Malachi Toney catches 3 of Darian Mensah's 5 TD passes in No. 7 Miami's Week 1 rout of Stanford

Malachi Toney made it very clear that he plans on being a Heisman Trophy contender on Friday night.

The sophomore wide receiver scored three touchdowns and set a career-high in receiving yards in No. 7 Miami's 45-6 win over Stanford. Toney's previous career-best was a 146-yard effort. He eclipsed that total in the first half, with nine catches for 174 yards and two scores.

He then capped his night with a 47-yard TD catch after splitting Stanford's cover-two defense down the middle to make Miami's win all but official. He struck the Heisman pose after that score, just like he had following his first two touchdowns.

Toney finished the game with 12 catches for 233 yards.

After playing with Georgia transfer Carson Beck in his first season of college football, Toney caught passes Friday night from former Duke quarterback Darian Mensah. After leading the Blue Devils to the ACC title in 2025, Mensah got a big offer from Miami at the end of the season and reneged on his commitment to return to Duke to head south to play for the Hurricanes.

His first game in a Miami uniform went pretty well. Before exiting the blowout in the third quarter because the game was out of reach, Mensah had more touchdown passes (five) than he had incompletions (three). Mensah finished the game 27-of-30 passing for 400 yards.

Of course, it's easier to post a stat line like that when Toney is just running away from defenders. Mensah had a very good game too — but Toney was absolutely uncoverable. Stanford's defense was helpless to keep up with him. Nearly every completion to Toney came with him having significant separation from the nearest defender.

A season ago, Toney had 109 catches for 1,211 yards and 10 receiving touchdowns. He burst onto the scene in his first college game with six catches for 82 yards and a TD in the Hurricanes' win over Notre Dame and had three receiving TDs across Miami's four College Football Playoff games.

That breakout season made him one of the few non-quarterbacks among the favorites for the Heisman ahead of the season. While Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith enters the 2026 season as the top non-QB in the Heisman betting odds, Toney was the No. 2 player who doesn't regularly throw passes.

Friday night made it clear that Toney's chances for the Heisman are very real. Mensah's are too. Miami is the clear favorite to win the ACC and get back to the College Football Playoff. And if both players play simply close to how they did in Week 1, the race for the ACC may not be all that close.