After reaching No. 2 in the college football rankings, the Miami Hurricanes have slipped lately. 

They dropped their second game of the season last weekend against SMU. It has resulted in them falling out of the College Football Playoff picture. 

Despite the bad news, coach Mario Cristobal remains upbeat about the rest of the season. 

"A very professional approach," Cristobal said in his weekly press conference. "I mean, we have, at the end of the day, we have good people. We have hard working people, people that have a high care factor, and also people that recognize opportunity and know that the college football landscape and this thing down the stretch is as unpredictable as it gets, and that we will be one of a dozen or so teams that will have an opportunity if you take care of business, to continue to push into the postseason. Now, all that is great, but I think we all understand that we have to take care of number one, and that's us. We were frustrated, but we're not helpless, if that makes sense, because all of our answers are in the room."

The Hurricanes return to action Saturday against Syracuse. The hope is to salvage the remainder of what was once a promising season. 

"The self-inflicted stuff we can control, and there's a strong commitment to doing so," Cristobal said. "You didn't have to wait for players to step up and take charge and demand more of ourselves. And when I say that, I make sure that as a staff, that everything is joined at the hip, that everyone is pouring in to do more and do better by each other and for each other. They know that their best support group is right here in this building, their biggest fans, their best family, the people that really want to see them succeed, are right here in this building. And so they have a strong bond. I have zero doubts that this team wants to get to work and to play really, really good football, because we've done it before. We stubbed ourselves right toe, and we're ready to go ahead, ready to forward and get to Saturday."

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of MiamiRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com