Calvin Johnson Was the Last Receiver to Win ACC Offensive Player of the Year. Malachi Toney Might Be Next.

Miami football has not won an ACC championship. Not once since joining the league more than 20 years ago. The Hurricanes haven’t even played for one since 2017. That is a weird stat for a program with five national titles and a roster that keeps getting better on paper.

Malachi Toney might be the guy who changes that. The true freshman turned heads last season, and the USA Today Network just picked him as the ACC Offensive Player of the Year in a preseason poll. That is a big deal for a wide receiver. Quarterbacks have owned that award since 2020 — Haynes King, Cam Ward, Jordan Travis, Drake Maye, Kenny Pickett, Trevor Lawrence. You get the idea.

The last non-QB to win it was Calvin Johnson. That was 2006. Johnson was a generational freak at Georgia Tech, and voters still took 19 years to hand the honor to another pass-catcher. Toney has a shot at being that guy.

What Toney Did as a Freshman

He caught 109 balls for 1,211 yards and 10 touchdowns in the 2025-26 season. He also ran it 23 times for 113 yards and another score. The kid out of Liberty City, Florida was the ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year. He made Second-Team All-ACC. None of that happened by accident.

Carson Beck leaned on him heavily last year. Now Darian Mensah is the quarterback after transferring in from Duke, where he led the Blue Devils to a surprise ACC title run. Mensah is not a proven star yet, but he does not need to be. Toney is the engine. USA Today basically said as much, calling him the offensive heart of the team and the conference.

The Broader Picture for Miami

The Hurricanes went 23-6 over the last two seasons and finished as the national runner-up. But they still have not cracked the ACC. That gap is weird. The roster is loaded, the recruiting has been strong, and Mario Cristobal has the program pointed upward. But trophies matter. Conference titles matter. Toney gives them a legitimate shot.

(Also worth noting: the transfer portal worked out for Miami here. Toney originally committed to Duke, then flipped to the Canes. That decision looks better every day.)

Mensah should put up numbers with Toney on the outside. Beck and Ward both did. The system works. The question is whether Toney can stay healthy and keep producing at the level that forces voters to ignore the quarterback bias. Calvin Johnson did it. Toney has the tape to follow that path. Argue if you want. The poll results speak for themselves.