The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Wake Forest Demon Deacons 2026 Edition

Another game, another victory for the Canes! On Friday night, your Miami Hurricanes continued the ACC schedule, traveling to Winston-Salem, NC to play, and beat, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons 33-20.

AND Mike Schiffman is back with the 3 stars of the game:

And with no further ado, let's get into this edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:

A win! I will never take this for granted.

QB Darian Mensah . 30/34 passing, 220 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions

Mensah's cumulative stats this year: 71/79 passing, 90% completions, 873 yards, 11 touchdowns, 0 interceptions.

WR Malachi Toney . 12 catches for 114 yards and a touchdown.

Toney's cumulative stats: 28 catches for 444 yards and 5 touchdowns.

RB Mark Fletcher Jr. 16 carries for 85 yards and a touchdown.

S J.J. Dunnigan. 8 tackles, 3 QB hurries, and another great game from my favorite player.

CB Ethan O'Connor. 8 tackles, solid coverage, and the game-winning interception. Bravo.

The defensive line. EDGEs Armondo Blount, Marquise Lightfoot, and Damon Wilson II finally made their presence felt. DTs Justin Scott and Ahmad Moten Sr. also played very very well.

In total, the DL combined for 13 tackles, 3 sacks, and 3.5 TFLs. Oh, and forced 3 holding penalties, which could have easily been tripled. There was pressure all day long, and solid run defense as well. It wasn't perfect, but this was a big step forward for the defensive line.

Miami walking 92 yards down the field in 14 plays to score on the first drive of the game. Great choices from Mensah, solid play all around, and in the end, a touchdown. That'll work.

That drive ended with this 9-yard touchdown pass from Mensah to WR Joshua Moore .

Mark Fletcher Jr. running dudes over!!!!!! Or, in the words of Marshawn Lynch : RUN THRU A MUFUCKA'S FACE!!!!!

Mensah to TE Elija Lofton for a 21 yard score. Y-leak. Wide open. Easy as you like. (and look at Mensah's opening stats after 2 drives. LOL my goodness)

EDGE Damon Wilson II with his first sack as a Hurricane!

LB Mo Toure with a MASSIVE hit to force a fumble, which would have been Miami's first takeaway of the year but there was a penalty away from the ball.

Scoring touchdowns on the first 3 drives of the night.

Scoring on 5 of our first 6 offensive drives.

Forcing Wake Forest into 3-and-outs on their final 4 first half drives.

Forcing Wake Forest's final 3 drives to end as follows: downs at the Miami 14, Downs at the Wake 42, and an interception from the Miami 22.

4-4 scoring in the redzone (all touchdowns)

Mensah 220 yards on 30 completions? Woof.

I know Wake Forest was trying to play zone to take away the super explosive plays….but they went to man-to-man schemes in the 2nd half and Miami did nothing against them. Can't have that. That's bad.

No Jordan Lyle, despite him being dressed for the game, and Miami losing the top 2 backs on the depth chart. His de-facto suspension continues.

7 penalties for 75 yards. Nowhere NEAR good enough.

Whatever the FUCK happened after we went up 31-7. Kill it with fire.

No seriously, I'm trying to understand what happened. Miami's offense was walking up and down the field, then did less than nothing on the final 6 drives of the game. Truly baffling.

After going up 31-7, these were Miami's next 4 drives:

And the next drive after those 4? 4 plays, 6 yards, no first downs, and a blocked FG from 54 yards. TRULY terrible stuff.

Injuries. Injuries. And more injuries. Seriously, somebody reset the sliders or something.

ALL the missed sacks on Gio Lopez . Credit to him for being a tough player and elusive to a point, but there were a lot of bad plays on Miami's part that enabled him to extend plays.

Cam Pruitt with a holding penalty on the opening kick return of the game. C'mon man.

Mark Fletcher Jr. with a block in the back on an early screen to Daylyn Upshaw. Gotta play clean!

DT Ahmad Moten Sr. leaving the game early with a left shoulder injury. You truly hate to see it. Damnit.

DL Armondo Blount called for a weak roughing the passer to gift Wake Forest extra yards on top of a completion.

Miami's defense gave up their first touchdown of the year on Wake's first drive.

Again, whatever that was after Miami went up 31-7. I'm very upset by the deterioration of the offense, and the penalties that allowed Wake to move down the field and score on the defense.

