After beating Florida State, Miami looks like nation's most complete team, but that's not the story. The cakewalk to the College Football Playoff is.
We’re missing the point here, focusing on an argument that eventually works itself out.
Miami looks like the most complete team in college football after Saturday night’s 28-22 road thumping of rival Florida State. But that’s not the story.
It’s time to face forward, and embrace reality.
While the rest of the nation will be trudging through the demolition derby of a College Football Playoff race, Miami will have the easiest road to the national championship game.
And by easy, I mean cakewalk.
So as impressive as the Hurricanes were in a hostile environment in Tallahassee, as good as quarterback Carson Beck played, as much as this team looks and plays like the Miami of old that dominated the sport more than two decades ago, that’s not the takeaway.
The best team in the nation has the clearest path to the biggest game of all — that just so happens to be played in its backyard.
Because by winning the ACC and staying unbeaten – with or without an unbeaten Big Ten champion – Miami will finish no worse than No. 2 in the final College Football Playoff ranking.
That means the Hurricanes will earn a first-round bye and be placed in the Orange Bowl quarterfinal game, where they play their home games at Hard Rock Stadium. Wait, it gets better.
Two wins later, Miami could be playing again in Hard Rock Stadium, the site for this year’s national championship game.
Not a bad gig for a team that has eight home games this season, won’t leave the state of Florida for any game until the first week of November, and doesn’t have a remaining game against a team that’s currently ranked.
Other than that, how does the road to the national championship game look?
Now that we’ve got that cleared up, there’s a little matter about the rest of the nation dealing with what Canes coach Mario Cristobal has built in Coral Gables.
Pick a national title team at Miami, they all look the same. Lines of scrimmage that are large, strong and physical, and skill players that are dynamic and dangerous.
Defensive lines that can affect the quarterback with four linemen, and allow the back seven to cover. Think Georgia in 2021-22, when the Bulldogs stopped the run, played with two high safeties and dared you to throw the ball.
It didn’t work for just about everyone against Georgia over those two dominating seasons, and that same formula is going to cause a lot of problems for anyone in Miami’s way. It may take a series or two for the Miami defense to figure it out, but when it arrives, it’s devastating.
On Saturday night, Florida State rolled down the field on the first drive of the game, and was stopped inside the 10 and forced to kick a field goal. From that moment on, the Noles drive chart looked like this:
Punt, interception, punt, fumble, punt, interception, punt. Hopes of an upset? Dead.
By the time those seven series ended, Miami had a 28-3 lead late in the third quarter. Beck was in the middle of his best game at Miami, and the visceral visual for the rest of the nation was complete.
But while the SEC continues to eat itself alive, and the Big Ten looks more and more like a three-team conference, and the Big 12 could have the most entertaining remaining two months of the season, Miami must figure out how to stay relevant for the CFP selection committee.
How to stay zeroed in and focused and playing with an edge for the next seven gimme putts: Louisville, Stanford, at SMU, Syracuse, North Carolina State, at Virginia Tech, at Pitt.
Woof.
This isn’t the same Miami team from 2024, which began the season with nine wins before losing two of three (to Georgia Tech and Syracuse) to eliminate their playoff dreams. Then, for good measure, blew a halftime lead to Iowa State in a meaningless bowl game — and lost that one, too.
Miami spent three years growing and developing the lines of scrimmage, and finding electric playmakers (Malachi Toney, CJ Daniels) at wide receiver and a big back (Mark Fletcher Jr.) to push the pile. The Canes added another elite quarterback from the transfer portal, and they’re playing at a high level not seen at the program since the early 2000s.
Now add the cakewalk to the equation.
See you in Hard Rock Stadium in late January, Canes.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Miami clears last College Football Playoff hurdle at Florida State
Category: General Sports
