CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Miami edge rusher Marquise Lightfoot was trying to explain why his defense struggled to get off the field Saturday in a painfully close 38-35 win over North Carolina, summing up the biggest missteps as failures of communication -- particularly in a back end that has been thinned by injuries.
That, Lightfoot said, is what Miami needs to work on "preparing for the next one -- for ... I don't know who we have."
Wait, really?
Lightfoot, whose strip sack of Billy Edwards Jr. in the fourth quarter was the turning point in a back-and-forth game, insisted he has been so myopic in his 1-0 approach to each game that he had no clue which team was up next on the docket.
The rest of the college football world is well aware though. That would be Notre Dame.
"Oh," Lightfoot said. "Well, it's Notre Dame then."
He doesn't sound too concerned about the Fighting Irish.
Miami-Notre Dame has a long history of bitterness in a sparsely played rivalry, but this year's matchup comes with plenty of emotion after the Canes narrowly edged the Irish out of last year's final playoff spot on the strength of a head-to-head win that opened the 2025 season.
Now, the 2026 installment is here, and Miami isn't exactly clicking on all cylinders, despite being one of just three remaining undefeated teams -- and carrying the No. 1 ranking into South Bend, Indiana, for Week 10.
Miami narrowly escaped Florida State two weeks ago after the struggling Seminoles had two potential Hail Mary completions in overtime waved off, then barely squeezed by a UNC team that put up 35 points against a power-conference opponent for the first time under Bill Belichick. Edwards threw four touchdown passes, and the Heels came within inches of recovering a late onside kick -- twice -- before both were overturned by penalties.
"I think it's, why are you playing close games?" Miami coach Mario Cristobal said after Saturday's win. "Are you playing teams that are playing well and doing some things that, it's really important you fix and remedy? Or are you not playing as well as you should be. There are certain aspects where we're playing really well, but we've got to keep getting better, and certain areas we need to improve."
That improvement is clearly on the defensive side of the ball, where Miami struggled to get off the field against the Tar Heels.
UNC was 8-of-11 on third downs and 2-of-2 on fourth down, punting just once against Miami's defense. FSU's Ashton Daniels and UNC's Edwards have thrown for a combined 639 yards and eight touchdowns in back-to-back weeks against the Hurricanes.
Cristobal laid out a litany of issues: soft spots in coverage, lack of detail, a lack of swarming to the ball, sporadic tackling, getting beat in man coverage and a lack of pressure on Edwards at times.
"Certainly not the type of performance we want on [that] side of the ball," Cristobal said, "but it's a team game, and we still found a way to get the turnover when it counted."
North Carolina's success on third down held Miami to just seven possessions, but the Canes made the most of them, scoring on six. Darian Mensah threw three touchdowns, and tailback Mark Fletcher ran for two and caught another. Fletcher's two rushing scores give him 35 for his career, tying Miami's record, and his 38 career scrimmage touchdowns set the school record Saturday.
Still, the only record Cristobal was interested in when it was over was 1-0 -- again.
"You see the amount of top-five and top-25 teams that are going on the road -- and even at home -- are getting beat in conference play," Cristobal said. "Conference football is different. It's playoff football. So it's finding a way to go 1-0, but it's also finding a way to get better. In certain aspects we did -- but others we've got to get better at."