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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Killing labels and narratives might be the hardest thing to do in sports.

The good news for Mario Cristobal and Carson Beck — even after second-ranked Miami’s bitterly disappointing home loss to Louisville — is that there’s still time and opportunity to change the ones attached to each of them.

Yes, the Hurricanes’ College Football Playoff hopes took a hit, and they’ll now need help to advance to the ACC Championship Game. But Miami is hardly out of the race.

Still, what you’re likely to read on message boards and hear from Miami’s biggest critics is that Beck is the same old interception machine he was last year at Georgia, and that Cristobal can recruit but can’t deliver wins when it matters.

The Hurricanes could end up spiraling. Few could have predicted the turn Penn State’s season took after the second-ranked Nittany Lions lost in overtime at home to Oregon.

But Miami’s coach and quarterback hardly sounded like they were ready to let one bad performance sabotage their season. They know the best thing about the 12-team Playoff is that 12 teams get in — and most do not make it with unblemished records.

Just ask Ohio State, which won last year’s national championship despite losing two games.

The Schnellenberger Trophy is coming home with us #GoCards pic.twitter.com/OmxkvkBxtW

— Louisville Football (@LouisvilleFB) October 18, 2025

“It’s a good thing that we play 12 games and not just one, you know,” Beck said after taking responsibility for his first three interceptions before laying the blame on miscommunication with his intended receiver on the last one.

“This (loss) doesn’t define us. Just because this game went bad, doesn’t throw away the first five games that we had, right? We’ve been very successful this season. Shoot, we laid an egg. That starts with me as a quarterback. As a leader on this team, I have to be more disciplined. I have to prepare better. I have to play better. I’m going to do that. I’m going to come back with fire.”

As bad as Beck and the Canes played Friday, figuring out what Louisville did to accomplish that doesn’t require being a football savant. The Cardinals’ defensive game plan looked a lot like the one Florida State rolled out in its loss to the Canes two weeks ago. They stacked the box to take out Miami’s running game and dared Beck to beat them down the field. What Beck did Friday that he didn’t do against Florida State was take unnecessary shots when he had open receivers available to him underneath zone coverage. Louisville made him pay for taking those chances.

Beck knows it. Cristobal knows it.

They also know an improved Miami running game would help going forward. The Hurricanes have struggled to run the football over the last eight quarters. Miami produced a season-low 63 rushing yards on 24 carries — a 2.6-yard average — against Louisville. Some more creativity from offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, like the end-around that freshman Malachi Toney scored on, could make a difference.

Again, as bad as things were, Miami was 31 yards and 36 seconds away from either scoring the winning points or kicking a game-tying field goal to force overtime. Instead, Beck threw his fourth interception of the night and Miami fell to 5-1.

Credit Louisville. The Canes got smacked in the mouth early and fell behind 14-0. But Rueben Bain, Akheem Mesidor, Keionte Scott and a collection of others still managed to hold Louisville to 3.8 yards per carry and only 24 points. Miami didn’t give up any points off its four turnovers. In the end, it took one of the best play callers in the sport — and an array of plays Jeff Brohm had likely been saving coming off a bye week — for Louisville to pull off the upset.

Can Miami bounce back? Absolutely. Cristobal, though, has to clean up Miami’s penalty situation and rein Beck back in. The veteran quarterback is playing with a lot of emotion coming off his 12-interception season last year at Georgia. He feels like he has a lot to prove.

Maybe, knowing he’s not a strong Heisman contender anymore — and that his draft stock took a huge hit in Friday’s loss — will help get Beck back into the right frame of mind. What would help Beck redeem himself is getting the Hurricanes into the postseason. He can do that by playing clean, turnover-free football the rest of the way. And he’s capable of doing that.

Before Friday, Beck’s record was 29-3 as a starter. He was in the company of Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson and Georgia’s Stetson Bennett when it came to career winning percentage among quarterbacks since 2010.

“I think he’ll respond well,” Cristobal said of his quarterback. “He knows no other way. There is no other choice. When you play really good teams and you’re playing conference football, the margins are really small. One possession games reign supreme at this time of year, and if you give away plays, it’s going to get you. Tonight, it got us. So lessons have to be learned, and we have to go do something about it. Talking about it, ain’t gonna do anything.”

The same goes for the coach.

Cristobal has 22 wins since the start of the 2023 season and has returned the Canes to the national conversation.

Yet, losses like Friday’s quickly feed into the narrative.

Few, though, will be critical of Cristobal or Beck if Miami can finally get over the hump and reach the postseason for the first time in the CFP era.

That would be progress at Miami, and it is still very much attainable.