Miami has no choice but to put an end to the Dabo Swinney era at Clemson

It would've been nice for Clemson to pull off the upset. That would have been great for the Miami Hurricanes schedule and great for the ACC as a whole. Plus, college football needed Clemson to win the battle of the Death Valley Tigers for the good of the sport.

But that didn't happen and now Miami might be in the position where they need to destroy the Tigers on Oct. 3. The Hurricanes have to end any hopes of Clemson having a bounce back after its humiliating 51-10 loss to LSU in Week 1. They need to run up big numbers on offense and light up the scoreboard. It's nothing personal, but it's the best thing that can happen.

Miami was in the same situation 11 years ago. The Hurricanes were meandering under Al Golden. Not bad, not good, just sort of there. They needed either a big win at what was then known as Sun Life Stadium to announce to the world that Miami football was back or a bad loss to end the charade. And Clemson gave everyone the answer they needed.

Remember when Clemson beat the Canes 58 to nothing? And truthfully, that makes the game seem closer than it actually was.

Miami needs to put Clemson out of its misery when they face off Oct. 3

It's dangerous to look ahead. I know Miami's upcoming games against Florida A&M, Wake Forest and Central Michigan aren't exactly a murderer's row of opponents, but Mario Cristobal wants his team to keep their eye on the ball and focus on going 1-0 each week...yeah, yeah, that's fine and good for the process. 

However, we can look ahead, and that Clemson road game has always stuck out on this schedule. I don't think I was alone in believing it could've been the second-toughest game on the slate. But after Week 1 and watching what Dabo Swinney put out on the field... It feels like the end of the line. 

When Clemson blew out Miami in 2015, it was the beginning of a new era in the ACC. The Tigers went on a 10-year run of dominating the conference and won two CFP championships. They were big. They were bad. They had all these superstars and future first-round picks.

Against LSU, they didn't look like they belonged in the Power 4. They were unimpressive on the lines. The offense wasn't explosive. The defense looked small and overmatched.  

The Tigers looked like Miami did 11 years ago, which is wild to even think about right now.

Clemson's loss was the biggest indication that it's Miami's time now. The Hurricanes are as good as advertised and the few question marks they may have had against Stanford will become strengths over the next month or so. Clemson had a great run and deserved all the accolades that it had previously received. However, once Oct. 3 gets here, it's time to put these Tigers to bed - and it can't come soon enough.

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