Orange Bowl Boys: A Miami Hurricanes Podcast

Miami answered the "are they really No. 1?" crowd the best way they could. A week after the double-overtime grind against Florida State, the Canes went out and beat Pitt 52-23 in a game that was never close. And that 23 should have been 16, but we'll get to the busted coverage.

Ro, Scoop, Toast and Jenners recap the win that puts Miami at 7-0 and 5-0 in the ACC. Malachi Toney had 12 catches in the first half and finished with 16 for 194 yards and three touchdowns, a new school record for receptions in a game. Scoop gets...

For the first time since 2002, the Miami Hurricanes are the No. 1 team in the country, and the boys have been waiting 24 years to say it out loud. Ro, Jenners, Scoop and Toast argue over whether a midseason ranking actually means anything (Mario says no trophies get handed out in October), and Ro makes the case that none of this happened by accident. Five years of recruiting, rebuilding and getting punched in the face got Miami here, and now a whole generation of kids gets to see the U on top.

Jenners reports back from...

Miami beat Florida State 43-35 in double overtime, on the same Saturday five of the top eight teams in the country went down. It wasn't pretty. The Canes piled up 583 yards of offense and still needed two extra periods to put away a Seminoles team they should've handled. We break down how FSU hung around: Mike Norvell refusing to kick (nobody attempted a field goal all night), a field position gap that had Miami starting deep in its own end while FSU kept getting the ball near midfield, back-to-back personal fouls, and three Darian Mensah plays he'd like back.<...

Five hundred episodes. Four guys, one podcast, and a first episode that almost never came out because the audio was cooked. And the night we hit 500 just happens to be Florida State week. Couldn't have drawn it up any better.

We start by tooting our own horns for once: how this thing started on a Vox Pro with maybe four people waiting for it, what 500 episodes has meant to each of us, and why this show only works with four. Then it's the new AP Top 25, with Miami at No. 3 and Alabama somehow not...

Miami is 5-0, sitting at No. 4 in the AP poll, and finally getting a week off. With the bye here and Hate Week up next, the boys hand out mid-season grades for every position group on the roster.

First, Dabo. According to Dabo Swinney, if you take away the pick six and the field goal off a turnover, Clemson was right there. Ro, Jenners, Scoop and Toast have some thoughts on that. They also get into Brian Kelly lecturing Shannon Dawson about how to be a coordinator, Greg McElroy calling Miami the best team...

Your Miami Hurricanes went into Death Valley on a Saturday night and came home with a 41-13 win, a 5-0 record and sole possession of first place in the ACC. Ro, Scoop and Toast are back to break down a game that checked every box.

It opened with a three-and-out and a Cooper Barkate touchdown on the second offensive snap. It closed with the offensive line bullying Clemson for nine straight runs and 83 yards right when Miami needed a drive. The guys get into the two response drives, Chase Smith's heads-up play on the...

Miami is 4-0, ranked No. 4, and heading into Death Valley as a 16.5-point favorite. That makes this the biggest underdog Dabo Swinney has been in his entire run at Clemson. Oh, and the forecast says it's going to pour.

Former Clemson offensive lineman and ACC Network analyst Eric Mac Lain is back on the show, sitting in front of a "worst loss in school history" backdrop that we noticed immediately. Emac tells us why the line feels off to him, who wins the ground game if the weather turns this into a slugfest, and...

Miami beat Central Michigan 52-3, and for a good chunk of the night the refs were somehow the bigger story. Ro, Toast and Jenners (filling in for Scoop) get into a game with roughly 30 penalties, 12 of them in the fourth quarter alone, and why all those false starts and holds have them a little nervous about a prime time trip to Death Valley.

The good stuff still won out. Miami ran for 201 yards to CMU's 21, outgained them 572 to 158 and went 7 for 7 in the red zone. Four games in, the Canes have the No. 1 run...

