Notre Dame Stun No. 1 Miami 31-24 in Playoff Boost

Notre Dame produced the biggest result of the college football season on Saturday night, beating top-ranked Miami 31-24 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend and throwing the College Football Playoff race wide open.
CJ Carr was the star of the night, completing 29 of 40 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Micah Gilbert caught two of the scoring passes, Jordan Faison took the other, and Nolan James Jr added a rushing touchdown as the Fighting Irish built a lead they would never give up.
Notre Dame led 17-3 at half-time and stretched the advantage to 24-3 early in the second half, when Carr found Gilbert for a 20-yard touchdown to open the third quarter. Miami, playing without injured star receiver Malachi Toney, looked beaten at that stage, but quarterback Darian Mensah led a fightback that kept the game alive until the final minute.
The Hurricanes pulled the score back to 31-24 and had a late fourth-down pass knocked away in the end zone that would have tied the game, before Notre Dame ran down the clock to seal the win.
The result hands Miami its first defeat of the season and leaves both teams at 8-1. It is Notre Dame's first win over a No. 1 team since beating Clemson 47-40 in double overtime six years ago to the day, and it avenges last season's 27-24 defeat to Miami, which kept the Irish out of the playoff.
Notre Dame entered the game ranked only 11th in the first College Football Playoff rankings despite sitting fourth in the AP poll, and this win should lift the Irish firmly into the playoff picture. With Miami beaten, only Utah and UCLA remain unbeaten among major college teams. Read the full Associated Press report on theScore for more detail.