The Miami Hurricanes took care of business on Friday night, moving to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the ACC with a 33-20 win over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

On its face, that’s not such a bad thing for the Hurricanes, as a double-digit ACC road win isn’t something to ever sneeze at, particularly against a Wake team that was 9-4 last year and has some intriguing players this year, including North Carolina transfer QB Gio Lopez.

However, the Hurricanes built a 31-7 lead early in the third quarter on a dominating performance on both sides of the ball. And from there, Wake, well, woke up.

After dominating the yardage total 303-88 in the first half, it was Miami’s turn to struggle. The Hurricanes went three-and-out on four second half possessions plus a missed field goal after failing to pick up a first down, while Wake put together back-to-back touchdown drives to cut the margin to 31-20. Miami CB Ethan O’Connor picked off Lopez near the goal line late in the fourth quarter to seal it, but Wake pushed the Hurricanes nearly to the limit in a game they had seemingly locked down.

That second half performance looked a lot like Miami’s win over Florida State in 2025, when the Hurricanes let a 28-3 fourth quarter lead slip to a 28-22 final. The Hurricanes would go on to lose two of their next three games to Louisville and SMU.

After the game, Miami starting OL Ryan Rodriguez met with the media. He said he was a bit miffed at how the game flipped, but he admitted that they “got flat.”

Miami OL Ryan Rodriguez said the Hurricanes ‘got flat’ in the second half of win over Wake Forest

“I honestly don’t know,” Rodriguez said. “I was wondering the same thing myself. I hated it. I wanted to score every drive if it was up to me, you know? I’m sure everyone does. We got flat. I don’t know. We got five straight three and outs. Didn’t get a first down, and our mantra is try to get two first downs, and we couldn’t do it. We’ve just got to be better. That’s really it.

“I wouldn’t say they made a big adjustment. I just feel like they came a little more ready to play. Just tackling, being physical. Pretty much it.”

Despite the flat comment, Rodriguez said it wasn’t a matter of taking their foot off the gas, at least for him.

“Personally, I definitely wasn’t mentally taking my foot off the gas. We faced adversity. A win is a win. It’s not pretty, but it’s better to be learning from a win as Mario Cristobal said than learning from a loss. I mean, Wake Forest played good. We’ve got to give them their props. We’ve got to step up and not lag there and lull. But we’ll work on it. I promise you.”

Flat, foot off the gas, whatever, it clearly looked like the Demon Deacons were playing the more physical and urgent brand of football down 31-7. And that’s not something you want to see happen if you’re a Miami player, coach, or fan.

Perhaps I will be accused of nit picking here, and that’s fine. But when you are aspiring to be a championship-level program, you have to show up every week and prove it. That’s what the Ohio States, Georgias, and perennial title contenders do and have done for years. They play for four quarters and keep their feet on the gas and their intensity for four quarters.

That’s what this same team did for four quarters every week after the SMU loss to start last November. Clearly Mario got his team bought in on that, and now he’ll have to do it again.

It’s also the first game Miami has had to play starters beyond the first two and a half quarters, so perhaps there was an adjustment period there.

Whatever the reason, Miami must figure out how to play with intensity and high-level execution for four quarters week after week. Otherwise, a loss or two is likely waiting for them in conference play.