Miami’s primary focus has gone from ACC to BCS to TBA.
The Hurricanes’ chance of winning the Atlantic Coast Conference is now officially gone, and thanks to Saturday’s 33-24 loss at North Carolina, so did any realistic hopes for Miami getting at-large berth into the Bowl Championship Series. The Hurricanes (7-3, 4-3) fell nine spots to No. 21 in Sunday’s AP Top 25 poll.
So now, it’s the little things that matter for Miami, which closes its home schedule Saturday against Duke (5-5, 3-3).
“A tough loss is always hard to get over, but you have to get over it,” Miami coach Randy Shannon said Sunday. “You can’t look back in the past. Our goals are still high around here. We have two games left here. We can’t sit back and sulk and feel bad for ourselves.”
Actually, including a bowl game, Miami has three games left – so 10 wins for the first time since 2003 is possible.
And that might be the only consolation prize left for a season the Hurricanes entered with hopes of getting back into a big-time bowl and contending for the ACC crown.
” Miami center A.J. Trump said.
By the time Miami took the field Saturday, the ACC title chance was gone. Georgia Tech – a team Miami beat easily – clinched the Coastal Division with a 49-10 romp at Duke.
Of course, that wasn’t even the worst part of a Carolina Saturday for the Hurricanes, who got hexed by the Tar Heels once again, falling to North Carolina for the third straight year.
Jacory Harris threw a career-worst four interceptions, giving him 16 for the season, the most by any Football Bowl Subdivision quarterback in the nation. Making matters worse, two of the interceptions were returned for touchdowns. He got sacked twice more as well, that total of 27 now tied for eighth-most in the country.
“We don’t blame Jacory at all for that loss,” Shannon said. “It was a total team effort. We had some plays on defense that we could have held them on, a couple of plays on punt returns that if guys stay on their blocks, we probably could have had touchdown opportunities. For us as a team, we blame ourselves.”
Some players tearfully defended their quarterback Saturday night, saying all the blame shouldn’t lie on him.
Harris didn’t agree.
“Without me making those mental mistakes,” he said, “we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
Trying to figure out any semblance of the bowl picture for Miami right now is close to impossible.
The ACC champion will go to the Orange Bowl. The runner-up will likely go to the Chick-fil-A or Gator bowls. Win out, and Miami could be looking at one of those games, or possibly a trip to Orlando for the Champs Sports Bowl.
All the bowl talk is moot – and will likely be muted by Shannon anyway this week, since he’ll be mindful of a Duke team that led Miami by 10 points in the second half last season before Harris led a huge comeback.
“Our next game is on senior day and our focus has to be on Duke and having seniors go out with a win at home,” Shannon said. “That’s our biggest focus this week and we’ll start with that.”
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