Hurricanes have struggled lately after bye weeks. Will that change when UM faces Louisville?

The No. 6 Miami Hurricanes are fresh of their bye week. They had an extra week to recover and an extra week to prepare for their latest test — a Saturday noon game at the Louisville Cardinals — as they attempt to keep their perfect season alive.

Normally, that should be a good thing. The rare chance for extended rest is usually welcomed.

But the game after a bye week hasn’t been kind to the Hurricanes in recent history.

Miami has lost both of its post-bye week games under coach Mario Cristobal, three in a row and seven of their past eight dating to the 2018 season. Of those eight games, six — including the one win, a 44-41 victory over N.C. State in 2020 — have been decided by one score.

So if the Hurricanes (6-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) want to keep this strong start to the season afloat, getting past this test will be their next major hurdle.

“We’ve been very successful at previous stops. At Miami, our last two years, we have not after bye weeks,” Cristobal said Monday. “And it’s 1,000 percent related to the level and urgency of practice and preparation. ... There’s no hocus pocus to it. You got to get right to what needs to be done to have success on Saturday.”

Louisville is 4-2 on the season and 2-1 in conference play. Its two losses are both against ranked teams — 31-24 to Notre Dame and 34-27 to SMU — with both games coming down to the fourth quarter.

The Cardinals rank in the top 25 offensively in total offense (461.8 yards per game, 21st nationally) and scoring (36.2 points per game, 22nd nationally) while giving up an average of just 19.7 points per game.

Miami is listed as a four-point road favorite but aren’t overlooking the Cardinals, especially since Miami barely escaped its first two conference games.

Early struggles by the defense and slow starts by the offense put Miami in a hole against both the Virginia Tech Hokies and Cal Golden Bears. UM found ways to complete the comebacks in consecutive weeks but know they need to get off to better starts moving forward so they’re not relying too heavily on fourth-quarter magic.

“There’s always room for improvement,” linebacker Francisco Mauigoa said. “We’re always working toward perfecting our craft. We’re always working towards being the best version of ourselves. So there’s still a lot of things that we need to prove and things that we need to work on, such as getting our reads right, blitzes, pass rush and tackling — mostly tackling — so emphasizing all those things throughout practices is a key point of to get success.”

Cornerback Daryl Porter Jr. also pointed out another facet of the defense’s game that needs to be remedied.

“Playing together,” he said. “I feel like we were taking taking a step away from that from the previous games. I feel like a couple dudes just wanted to make those splash plays. When we’re playing together, it’s really hard to beat us.”

As for the offense, which leads the nation in yards per game (583.8) and scoring (47.7 points per game), the focus is on consistency and not leaving plays on the field.

“We have to continue to play together every play,” quarterback Cam Ward said. “We can’t play together one play and not play together the next play. We’ve got to continue to play for each other, with each other. The more we can do that, especially now in the second half of the season, I think our offense should take another step.”

And Miami needs that to happen because of how open the conference is halfway through the season. With the ACC expanded to 17 teams, there are more contenders to reach the conference championship game.

Four teams enter the week with a perfect record in conference play. Clemson is 4-0, while Miami, Pittsburgh and SMU are all 2-0. Even more, Clemson, Miami and SMU do not play each other — Pittsburgh does play Clemson and SMU.

Syracuse, Louisville and Virginia are each 2-1.

The race to be one of the top two teams in the conference is still wide open, and there’s a month and a half of the season to see how the standings will shake out.

For the Hurricanes, that second-half push starts Saturday against Louisville.

“There’s a lot at stake on every game,” Cristobal said. “Every game [left on the schedule] is a conference game. Every single conference game is a playoff game. Everybody’s involved in playoff football right now. Everybody’s alive. And because of that, you have to be at your very best, and you have to understand you’re playing against very, very good players. So I think this group understands that much better than we have in the past.”