In a game with ACC conference, as well as national college playoff implications, the Miami Hurricanes will be facing their biggest test, since the Fighting Irish contest, the eighth-ranked, Florida State Seminoles. There is not any love-lost between the two Florida-based programs. Each program is headed in a positive direction.
The second ranked Miami Hurricanes will enter a hostile environment in Tallahassee, Saturday. With a win, the Hurricanes could make a statement throughout the conference and the entire country regarding the program's long road back to being college football's elite programs. In order to sustain their high ranking, the Canes must strive to play on a different level than the team played this past weekend.
Florida State and Miami, typically play highly competitive games, despite what each school's ranking might be that particular season. The Miami Hurricanes must continue to build upon the program's battle-tested resume. Most critics might point to this game and determine if the Hurricanes have finally passed the litmus test. Coach Mario Cristobal's emphasize on becoming the more physical team has propelled the once struggling Canes into recently unchartered territory.
Armed with a plethora of talent on both sides of the ball, Cristobal has brought what he learned under the tutelage of highly successful coaches, to the current University of Miami program. Thus far, Cristobal's vision and stamp on the program is finally resulting in huge dividends, almost in the same way that coach Cristobal's former Miami Hurricanes coaches have continued the winning tradition of Miami Hurricanes football.
Convincing cynics as to whether the Hurricanes can challenge for a national title will be answered when "all the dust" settles in the epic showdown against long-time rival, the Florida State Seminoles, on yet another grand stage. Can the Canes come out of Tallahassee victorious? Fasten your seatbelts because the showdown in Doak Campbell Stadium will not be for the "faint of heart".