0

Receiving

Florida State

Player	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Duce Robinson	6	87	14.5	0	30
Lawayne McCoy	3	39	13.0	1	20
Randy Pittman	7	39	5.6	1	15
Ousmane Kromah	2	37	18.5	0	28
Micahi Danzy	2	29	14.5	0	17
Gavin Sawchuk	3	25	8.3	0	13
Jayvan Boggs	1	14	14.0	0	14
Jaylin Lucas	1	2	2.0	0	2

Miami

Player	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Malachi Toney	7	107	15.3	2	44
C.J. Daniels	5	78	15.6	2	47
Elija Lofton	3	21	7.0	0	11
Alex Bauman	3	18	6.0	0	8
Jordan Lyle	1	9	9.0	0	9
Mark Fletcher Jr.	1	8	8.0	0	8

Show more stats (6 more categories)

Defense

Florida State

Player	TOT	SOLO	SACKS	TFL	PD	QB HUR
Earl Little II	7	2	0	0	0	0
Blake Nichelson	6	4	1	1	0	0
Stefon Thompson	6	3	0	0	0	0
Ja'Bril Rawls	6	1	0	0	0	0
Elijah Herring	5	1	0	1	0	0
Shyheim Brown	4	2	0	0	0	0
Deante McCray	4	1	0	0	0	1
K.J. Kirkland	4	1	0	1	0	0
Justin Cryer	4	1	0	0	0	0
Daniel Lyons	3	2	0	1	0	0
Jeremiah Wilson	3	2	0	0	1	0
Darrell Jackson	3	0	0	0	0	0
Omar Graham Jr.	2	2	0	0	0	0
Shamar Arnoux	2	2	0	0	0	0
Darryll Desir	2	1	0	0	0	0
Gavin Blackwell	1	1	0	1	0	0
Gavin Sawchuk	1	1	0	0	0	0
A.J. Cottrill	1	0	0	0	0	0
Amaree Williams	1	0	0	0	0	0
Mandrell Desir	0	0	0	0	1	0

Miami

Player	TOT	SOLO	SACKS	TFL	PD	QB HUR
Keionte Scott	11	5	0	0.5	1	1
Wesley Bissainthe	8	5	0	0	0	0
Zechariah Poyser	8	5	0	0	0	0
Akheem Mesidor	6	5	1	2	0	0
Mohamed Toure	6	3	0	0	0	0
Jakobe Thomas	5	5	1	1	2	0
Rueben Bain Jr.	4	1	0	0	0	2
Damari Brown	4	1	0	0	0	0
Bryce Fitzgerald	3	3	0	0	0	0
Armondo Blount	2	2	0	0	0	1
Ethan O'Connor	2	1	0	1.5	0	0
Raul Aguirre Jr.	2	0	0	0	0	0
Ahmad Moten	1	1	0	0	0	0
Ja'Dais Richard	1	1	0	0	0	0
Dylan Day	1	1	0	0	0	0
OJ Frederique Jr.	1	1	0	0	0	0
David Blay	1	0	0	0	0	0

Fumbles

Florida State

Player	FUM	LOST	REC
Ousmane Kromah	1	1	0
Duce Robinson	1	0	0

Miami

Player	FUM	LOST	REC
Keionte Scott	0	0	1

Interceptions

Florida State

No recorded stats in this category.

Miami

Player	INT	YDS	TD
Bryce Fitzgerald	1	43	0
Jakobe Thomas	1	0	0

Kicking

Florida State

Player	FG	PCT	LONG	XP	PTS
Jake Weinberg	2/2	100.0	35	0/0	6

Miami

Player	FG	PCT	LONG	XP	PTS
Carter Davis	0/0	0.0	0	4/4	4

Punt Returns

Florida State

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Squirrel White	1	0	0.0	0	0

Miami

No recorded stats in this category.

Punting

Florida State

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	TB	In 20	LONG
Mac Chiumento	4	177	44.3	0	3	56

Miami

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	TB	In 20	LONG
Dylan Joyce	5	201	40.2	0	2	50

Full player stats from CFBD’s /games/players data, split out by team. This section only appears for belt games from 2003 onward — CFBD doesn’t have player-level stats that far back. Linked player names go to that player’s stat line in every other belt game they’ve appeared in.

Sources Box score at ESPN · Game record: College Football Data (id 401754553) · This game in the downloadable dataset

← Florida at Miami Louisville at Miami →