Miami is 3-0, leads the country in total offense at 702 yards a game, and went down a spot in the AP poll anyway. Ro, Jenners, Scoop and Toast try to make sense of the drop to No. 6, and most of it comes back to one bad half against Wake Forest. Darian Mensah has 11 touchdowns and zero interceptions, the run defense is holding teams to 45.7 yards a game, and the voters slid Ole Miss ahead of the Canes the minute that game-sealing interception photo hit the internet.

From there it's film talk. The secondary is...

Miami went to Wake Forest on a Friday night and came home with a 33-20 win. The scoreboard looks fine. The injury report and the second half don’t.

Ro, Jenners, Scoop and Toast do the recap Saturday morning. The Canes looked historic for 30 minutes and mortal for the next 30, with a pile of three-and-outs and a lot of bubble screens that went nowhere. The defense is the reason this stayed a win. Corey Heatherman sent a safety at Gio Lopez on nearly every snap in the fourth quarter, and Wake Forest finished with 22 ru...

Josh Pray pulls up on the show fresh off a Florida win to talk trash, and Ro, Scoop and Toast let him have it right back — Nike money, Chris Leak's arm, the Swamp, all of it. Then the news actually breaks mid-show: Miami and Nike just signed a 10-year, $20 million-a-year deal, and the guys spend a solid chunk of the episode arguing about what that means for the jersey rotation, the Jumpman brand, and whether Mario Cristobal's going to keep it simple or go full Oregon with it.

Once Josh heads out, it's back to...

Miami didn't just beat FAMU on Thursday night — they buried them, 77-7, and it looked different from any blowout the Canes have put up in years. Ro, Jenners, Scoop, and Toast break down why the win felt as dominant as the score suggests: Luke Nickel's sharp run at backup quarterback, a freshman class already making plays, and a roster so deep it ranks 119th nationally in transfer portal additions and still looks like this.

The guys hit the record-setting 856 total yards, a 17-receiver box score, and Javion Mallory's Frank Gore comparisons, then move on to...

Miami's home opener spread against Florida A&M is up near 56 and a half, and Ro, Scoop, Toast, and Jenners open the show wondering if that's even a real point spread or just a weather advisory. From there it's a full lap around the sport: the Hurricanes get snubbed out of a Top 25 ballot entirely (an actual human forgot to include them), Nick Saban goes on College GameDay and picks Miami to win the national title, and the guys spend a long stretch on why Malachi Toney has turned into the best receiver in the country, Michael Irvin audio...

Miami didn’t just beat Stanford, they made a statement — 45‑6 on the road to open the season, and Ro, Jenners, Scoop, and Toast are still trying to process what they watched. This one’s mostly about Malachi Toney, who put up 234 yards and 3 touchdowns and was out of the game by the third quarter, and Darian Mensah, who completed 90% of his passes in his Miami debut and made every throw look like a handoff.

The guys break down the offensive line’s guard competition, the running back situation (including where Jordan Lyle stood on gameday...

HERE. WE. GO!

Miami opens the season on the road, and the guys break down every angle of Friday night's trip to Stanford before the picks come in. Ro, Scoop and Toast get into the number seven Hurricanes laying 24 and a half against a Cardinal team missing four cornerbacks and a chunk of their starting front, plus what Stanford's surprisingly efficient outing against Hawaii actually means heading into this one.

From there it's a full breakdown of the Miami offensive line battle up front, where last year's starters are...

Okay, NOW it's the final Benched of the year!... So instead of watchlists, predictions, or NFL nonsense... we're talking about Darth Vader, offensive Halloween costumes, legendary wedding vows and Oreo-Chicken burgers!... Welcome to the FINAL OBB Benched of the offseason!

Jenners breaks down the Target Halloween costume controversy and the ad that torched Good Good Golf's entire brand overnight, then things get properly unhinged — Baylen Dupree's wedding vows clip, a Flock camera protester dressed as Darth Vader, a South Florida weatherman who couldn't hold it together live on air, and a kids' show moment th...

