There are worse ways to start a short week than with a 45-6 road win already in the bank.
Miami returned from California having done almost everything asked of them against Stanford.
Darian Mensah looked completely at home.
Malachi Toney broke records.
The defence allowed six points.
Now comes the less glamorous part.
Do it again.
FAMU week arrives quickly
Miami host Florida A&M at Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday 10 September at 8pm ET/ 1am BST, giving Mario Cristobal and his staff considerably less preparation time than a normal game week.
That changes the challenge.
Stanford was a cross-country ACC opener against a team that already had competitive football behind it.
FAMU is the home opener.
Miami will be expected to win comfortably.
So this week is less about proving the Canes can handle adversity and more about showing that Friday night established a standard.
Good teams move on quickly.
Miami now get an immediate chance to prove they can.
Hetherman still has things to fix
Giving up six points tends to make defensive criticism fairly difficult.
But Corey Hetherman will still have plenty on the film.
Stanford finished with 299 total yards, while Miami held Micah Ford to 27 rushing yards after he had scored three times against Hawaii the previous week.
That is the good bit.
The next step is creating more disruption.
Miami finished without a takeaway and produced only one sack.
That hardly spoiled a dominant road win, but it gives the defensive staff something useful to chase.
Armondo Blount, Marquise Lightfoot and the rest of the young front showed flashes.
Against FAMU, the aim should be turning those flashes into a more consistently disruptive performance.
The run game gets another chance
The rebuilt offensive line passed its first major test.
Mensah stayed clean and Miami finished with 549 yards of offence at more than eight yards per play.
The obvious area for improvement remains the running game.
Mark Fletcher Jr. never really got going against Stanford, and Miami did not impose themselves on the ground in the way we normally associate with a Cristobal team.
Against FAMU, that becomes one of the most interesting things to watch.
Nobody needs Mensah throwing for 400 yards every week.
If Miami can get the ground game moving as well, Shannon Dawson’s offence becomes considerably harder to deal with.
The Last Word from Across the Pond
Stanford was almost the perfect start.
Now Miami have to stop admiring it.
A short week means there is barely time to enjoy Mensah’s debut or Toney’s record night before preparation begins again.
There are still useful imperfections to attack.
Run the ball better.
Create turnovers.
Generate more pressure.
Get healthier.
Then take care of business against FAMU.
Friday showed us how high Miami’s ceiling might be.
Thursday is about showing that performance was the beginning of a standard, not a one-off.
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