Win your football game and drop in the rankings.
Welcome to college football.
Miami are now No. 6 in the latest AP Top 25, falling one place despite Friday night’s 33-20 win at Wake Forest moving the Hurricanes to 3-0.
It looks strange at first glance.
But there is not much worth getting worked up about.
No. 6 feels fair enough
Miami’s fall has more to do with what happened around them than anything especially dramatic about their own performance.
Ole Miss produced one of the biggest results of the weekend by beating LSU and moved up to No. 4, while Indiana also jumped Miami after another dominant win.
The Hurricanes, meanwhile, produced a slightly odd night in Winston-Salem.
For more than two quarters, Miami looked every bit like a top-five team.
Darian Mensah completed his first 24 passes.
The Hurricanes raced into a 31-7 lead.
Another comfortable win appeared to be on the way.
Then the offence disappeared.
Wake Forest cut the lead to 31-20 before Miami’s defence took control of the fourth quarter and finished the job.
So No. 6?
Fair enough.
More importantly, it does not really matter.
Miami are 3-0 overall and 2-0 in ACC play, with road wins at Stanford and Wake Forest already secured.
Keep winning and the rankings will sort themselves out.
Central Michigan is about more than style points
Miami’s next assignment should be considerably more straightforward.
The Hurricanes have opened as roughly 40-point favourites against Central Michigan ahead of Saturday’s return to Hard Rock Stadium.
Forty.
That tells you most of what you need to know.
But this should not be about chasing a scoreline because the AP poll moved Miami down one spot.
The priorities are much simpler.
Clean up the offensive issues that appeared late against Wake Forest.
Get the running game established again.
Use the depth.
And, if the game allows it, get the starters off the field.
That final point feels especially important.
Miami came out of Winston-Salem carrying more knocks than they went in with.
CharMar Brown suffered a right knee injury.
Malachi Toney and Mark Fletcher Jr. also required attention.
There is still no confirmed diagnosis or official availability update on those players, so there is no point guessing.
Central Michigan arrives at a useful time.
If Miami have players who are less than fully fit, this is not the week to prove anything by rushing them back.
Get healthy.
Get better.
Get to 4-0.
The Wake Forest lesson still matters
The ranking gives today’s Daily its headline, but the Wake Forest film still gives Miami its most useful lesson.
The Hurricanes do not need to prove they are better than No. 6 this weekend.
They need to prove they learned something.
Can the offence stay aggressive after building a lead?
Can the running game continue progressing?
Can younger players take another step?
And can Miami get through Saturday without adding more names to the injury list?
Do those things and the ranking becomes background noise.
Miami have already done the hard part.
They are unbeaten.
They have two ACC road wins.
And they still control everything that actually matters.
The Last Word from Across the Pond
Dropping from No. 5 to No. 6 after winning looks strange, but there is little reason to care.
Miami are 3-0, already have two ACC road wins and still have everything in front of them.
The Wake Forest game also showed there is work to do.
The offence disappeared late.
The injury list grew.
And for the first time this season, Miami looked genuinely uncomfortable.
That makes Central Michigan useful.
Forget chasing a prettier ranking.
Get healthy.
Fix the mistakes.
Take care of business.
Move to 4-0.
If Miami keep winning, nobody will care where they were ranked on 21 September.
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