Hurricanes position preview: What do Malachi Toney, receivers have in store in 2026?
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Spring football is in the rearview mirror, and the Hurricanes’ season opener against Stanford is still nearly three months away, but Miami’s roster is set for the upcoming season.
The Hurricanes are coming off their best season in decades, going 10-2 in the regular season before winning three College Football Playoff games and reaching their first national championship game since the 2002 season.
Expectations are high for the 2026 season, and we will take a look at each of Miami’s position groups in the lead-up to the campaign.
Last week, we previewed Miami’s quarterbacks and running backs. This week, we start off looking at the wide receivers.
Who left
Miami lost some of its most productive wide receivers from last season.
Seniors CJ Daniels and Keelan Marion both departed for the NFL. Daniels went to the Rams in the sixth round of the NFL draft, while Marion signed with the Falcons as an undrafted free agent.
Daniels was a key receiver for last year’s team after transferring from LSU. He made a crucial touchdown catch in UM’s key win over Notre Dame, and he ended his one season at Miami with 557 receiving yards and seven touchdown catches.
Marion also provided a spark for the Hurricanes. After transferring from BYU, Marion finished second on the team with 746 receiving yards and caught two touchdowns.
UM also lost veteran slot receiver Tony Johnson, who has not signed with an NFL team.
Ny Carr, Jojo Trader, Ray Ray Joseph and Chance Robinson all left Miami to enter the transfer portal. All four were four-star prospects, but most of them did not get significant playing time at UM.
Trader played the most of those four last season, getting 223 offensive snaps. The Chaminade-Madonna alum had 13 catches for 178 yards and one touchdown. He transferred to N.C. State, joining former Chaminade teammate and quarterback CJ Bailey.
Joseph, a Miami Edison alum, played 42 snaps last year after playing 135 snaps over his first two years at Miami. He had two catches for 25 yards. Joseph transferred to East Carolina along with former Miami quarterback Emory Williams.
Carr and Robinson played 20 and 12 snaps, respectively. Carr, who had three catches for 45 yards, transferred to Wake Forest while Robinson, a St. Thomas Aquinas alum, had no catches last season and transferred to N.C. State.
Who returns
Miami brings back one of the most exciting players in college football: Malachi Toney.
The sophomore out of American Heritage made his mark on the Hurricanes immediately as a freshman, and he went on to have arguably the best season of any UM freshman in program history.
Toney racked up 1,211 receiving yards on 109 catches, setting program single-season records in both categories. He caught 10 touchdowns. Pro Football Focus gave Toney an 88.5 receiving grade, which was fifth in the nation among receivers with 50 or more targets.
Toney was dynamic in multiple aspects, rushing for 113 yards and a touchdown and passing for 82 yards and two scores.
Toney, the College Football 27 cover star, was a second-team All-American, a first-team All-ACC pick and the conference rookie of the year.
The Hurricanes return a pair of up-and-coming receivers who could play a bigger role this year: Josh Moore and Daylyn Upshaw.
Both receivers, who are sophomores like Toney, got on the field last year. Moore played 264 offensive snaps and made 17 catches for 210 yards and two touchdowns. Upshaw played 120 snaps and had seven catches for 105 yards.
Moore, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound West Broward alum, showed promise in spring camp.
“We’re counting on him,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said during spring camp. “…. We’ve always felt, all since the day we recruited him, that he was going to be and is going to be a big-time player here.”
Upshaw said he is working to build on the solid performance he had in limited playing time last year.
“I just want to be the best player that I can be,” Upshaw said in April. “If that’s me going for 500 yards and five touchdowns, if that’s me going for 1,000 yards — I just want to be the best person I can be.”
Who arrived
The Hurricanes added several high-level wide receivers in the offseason through the transfer portal and in their 2026 high school recruiting class.
When quarterback Darian Mensah transferred to Miami, Duke star receiver Cooper Barkate followed suit. The former Harvard and Blue Devils standout is coming off a breakout season where he had 1,106 receiving yards and seven touchdowns on 72 catches. He was a second-team All-ACC selection last year.
Barkate will be a key target for Mensah this year.
“There’s definitely some step-ups at a place like this, but I’m grateful for my time at Duke and everything it gave me,” Barkate said in April. “But I’m glad to be here and excited about the future and focus on this year.”
Barkate was one of three transfer wide receivers UM added this offseason. The Hurricanes also brought in Vandrevius Jacobs from South Carolina and Cam Vaughn from West Virginia.
With the Gamecocks last season, Jacobs had 32 catches for 548 yards and four touchdowns. Jacobs, who is listed at 6-foot and 195 pounds, earned a 67.5 receiving grade from Pro Football Focus. He provides a potential deep-ball threat for Miami’s offense.
Vaughn had 35 catches for 541 yards and four touchdowns with the Mountaineers in 2025. Pro Football Focus gave him a 66.6 receiving grade.
The Hurricanes also signed four wide receivers in their high school recruiting class: Tyran Evans, Milan Parris, Vance Spafford and Somourian Wingo. Parris, Spafford and Wingo were four-star prospects, while Evans was a three-star prospect.
Although Miami has several older receivers who are poised to start, the UM staff has shown it will not hesitate to insert freshman receivers into the lineup. Wingo, in particular, had a strong spring.
“He’s been a playmaker,” wide receivers coach Kevin Beard said. “I always use a phrase: You have to make yourself undeniable. So you have to make the coaches say, ‘That guy needs to play. We need to find a way to get him on the field.’
“And he’s building that resume for himself. And he just has to continue to keep that chip on his shoulder and stay humble and keep grinding, and he’s helping himself.”
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