It's the last show of the offseason and Ro, Scoop and Toast run back the Nick Saban and Mario Cristobal audio that dropped the same day last week, then get into whether the ACC has enough teams built to actually go toe-to-toe with the SEC. The take: Mario might be part of the problem, since Miami is currently sitting on eight of the ACC's top 10 recruits and starving the rest of the conference.

From there the guys hit their nationwide storylines heading into the year — Arch Manning and whether Texas finally breaks through, a Vi...

We miscounted... so there is actually one more show to go after this one! So instead of rankings, predictions or hype... we're talking about beaver meat, dirty fighting, Chucky look-alikes and unforeseen street closures... welcome to OBB Benched!

Ro, Jenners, Scoop and Toast are back for the penultimate Benched of the offseason, and this one's a grab bag: a local news anchor losing it over beaver meat, a stadium brawl with commentary that sounds exactly like Bill Burr, and a costumed street chaser in Philadelphia who picked the wrong woman to mess with.

Ro, Scoop and Toast finally put their names on the board with official Week 1 through Week 13 predictions for the Miami Hurricanes—and yes, everyone lands on 11-and-1. The guys react to Miami's No. 7 preseason AP ranking (with one lone first-place vote), argue over which other top-10 team is due for a letdown, and make the case for why the Canes might actually be the most underrated team in the country.

Also on deck: Jordan Lyle's arrest and what it means heading into the season, Cam Vaughn's exit from the receiver room, Florida State missing th...

With only two shows to go before we give way to the Recap Shooooow... instead of rankings, hype or payrolls, we're talking about off-color jokes, impalements, snakes in your helmet, and machetes versus hatchets in the Publix parking lot... welcome to OBB Benched!

Only two Benched episodes left before the real season takes over, and this one runs the gamut. Pat McAfee gets dragged for his Hall of Fame induction speech (and has to go apologize for it on Dan Patrick), a high school football player in Arkansas finds out the hard way that...

Jake Crain from On3 pulls up for the season's first guest appearance — a few days before his wife's due date — and doesn't hedge: he's got Miami at number one, not seven like the cumulative poll had it. Ro, Jenners, Scoop, and Toast get into why: what a reloaded offensive line actually needs to look like behind Jackson Cantwell, what Darian Mensah changes about the offense's ceiling compared to last year's run-heavy attack, and why the defense's identity as one of the most physical groups in the country isn't going anywhere with Rueben Fatheree and Corey Flagg gone.

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As the season approaches... We are officially on the countdown to the end of Benched for this offseason, and with it the end of Five Questions... so as we wind it down this week, we'll get into aloof outfielders, live TV blunders and naked dining in South Florida... Welcome to OBB Benched!

Things get off to a rough start when a national anthem cover sends the guys down a Clarabelle the Cow rabbit hole they never fully recover from. From there it's live TV blunders (a baseball player who ran a full home run...

Mario Cristobal just got paid — a deal that pushes him past $10 million a year — and the first thing he did was hand money back to the school. Congress finally did something about the chaos in college sports, clearing the Protect College Sports Act of 2026 through a major hurdle, and Darian Mensah needed exactly one practice at Green Tree to figure out what he signed up for.

Ro, Jenners, Scoop and Toast are watching the Hall of Fame Game live as they break down the extension and why nobody in South Florida is bothered by the...

Instead of top-rated quarterbacks, training camp or GM sagas... we're talking about influencer degrees, terrible grading scales, getting sucked out of airplanes and Spaceballs! Welcome to OBB Benched!

Ro's still out, so Jenners, Scoop, and Toast keep the bench warm one more time before Miami's 2026 fall camp opens tomorrow. This week's five questions cover Arizona State's new bachelor's degree in becoming an influencer (yes, that's real), a screenshot of a grading scale out of California that nobody can quite believe, and the return of Rick Moranis for Spaceballs 2 after 30 years away from the business.<...

