The Miami Hurricanes make a small jump in the latest AP polls, but still carry loads of pressure as the season ends.
The Miami Hurricanes are coming off a strong bounce-back victory over the Syracuse Orange with a final score of 38-10. The team's back is against the wall, with the need to win out the rest of their schedule for a chance to compete for an ACC title and claim a spot in the College Football Playoffs.
It shouldn't have to be this way, given how strong the Hurricanes started the season, but this is the situation they find themselves in. There is so much at stake, with the margin of error thinner than ever before.
The team will face the NC State Wolfpack on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time before finishing the season with two road games, against the Virginia Tech Hokies and Pitt Panthers.
The victory meant more from a momentum standpoint, but it also shed some light on the Hurricanes' latest AP poll position. They made a short climb from 18th to 16th. It may not be much compared to where the team was before, ranking in the top three from weeks five to eight, but it's a step in the right direction.
CanesMuse (@canes_muse) on X
🚨BREAKING🚨
The Miami Hurricanes move up to No. 16 on the latest AP Poll.
Just. Keep. Winning.
It's similar to last season, when the Hurricanes ranked highest as fourth, then finished at 13th. However, the team must stick to the course and focus on the present.
"I think for us, we're always trying to play as well as we possibly can," Mario Cristobal said after the Syracuse game in regards of the College Football Playoff rankings and team mentality. "Towards the end of this game, we were really banged up. I don't even want to count the number of starters that were down or had to be pulled or where the trainer was saying, 'we got to pull this guy now.' You reach a point where, now, what's the deciding point and what is a factor going into these next five minutes of football? I feel strongly, we made the right decision in pulling the amount of guys we did, due to the games that we have to play."
He alluded to the intention of the team simply "taking care of business," which is all they can do, given the circumstances. The Hurricanes no longer control their destiny in the ACC or the College Football Playoffs.
Had they gone undefeated, which was the expectation after week five's victory over the Florida State Seminoles, then everything would be in their favor. However, that isn't the reality, and the Hurricanes will need to win out and hope the rest of the dominoes fall their way.