Miami football slide comes full circle at Pittsburgh

A 10-0 start to the season, a 15 game winning streak overall and second overall ranking in the College Football Playoff poll. The Miami football team was riding high entering a game at Pittsburgh the day after Thanksgiving in 2017. It has been mostly downhill since.

Most people thought the U was back following the 10-0 start the Miami football team had in the 2017 season. Tack on five straight wins to finish the 2016 season and the Hurricanes were riding a 15 game winning streak, the nation’s longest at the time, when they traveled to Pittsburgh the day after Thanksgiving.

Miami began the Mark Richt tenure winning 19 of his first 23 games. The former Miami quarterback returned home after 15 years as the head coach at Georgia. Richt seemed to have the Hurricanes finally back among the elite of college football. Was it fools gold? Miami needed late scores a few times to pull out wins in 2017.

A touchdown pass with six seconds remaining at Florida State to end a seven-year losing streak to the Seminoles. A field goal from Michael Badgley with four seconds remaining to defeat Georgia Tech, a five-point win at North Carolina and eight-point win at home over Syracuse. All games Miami should have probably won comfortably.

The Miami football team seemed to improve after a 28-10 win over number 13 Virginia Tech and 41-8 win over number three Notre Dame. Both those games were on ABC Prime Time and had Hard Rock Stadium rocking. The Hurricanes suffered a bit of a letdown but came back from 14 points down twice to beat Virginia 44-28.

By most accounts, Miami was a serious contender for the College Football Playoff. Pittsburgh entered the game against Miami as a 12 point underdog and given an 18 percent chance to win by the ESPN Football Power Index. The Hurricanes’ inconsistent offense did them in. Miami gained only 232 total yards in a 24-14 loss.