Ro's off in the Keys chasing lobster, so it's Jenners, Scoop, and Toast holding down the show three days before Miami's 2026 fall camp officially opens. The guys get into whether last year's back-half surge was a real foundational shift for this program or just a hot streak that happened to end at the right time — breaking down the offensive line, a running back room that's the same faces with a different mentality, and a wide receiver group they think is one of the deepest in the country.

From there it's a full defensive line ch...

Instead of tampering, tired narratives or big game anticipation... we're talking about gender confusion, old lady asses, sewer people and vacuum cleaner sex... welcome to OBB Benched!

The guys start off arguing about a couple of new streaming shows — a prison-break thriller called I Will Find You and a little-people dating show on HBO Max that spirals into a full debate over Peter Dinklage and the Snow White remake. From there it's Mike Tyson at the ESPYs not knowing who Shohei Ohtani is, which somehow becomes the highlight of the whole segment.

Big news out of the Roman household before the football even starts tonight — Tali is officially headed to Loyola Marymount to play beach volleyball, and Ro takes you through the whole recruiting journey, including the moment she almost talked herself out of leaving Miami. From there it's straight into ACC Media Week, where Darian Mensah explains why he left Duke for the freedom of Shannon Dawson's offense, and the crew breaks down the money situation that pushed him out of that Duke locker room in the first place. Manny Diaz gets his say on the tampering questions that followed Me...

Instead of top players, big commits and preseason rankings, we're absolutely loaded with greedy owners, bad fighters, angy Bison and penis fires... welcome to OBB Benched!

Ro's out this week, so Jenners, Toast, and Scoop turn Benched into a full five-questions gauntlet: five unhinged stories from the week, one debate after each.

First up, the Carolina Hurricanes' Stanley Cup engraving controversy — owner Tom Dundon put his entire family's names on the top two lines of the Cup, ahead of staff who've been with the franchise for decades. That spirals in...

Ro's off the grid this week (cruise ship, matching-T-shirt family vibes, send thoughts and prayers), so the guys bring in Lakers Canes 305 himself, Mando, to help break down ACC Kickoff. And there's a lot to get to.

Our boy John Michaels sat down with Mario Cristobal at ACC Media Days, and the group runs through the good stuff: Mario on whether last year's title game loss counts as a failure, why the fan base finally feels different heading into a season, and the recruiting machine that's turned Miami into the team nobody wants to...

Instead of ACC Kickoff, corporate sponsorships or snubs... we're talking about sad fans, Florida women and butt drugs... welcome to OBB Benched!

474 opens with the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce wedding chaos, including Charles Barkley explaining, better than anyone possibly could, why he skipped it to go play golf instead.

From there it's an extended tour through Ro's empty-house bachelor diet — cottage cheese, arugula, monk fruit, and a Ninja CREAMi doing more work than it should. The guys rank ice cream flavors, discover Culver's, argue about Frostys, and somehow st...

Football season is officially in the on-deck circle. Ro, Jenners, Scoop, and Toast open up 473 with ACC Media Kickoff a week away and a full slate of Miami news to get through — but before any of that, Ro shares something personal: the story of his daughter Natalia's comeback from ACL surgery, from the stage in Orlando where she got hurt to the same stage a year later, where she came back and reclaimed it. It's a rare unguarded moment for the show, and it hits.

From there it's back to business as usual down at...

Instead of Notre Dame delusions, video game rankings or recruiting... we're talking about Giannis, Russini, bees, body parts and pickleball fights... welcome to OBB Benched!

The guys kick things off debating which South Florida acquisition is bigger right now — Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Heat or Brady Tkachuk to the Panthers. The answer might surprise you, because the Panthers argument is pretty airtight. Three trips to the Cup, a roster full of guys still in their mid-to-late 20s, and now reports of the Panthers potentially landing Connor Hellebuyck from Winnipeg. If that trade happens, Toast ma...

