Miami (OH) is coming off back-to-back MAC title-game runs. Holy Cross is coming off a season that ended six straight Patriot League crowns. This one has blowout written all over it.
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HCM-OH
HCM-OH
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Best BetMiami (OH)
Miami's roster is simply built for a different level of competition, and even with 28 seniors gone off last year's MAC title-game team, the returning offensive line and a proven FCS transfer back in Rodney Nelson give the RedHawks more than enough to win comfortably. Holy Cross enters off a 3-9 season that ended a run of six straight Patriot League titles, and the class jump alone makes this a lopsided outright projection. Backing the home side here is close to automatic.
Holy Cross
+won a share of Patriot League title in 2024
+opens season vs defending co-champ Lehigh for reps
−finished 3-9, 6th in Patriot League last season
−massive class jump facing an FBS MAC title-game team
Miami (OH)
+three straight MAC Championship Game appearances
+four returning O-line starters plus RB Rodney Nelson
−lost 28 seniors off last year's title-game roster
−new OC Gus Ragland installing a new offense
Chuck Martin has taken the RedHawks to the MAC Championship Game three years running, and this Saturday, September 12 matchup at home against an FCS opponent is the kind of tune-up designed to keep that streak alive. Miami is still working in a new-look offense under first-year coordinator Gus Ragland, a former RedHawks QB himself, so an early-season game against a lesser opponent is exactly the low-stakes rep this roster needs before conference play ramps up.
The RedHawks lost 28 seniors off last year's title-game team, which is a real hole to fill, but the pieces still on hand are notable. Four starters return up front on the offensive line, and Thomas Gotkowski steps in at QB after being part of that MAC Championship run a season ago. Miami also added Rodney Nelson, who ran roughest over the CAA and the rest of FCS at Monmouth, giving this backfield a proven bell-cow the moment he needs run-heavy snaps against a lower level of competition.
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HC Holy Cross
M-OH Miami (OH)
Holy Cross, meanwhile, is trying to find its footing again. The Crusaders were a Patriot League fixture for the better part of a decade before finishing 3-9 and 6th in the league last fall, a stunning fall for a program that had won a share of the title the year before. Second-year coach Dan Curran opens 2026 at home against defending co-champ Lehigh before this trip to Oxford, so this is very much a program still trying to prove last season was the outlier and not the new normal.
Holy Cross Crusaders
Miami (OH) RedHawks
Sep 5?@ Pittsburgh—
Recent form.
The class gap here is the whole story. An FBS program with MAC title-game pedigree hosting an FCS team that just posted its worst season in years is about as lopsided a résumé matchup as you'll find on a Week 2 slate. Miami's staff has every incentive to get its new pieces — Gotkowski at QB, Nelson in the backfield, a retooled Ragland offense — comfortable in live reps before facing Cincinnati and Connecticut later in September.
Holy Cross Crusaders
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Miami (OH) RedHawks
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
None of that guarantees style points. Miami has a roster to develop and a coaching staff that would rather build good habits than run up the score, so how the RedHawks manage the game once it's decided will say plenty about their priorities heading into the meat of the schedule. For Holy Cross, simply competing for a half and avoiding the kind of breakdowns that plagued a 3-9 season would be its own kind of progress.
