College football had its first Blood Week of the season. This weekend saw losses for eight ranked teams, and even the teams that didn't lose had extremely close calls. That brings us to the Miami Hurricanes, who played a big rivalry game with unranked Florida State, which turned into a shootout even though Miami is supposed to have a championship defense and Florida State is Florida State.
After four quarters and two overtimes, Miami beat FSU, 43-35. Saturday's victory came only after two seemingly successful Hail Marys by FSU quarterback Ashton Daniels were consecutively called back. The first was due to a holding penalty on the offense. The second attempt looked like it ended with FSU receiver Duce Robinson having dual possession of the ball, but it was ultimately ruled an interception for Miami.
Miami QB Darian Mensah threw for 326 yards and three touchdowns, including the go-ahead TD in the second overtime. Daniels, for his part, threw for 298 yards and four touchdowns. It was Miami's seventh win in its last 10 meetings with Florida State. While I probably should rabble and rouse about how this game was robbery of the Noles, my hatred of this coaching staff has superseded the joy I would've felt if they'd pulled it off.
What's more interesting to me is that even after a game like that, one which Miami should have lost, a broader confluence of ineptitude and general chaos resulted in the Hurricanes being the AP's No. 1 ranked team in college football. It took losses by Notre Dame, Georgia, Texas, Indiana, and Alabama for this reality to come true. The reason why this is worth mentioning is that there has never been a program less equipped to be the top school in the country than these Miami Hurricanes.
In the pilot episode of Arrested Development, there's a moment when, driven by pure greed and their own narcissistic desires, the Bluth family puts the youngest Bluth, Buster, in charge of their company. This is character whom we just watched call the blue portion of a map "obviously land." We even get a scene of him in a business meeting, suddenly cowering and panicking into collapse under the weight of expectation. That's modern Miami football.
The only thing funnier than seeing Miami actually get this nod will be seeing how fast they blow it. I bet Miami loses its No. 1 rank before Arch Manning gets benched. I understand why we ended up here, though. There's really no other choice to make. Ohio State did not do enough to establish itself as the best team, and they just lost Julian Sayin to a shoulder injury. As for BYU, it's already a miracle that these ranking committees put them as high as No. 2. It had to be Miami, even after a game in which Florida State—which is bad and has a dumb guy for a coach, I cannot reiterate that enough—completely diced them up. Miami is a serious team that could go deep into this season's playoff and potentially win it all. They are so losing to Pitt on Saturday.