Scoop is back from his real estate tour of the Northeast, and the Field of Dreams story alone is worth the price of admission. He rented the house — the actual house — turned the lights on at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, and yes, the old box TV with the flashing 12 clock is still in there. He also swung through Mystic, Watch Hill, Newport, and Nantucket, and came home with two strong opinions: Nantucket is everything, and New Haven pizza is a crime against food.

But this is still a Miami Hurricanes football show...

Instead of preseason accolades, culture changes and QB controversies... we're talking about choke jobs, foreigners and diabolical Florida women. Welcome to OBB Benched!

The episode kicks off with a proper argument for the greatest choke job in professional sports history — and no, it's not the 2016 Warriors (although somebody does bring up the 2004 Yankees). The San Antonio Spurs led for 72% of the NBA Finals, blew double-digit leads in all four losses, and somehow handed the New York Knicks their first championship in decades. Wembanyama takes some heat too — though the guys are pretty clear he's gonn...

The boys are back and this time they brought John Michaels in from Atlanta. No Scoop, but honestly? The energy did not miss.

The episode kicks off with audio from UM President Joe Echevarria dropping what might be the boldest public statement a Miami administrator has ever made. This isn't your standard boilerplate university-speak — the man went on the record about college football's broken guardrail situation, basically told the ACC they're temporary, and said flat out that Miami is playing for the NEXT TV contract. Not the one they're in. The next one. Big Ten, SEC...

Instead of gambling QBs, recruitment culture or FSU failures... we're talking about nuts, taller boys, cyclists and spankings... welcome to OBB Benched!

Tom Brady launched a coconut water brand called Good Nut, and the boys are not buying the bit. Peyton Manning could pull this off. Brady cannot. That's settled law.

Coors Light dropped a taller boy — literally three cans in one — for the World Cup. The guys love the concept and immediately talk themselves out of it because by the time you get to the third beer in that...

Scoop's somewhere out there gallivanting the globe again, so it's Toast and Ro holding it down from the Gables. And there's no shortage of material this week.

The boys open with the Brendan Sorsby situation at Texas Tech — a retired judge dusted off from mothballs ruled that a QB who literally bet on his own games should suffer no consequences because, hey, he needs the camaraderie. The NCAA, an organization that spent decades barking like a Doberman, turns out to have no teeth. Or dentures, if you will. Pete Rose did the same thing an...

Instead of video game covers, saving college sports or recruiting dominance... we're talking fanson the court, ass slaps, horrific drivers, insane neighbors and unjust arrests. Welcome to OBB Benched!

The guys open on Game 1 of the NBA Finals and the fan who rushed the court to get a selfie with Victor Wembanyama — and got banned from every arena in the league for life without even getting the picture. This somehow becomes a debate about tiered punishments for court invasions and whether facial recognition will actually stop him from sneaking back in.

Nick Saban showed up to Congress, FSU's recruiting class lost its last blue chip to Wisconsin, and Miami just ripped another five-star out of Lane Kiffin's hands. Episode 465 of Orange Bowl Boys does not slow down for anybody.

The boys open with a charity ad parody so good they play it twice — Florida State football, starring a walk-on long snapper named Chad and a kicker who's only there for the meal plan. For just 60 cents a day, you can help.

From there it's all Miami. Malachi Toney just became th...

Instead of QB rankings, watchlists or Lane Kiffin's BS ... we're talking about hot mics, sex tapes, hidden liquor and homoerotic tooth brushing habits... welcome to OBB Benched!

The show kicks off with a pair of wild hot mic moments from the college sports world. First, LSU pitcher Devin Sheeran (yes, Ed's brother) gets flagged by the ESPN broadcast crew for his colorful vocabulary during a game. Then things escalate when a mystery voice during a Nebraska–Oklahoma State women's softball broadcast drops a phrase that no one can explain, no one can identify, and no...