Miami football not likely to fall far in rankings with most teams behind them losing
The Miami football team is not likely to fall very far in the rankings with most of the teams directly behind the Hurricanes losing. Number 16 LSU, number 17 Indiana and number 20 Washington all lost on Saturday. USC who is 15th, 19th ranked Penn State and number 21 Texas are most likely to pass Miami in the rankings.
LSU lost 38-27 at UCLA, Indiana was blown out 34-6 at Iowa and Washington lost 13-7 to FCS Montana. Penn State won 16-10 at Wisconsin, USC 30-7 against San Jose State and Texas 38-18 against Louisiana. The wins by the Trojans and Longhorns came against good Group of Five programs.
Miami has to bounce back on Saturday with another one of the better Group of Five programs. Appalachian State comes to Hard Rock Stadium after defeating East Carolina 31-19 in its season opener in Charlotte on Thursday. The Mountaineers finished 9-3 last season with two of its three losses to ranked teams.
Appalachian State lost to unranked Marshall early in the 2019 season, at number 15 Coastal Carolina in November and against 25th ranked Louisiana in December. Miami won 45-10 at Appalachian State in 2016. Appalachian State won at North Carolina in 2019 a couple of weeks after Miami lost in Chapel Hill.
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The Miami football team has a September schedule favorable to making a run back up the rankings. After Appalachian State, Miami hosts Michigan State on September 18, Central Connecticut State a week later and Virginia on September 30. The Hurricanes should be able to win those games and exit September 4-1.
Miami begins October with a bye week then plays at North Carolina in what could be its most important game of the season. The Tar Heels were upset 17-10 at Virginia Tech on Friday night. Miami at North Carolina will be most of the most important games in the race to win the ACC Coastal Division title in 2021.
Miami part of rough weekend for ranked ACC teams. dark. Next
Miami hosts Virginia Tech on November 20. The Hurricanes and Hokies game takes on added significance with the result between North Carolina and Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech has a ways to go to move up the rankings. The Hokies were 40th in the rankings under others receiving votes in the USA Today preseason coaches poll.