Miami to lose star WR Malachi Toney to ankle surgery ahead of Notre Dame trip
Miami receiver Malachi Toney will have surgery on a high ankle sprain, ruling him out at Notre Dame and putting his playoff availability in question.
Miami will play its biggest game of the season without its best playmaker. Sophomore wide receiver Malachi Toney has a high ankle sprain and will have surgery, sources told Pete Thamel of ESPN. He will miss Saturday's trip to No. 11 Notre Dame and more games after that.
The school said in a statement that Toney was hurt during Wednesday's practice. ESPN reported that recovery from a high ankle sprain usually takes at least four weeks. The first round of the College Football Playoff is six weeks away, so his return before the postseason is possible but far from certain. Miami is No. 1 in the first CFP rankings and has a lot of football left to play before that.
Toney had become one of the faces of the season. The 5-foot-11, 188-pound sophomore has 73 catches, the most of any Power 4 receiver, for 1,027 yards and 13 touchdowns. He has gone over 100 all-purpose yards in six of Miami's eight games. ESPN noted that before the injury news, DraftKings listed him fourth in the Heisman Trophy odds at +700. Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith, his own quarterback Darian Mensah and Notre Dame's CJ Carr were ahead of him.
The offense now runs through Mensah, the Duke transfer, and the receivers left behind Toney, mainly Cooper Barkate and Daylyn Upshaw. Miami has scored at least 33 points in every game. Its 47.6-point average leads the country, so the attack has more than one weapon. Still, no other Hurricane has handled the ball the way Toney has, and Miami now has to find those touches somewhere else in the toughest road game on its schedule.
What it means for Notre Dame
Miami is 8-0 and has looked overwhelming at times. It won 77-7 against Florida A&M, 52-3 against Central Michigan and 41-13 at Clemson. The past three weeks have been tighter. Miami beat Florida State 43-35 and Pittsburgh 52-23, then needed everything to win 38-35 at North Carolina last Saturday. Over those three games the defense allowed 31 points per game. Through the first five it had allowed fewer than 10. Playing in South Bend without Toney leaves the offense less room to win another shootout.
The market already had Miami as the underdog. On this site's Miami at Notre Dame board, which covers 12 venues, Notre Dame is favored at -270 on the moneyline at Novig, with Miami at +264. Notre Dame is favored by 7.5 points at Novig, priced at +111. The best Irish number anywhere is a 7-point spread at -116 at Pinnacle. For Miami, Novig offers +7.5 at -117, and theScore Bet has the same 7.5 points at -110, the best price on the board. Novig's total is 55.5, with the over at -100. TheScore Bet lists 54.5. Sportsbook hold on the spread runs from 3.5% to 6.7%, so prices for the same game vary a lot from venue to venue. The board refreshes about every ten minutes, so watch whether the Toney news moves the spread past a touchdown.
The game kicks off Saturday on NBC.
