UM falls to No. 7
Clemson, UM’s foe in ACC title game Saturday, is No. 1.
CORAL GABLES — It came as no surprise that the Miami Hurricanes dropped outside the top four Tuesday in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
Miami, No. 2 before getting upset, 24-14, in a disappointing performance at Pittsburgh that prevented the Hurricanes from finishing the regular season undefeated, fell all the way to No. 7.
But that was of little consequence to the 10-1 ’Canes, who know they can still get into the postseason tournament with a win against Clemson (11-1) in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game on Saturday at Charlotte, N.C.
Clemson, the defending national champion, ascended to the top spot with previous No. 1 Alabama also losing last week.
Auburn (10-2), with wins over Alabama and Georgia, which also held the top spot at the time, moved up to No. 2. Oklahoma (11-1) was No. 3 and Wisconsin (12-0) was No. 4.
Alabama (11-1) dropped to fifth and Georgia (11-1) was sixth.
“I think whoever wins the ACC, this year in particular, ought to be in,” UM coach Mark Richt said following practice Tuesday.
That will likely be the case, but the Hurricanes will have to summon a much better effort than they gave against Pittsburgh to knock off a very talented, deep and experi-
enced Clemson team.
If unable to accomplish that, Miami will likely be headed to the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30 at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Orange Bowl must take the next-highest ranked available ACC team in the final pre-bowl CFP rankings, and even at 10-2 the ’Canes should remain higher in the poll than other conference teams.
The CFP semifinalists and bowl matchups will be announced Sunday.
The No. 2 ranking they held last week was the highest ever for the Hurricanes, who had never appeared in the top 10 of the College Football Playoff rankings until this season.
Hurricanes players have been saying for several weeks that they aren’t concerning themselves with the polls but rather the next game. Unfortunately, they didn’t focus enough on beating an unranked Pittsburgh team, and the loss left them with an uphill climb back into playoff position.
Now all that matters for Miami is putting together the sort of effort that sent them to convincing wins in back-to-back weeks against Virginia Tech and Notre Dame. Then they can hope it was good enough to boost them back into the top four.
“That’s politics. We just go out there and win. As long as we win we’ll probably be there,” said defensive lineman Chad Thomas.
Meanwhile, they are also playing with a chip on their shoulder as they have for much of the season due to a perceived lack of respect nationally.
“Of course. When you fall one time they like to say everything is a fraud. So we definitely feel that disrespect. I don’t even look at the polls. It’s a bad taste in our mouths,” linebacker Shaquille Quarterman said.
“This week they were clear cut in the top four teams in the country with the selection committee’s discussion,” said Kirby Hocutt, chairman of the selection committee.
But he pointed out that this weekend’s conference championship games will figure prominently in the final selection of the four semifinal teams, based on the protocol the committee has been given to work with.
“They’ve given us with great flexibility with their charge with finding the four very best teams in college football for inclusion in the semifinals,” Hocutt said. “When we look at comparable teams, conference championships will be a factor in that equation for separation.”
Meanwhile, Miami did receive a notable accolade Tuesday when Richt was named ACC Coach of the Year.
Richt, in his second season at Miami, received 41 of 59 votes in the balloting that included the 14 coaches in the conference and 45 media members. He is the first UM coach to win the award.
Dabo Swinney of Clemson was second with 10 votes, followed by Steve Addazio of Boston College (5), Bronco Mendenhall of Virginia (2) and Dave Clawson of Wake Forest (1) also received votes.
Miami’s 10 wins this season are the most for the program since 2003, and the Hurricanes’ seven league wins are their most since joining the ACC in 2004.
Nonetheless, the Hurricanes had only kicker Michael Badgley named to the All-ACC this week despite going 7-1 in the conference and winning the Coastal Division. They had six selections on the second team.