Truth be told, who is playing like the top flight team in the land?
Florida? Hardly. You can’t bump your gums about how Tennessee is going to get rolled… only to deliver a lackluster performance, while complaining afterwards that your boys had the sniffles.
Southern Cal? Upended at Washington. Next.
Ohio State? Same ol’, same ol’. Beat up the nobodies and fall to any quality opponent – home or away.
Texas? Too early to tell, but a dogfight with an unranked Texas Tech team didn’t help their cause.
Alabama? Definitely up there after a win over Virginia Tech, but wins over Florida International and North Texas don’t really mean much.
Ole Miss? Penn State? Cal? LSU? Undefeated, but also lacking quality wins… which brings you to Miami.
In today’s Forde Yard Dash on ESPN.com, columnist Pat Forde ranked Miami No. 1 in his ‘power rankings’, sating:
“The Dash sent in the weekly ESPN.com power rankings with Miami ranked No. 1. This was not caused by drinking turpentine while filling out the Top 25, or by losing a bet with Melvin Bratton. It was caused by using results-based appraisals instead of being influenced by August guesswork or rigid adherence to a slot-voting mentality.
The Dash went with the Hurricanes because they’ve done the best work to date in this young season, beating two ranked opponents.”
Of course some of Forde’s counterparts didn’t feel the same – Tim Griffin (Big XII Blogger), Chris Low (SEC Blogger) and Ivan Maisel (ESPN.com Senior Writer) all kept Florida at No. 1 and had Miami 11th, 9th and 11th, respectively.
Forde hits the nail on the head, reminding folks that ESPN.com power rankings are “truly for entertainment purposes only”. A nice disclaimer, giving him a reason to get some site traffic with his over the top prediction.
Miami isn’t the top-flight team in the country (…yet), but it’s nice to see the Canes garner some early respect after taking n Florida State and Georgia Tech back-to-back weeks. Of course the proof will be in Virginia Tech and Oklahoma. Win those two and even Forde’s counterparts have to come around.
comments
The constant re-litigating of the winning-cures-all-while-losing-exposes-warts sentiment rolls on as Miami faithful continue flailing in…
Josh Pate gets it... and I'm not just saying that because he dedicated an entire…
Tyler Van Dyke may very well have thrown his last meaningful pass for the Miami…
We can debate the merits of winning-curing-all and losses-killing-perspective at another time. For now, focus…
Winning might not cure everything, but it certainly can shift a narrative overnight—immediately lightening…
The only remedy for a gut-wrenching loss to Georgia Tech would've been the Miami Hurricanes…
View Comments
Good article, while it's great to finally get respect, I am getting a little anxious about receiving so many accolades so early. I am positive Shannon will keep these boys' heads grounded and egos in check, but I am getting a little superstitious about all the praise we are getting. I feel its too much too soon, we still have two more big games left and do not need any distractions as these will undoubtedly be our biggest tests. Let's be honest here, Shannon will do his best to keep the team level headed, but these are young kids receiving national praise and media attention(their egos will still inflate) dammit i hope this isnt a jinx. Two more major games to go, LET'S GO CANES.
finally the Canes getting the credit they deserve!!
Where's the ESPN bias?
I think in the beginning of the season the polls should be more fluid than they tend to be, overall. The preseason rankings aren't really based on any facts, merely assumptions. The U deserves to be ranked where they are right now based on who they have played and beaten, so I do give the pollsters more credit than usual. At the same time, how are teams like Penn State and Ole Miss ranked where they are, and based on what? Yes, The Rebels beat UF last year, but who have they played so far and have they looked impressive? Penn State was blown out by USC last year, eeked by OSU, and so far has only played Directional Community College X. It's laughable that they are Top 5, but these are just examples of what I think are pretty random rankings of many teams. It's basically based on last year and who's coming back, but it should be more on the field performance. With Miami's schedule, The U deserves every accolade they get.
-Columbus Cane
the same pat forde who jumped all over miami for the 7th floor crew song... making the canes #1 in his poll.. OKAY!
Some say Miami is ranked too high, others want miami to be in the same talk with the other undefeated teams.
Hey, i guess only MATH can solve this one out.. hooray for the BCS poll
Part of this is sudden ESPN love is a realization that The U is better than they expected this year. However, I think a bigger part of it is the need to sell a story. People don't want to read another regurgitation of Tebow, McCoy, and Clausen. So we're a convenient, fresh story for them to get people clicking on their pages. Forde may not even believe what he wrote, but he probably got a whole lot of clicks today because of the headline. The 'Canes just have to back it all up now.
I agree completely with ATL CANE FAN, feeling really wierd heading up to blacksburg this weekend and hope its not to much. but seeing the interview with J12 today gave some reassurance that these canes are levelheaded and on a mission. check out the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfCtE-0l5qA
TO BE HONEST I'M NOT FEELING THE LOVE ESPN IS SUDDENLY GIVING TO THE U FOR THE PAST FEW SEASONS THEY SHOWED US AGAINST TEAMS GETTING SCORED ON LIKE WE WERE THE WORST SQUAD IN FOOTBALL NOW EVERYBODYS ON OUR JOCK I FEEL THAT OUTSIDE OF KURT HERBSTREET & DESMOND HOWARD NOBODY THOUGHT WE WOULD BE ANYWHERE NEAR THE TOP 25 LET ALONE THE TOP 10 ESPN GET OFF THE BANDWAGON!!KEEP HATIN ON US!!
Also keep in mind UM is halfway thru the 4 game stretch, and they have not looked bad in both games. The Media sees that Miami is getting better every week. At the rate they are playing, J12 will have his way with teams from week 5 until!
There is not ONE team on their schedule that looks like they can match them point for point! UNC may have a good defense, but their offense cannot match the effort, but on the otherside, UM's D has the ability to match the O!
As long as they can out score you, and you have to play catch up, it's lights out!
What offense scares you right now? NONE! The talent level starts to go downhill after the OU game, and thats what the Media is looking at right now!
Canes fans, enjoy the ride, because next season, we get allllll the horses at home, and becasue of the effort this year, we will have bodies in the seats!!!
Go []_[]!!!
Miami will lose to VT...