Still So Much To Play For, Season Far From Over As Bowl Selection Looms Closer

Vegas was wrong.

The odds makers said that Miami would win between five and six games.  The Canes have already rung the victory bell six times and have two games, plus a bowl game to play.  To win eight regular season games would be utterly amazing for a team that saw its head coach get fired during the season and for one of its players to tragically lose his mother the following week. If Miami can win out and win its bowl game, they would win nine games and this would be considered a monumental feat.

This team has endured a lot, but still keeps on fighting. That is what this team will be remembered for. It has overcome adversity and it comes out strong. The same week that it lost its coach, and was trailing with six second remaining, eleven guys got together to string out a memorable kickoff return against Duke to win a game that pegged to be a loss before it even started. It also won the game without its captain and its starting quarterback.

Credit has to be given to their interim head coach who took over in the middle of a Category Five storm.  It appears as though he has made football fun again and the players are responding.

"I think the first and most important one starts with the individual. You must have a pride about your work, who you are and what you want to become. When things happen in life, you can’t just shut down. You have to find a way to scratch, claw and get out of it," said interim head coach Larry Scott.  "When you decided to become a Miami Hurricane you joined a team. As a team, you owe it to the guy on your left and the guy on your right to always make sure you’re giving it your best so that the team continues to grow and move. Those are the first two things we tried to tap into and number three is the bowl position."

Scott went on to say that he understands the magnitude of the Georgia Tech game this week and next week's tilt against Pittsburgh.

"You’re a bowl team and you’ve worked your tail off. Now it’s about how do we become a seven-win team and then how do we become an eight-win team," Scott said. "It’s a daily approach for us and a game-by-game approach. We can’t get to eight without getting to seven. I think a very well positioned 8-4 Miami team would probably find itself in a good situation, but we can only control it one game at a time."

If Miami can win two games and finish at 8-4, they would have a better pick to a better bowl game than they have had in recent years. That would mean they would have a better bowl than the one that they attended last year and did so with an interim coach and a team flying on a repaired wing.

This is a time of great importance. Miami is fighting to get win two more games and shut people up around the country and they are fighting to finish respectably in the ACC Coastal.  They also want a better bowl game to get invited to, and by the way, they are also about to recruit coaching candidates to come to the school.

If this is not an exciting time to be a Miami Hurricane, then I do not know when there will be a more exciting time for you to latch on to this program.