Virginia vs Miami: Why a Victory Still Wouldn't Make Miami Relevant Again

“The ‘U’ is back.”

At least for the past three years, that has been one of the main focuses of the national media in the ACC. Miami used to be a dominant program, but they have since fallen by the wayside as teams like Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and now Clemson have replaced them among the nation’s best.

The Hurricanes were poised to have a great season with Lamar Miller and the bulk of their defense returning, but the Nevin Shapiro scandal and its subsequent suspensions ultimately prevented this season from being a special one.

With a game tonight against Virginia, Miami is hoping to stay on track after winning their last two games and coming close to beating Virginia Tech on the road.

But should they win, it won’t mean that the Hurricanes are relevant in the college football world. They have set the bar too high to consider getting a win over a 4-3 Virginia team being relevant.

They already have two conference losses so it appears as though Virginia Tech would represent the Coastal division in the ACC Championship Game, and they only received seven total votes in the AP and Coaches’ Polls.

That said, this is an entirely different football team than the one that lost to Maryland on Labor Day.

In order for The U to become truly relevant again, they have to make it to at least an ACC championship game, a feat they have yet to accomplish. At the very minimum, they need to have a 10-win season, and that hasn’t happened in years.

With five regular season games left, Miami will have to win out in order to accomplish that. Then and only then can we bring up the discussion of whether or not Miami is a nationally relevant football team.