The No. 4 Miami Hurricanes host the Florida Gators on Saturday night in a matchup between two programs heading in very different directions.

Miami is unbeaten, ranked in the top 5, and received first-place votes in the AP poll for the first time in eight years. It also has a Heisman Trophy candidate in Carson Beck and is coming off its biggest win over a ranked opponent since 2001.

On the other side of the field is the struggling 1-2 unranked Gators, who are facing a top-5 team for the second time in as many weeks.

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But don’t tell Canes coach Mario Cristobal about the Gators’ issues. He’s directing his team to show all the “respect” to their opponent this week.

“The part that has to be respected most is their talent level,” Cristobal said. “Their coaching, their size, speed, physicality. Schematically, they’re very challenging in a lot of different ways. They’ve been playing elite defense for several games dating back to last season, and offensively, they’ve been very close on several occasions to having some great performances.”

Even after the Hurricanes rolled the Gators in Gainesville last season, 41-17, Miami does not expect this one to go the same way.

Florida hopes to avoid its first 0-3 start since 1986. That would make coach Billy Napier’s already scorching seat even hotter on Sunday. Napier is 20-21 overall at Florida and is just 4-15 against ranked opponents. When those games are away from Gainesville, he’s 0-12.

“I think that they’re a group that knows how they’re that close,” Napier said. “All parts of our team have to go play at a high level, given who we’re playing. … A lot of our guys are doing a heck of a job. So, yeah, we’re close to being pretty dangerous, in my opinion.”

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This is the 35th season that Florida, Florida State and Miami all play each other in the same year. But it could be the last for a while as the Hurricanes and Gators have no other meetings on the calendar.

“The state championship is always going to be one of the highest goals that we have,” Cristobal said. “These guys play against each other. The fan bases, alumni bases, they’re at it all offseason. There’s deep meaning to it.”

Beck leads the country with a 79.3 completion percentage, while the Gators’ D.J. Lagway is 23rd in the nation at 71 percent. Just 10 FBS quarterbacks have more completions than Lagway heading into Week 4.

Miami leads the all-time series 30-27 and has won eight of the last 10, and this will be just the fourth time in the last 40 years that Florida has played a true road game at Miami.

WHAT: Florida Gators (1-2) at No. 4 Miami Hurricanes (3-0)

WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025 | 7:30 p.m. ET

WHERE: Hard Rock Stadium | Miami Gardens, FL | Capacity 65,326

TV: ABC

GATORS RADIO: WRUF 98.1 FM | 850 AM | 103.7 HD2 ESPN

HURRICANES RADIO: WQAM 104.3 | 560 AM

BETTING ODDS

SPREAD: UF +7.5 (-115) | UM -7.5 (-105)

TOTAL: 51.5 (o EVEN | u -120)

MONEYLINE: UF +250 | UM -300