RB Marty Brown suffering what the broadcast called a "gruesome" knee injury on a 32 yard run midway through the 2nd quarter. Brown is Miami's Swiss Army Knife backup RB. Losing him would hurt the depth, but present opportunities for others. Still, you HATE to see injuries. UGH.

This is the play where Brown sustained his injury

TE Elija Lofton went down with a left leg (ankle?) injury late in the 2nd quarter. TURN OFF INJURIES.

RB Mark Fletcher Jr. missing/not attempting a block vs the blitz, leading to a sack of Darian Mensah. Great player, ugly play

EDGE Damon Wilson II called for roughing the passer to negate Miami's first takeaway of the year, a forced fumble my LB Mo Toure on a MASSIVE hit against the Wake RB.

Wake Forest had a guy ALL ALONE on 4th and 5. It was incomplete, but had they seen this, it's a touchdown. Bottom of the picture below, just above the "33" on the scorebug.

I'm just…..disappointed. The lack of focus. The penalties. The stagnation on offense. The PENALTIES. The missed sacks. The injuries. THE PENALTIES. I know we won by 2 touchdowns but this was nowhere near good enough.

Offense : First 6 drives: A+; Last 6 drives: F

Truly a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performance. Miami had a plan and answers for Wake's zone scheme to be methodical, consistent, slightly explosive, and go up and down the field easily to build a 31-7 lead.

And then invasion of the body snatchers happened and Miami's offense went into a shell, and had 4 consecutive 3-and-outs and a 4 play drive that ended with a blocked FG before the final drive where they FINALLY converted a 1st down to secure the victory.

I know there were injuries, but Miami has too much talent for this to happen on offense. Mensah looked dinged up, but I'm sure Miami won't say he was. Malachi Toney was on a pitch count after straining his abdominals stretching for a catch late in the second quarter. STILL, the fact that Miami's offense turned into…..whatever it was that we watched after the 1st drive of the second half is unacceptable. Full stop.

Defensive line actually showed a pulse which is great. But there were issues with Mo Toure and Omar Thornton , both players who have been questioned for their coverage abilities, giving up touchdowns on the same slot fade concept. And there were a metric ton of missed tackles, SPECIFICALLY sack opportunities on Lopez. Yes, the defense was able to step up and get stops late in the game when they were needed, yes they were able to get stops early, but there is still MUCH to be desired here.

Penalty on the opening kick return of the game. Good punting when we used it but we used it too much for my liking, especially given the early production from the offense. Add in a missed/blocked FG, and yeah, that isn't a showing anybody is excited about.

I almost feel like Mario Cristobal's continual statements about middling teams being better than they are was a self fulfilling prophecy tonight. Wake is FINE, but Miami is a clear class better than them…..or was for 34 minutes of the game. Then, Miami went into a shell, let Wake hang around, and that just wasn't at all necessary.

Let me be clear: it wasn't the INTENT of the coaching staff or offense to play poorly and let Wake hang around, but it felt like that was the impact.

Operationally, the offense played a clean game. The only offensive penalty was a questionable block in the back call on Mark Fletcher Jr. And, for the first 34 minutes of the game, the offense was unstoppable. But then there were missed blocks. And *VERY* conservative play calls (all the screens), and some poor play (WOOF, offensive line), and things grinded to a halt. Dawson had answers, then didn't. And he has to find something to settle the team and get a first down — which Miami had exactly *ONE* of in the final 27 minutes of the game across 6 possessions. It came 3 plays from the end of the game to give Miami the chance to go to victory formation.

Wake Forest came out to open the game and walked down the field for a 75 yard TD drive to tie the score. In that moment, I said I needed adjustments from DC Corey Hetherman. And I got them. Miami forced 4 consecutive 3-and-outs thereafter and built the big lead we've been talking about. I liked the late adjustment to put J.J. Dunnigan at LB and spy Lopez. I liked the unceasing blitzes from the slot (regardless of who was assigned the blitz). I liked the pressure the defensive line got. I liked the variety of players at linebacker, all of whom had some nice moments.

Overall, I thought the defensive scheme was fine, but the inability to complete sacks — seriously, Lopez stepped out of at least 8 MORE sacks than we saw — and ALL. THE. PENALTIES — 6 of Miami's 7 penalties came on defense — were the issues. Like with the offense, it wasn't the intent of the coaches to have that performance from the players, but that's what we got, and it wasn't good enough.

I'll admit that this is a harsh grade. But if the standard and goal is to compete for championships, high standards and tough feedback are required.

That's it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Hop in the comments and let me know your thoughts.