In other ACC news, Miami’s season continues to go downhill as its free-fall continued on Saturday, getting blown out at home to Duke.
The Miami football program started the season ranked No. 16 and moved as far up as No. 13 in the country before watching its season unravel in front of them.
Miami is now sitting at 3-4 and coming off of a 45-21 blowout loss at home to Duke in which the Blue Devils scored 28 unanswered points in the second half.
The 28 unanswered points weren’t even the entire story, however. The Hurricanes also gave up the ball eight times — three interceptions and five lost fumbles.
So, what’s next for Miami?
It’s just the first season for head coach Mario Cristobal, but this is not the way anyone thought or expected the season to go.
There are still five chances for Miami to get two wins and get back to a bowl game, but with the inconsistencies for the Hurricanes all year, that’s not a sure thing at this point.
This performance wasn’t the first time a ‘quitting’ Miami team to the field this season. And that was part of the message Cristobal had postgame.
“You either fix it or you get people that care and play as hard as you are supposed to as a Miami Hurricane. I don’t think it is magical. I also don’t think it is appropriate to say somebody didn’t play as hard because other teams make plays too. You have to look at the tape and thoroughly assess it because there is nothing worse than saying somebody didn’t play hard when they played hard. Most importantly, above all the things, is when you go through something like this and you are rebuilding a program and you get hit in the face like this, that you have to be tough enough to get together and go to work. It doesn’t magically get better. That is the focus.”
Miami faces Virginia on the road next week and will look to get back on track. But until then, it looks like another subpar season for the Hurricanes that is becoming all too consistent over the last decade.
