#7- Phil Steele Pre-season Poll

[reg]

Phil has us at #7 in his pre-season poll. There are way to many websites, magazines, and reporters that release pre-season polls. However, of them all, I have personally liked Phil Steele's the most. His analysis does not seem to be laced with heavy bias towards the SEC. Also, he has always shown Miami love, which is more than what I can say for about 95% of the other publications.

Here's what Phil had to say about us.....
"The Hurricanes were my #2 surprise team last year. Despite entering No. 18 in the AP Poll, they would have made the playoffs if their offense was not banged up at the end and they would have upset Clemson in the ACC Title Game. Miami moves up from No. 73 to No. 49 on my experience chart and they now have a veteran quarterback, my No. 20 running back group, No. 17 receiver group, No. 25 offensive line group, No. 14 defensive line group, No. 7 linebacker group, and No. 9 defensive back group. They open with LSU in Arlington and do have Boston College, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech on the road, but none of those will be preseason ranked teams, so they have a great shot at running the table and an ACC Title win would put them in the playoffs.”

It's interesting to see his take on us beating Clemson last year, had we remained healthy. Not saying that I agree or not, but not to many people think we would have won that game, regardless of our health status. However, I fully disagree with him regarding where he ranks our WR group. There are not 5 programs that have a better WR group, let alone 16.

 

[Ziggy]

Go find me 19 better RB groups, 16 better WR groups, and 7 better LB groups... I'll wait. With that being said, we are getting some great media attention. An LSU A$$ whopping would go a long way!

 

[Poptimus]

I think it's poorly written and he meant to say we'd have made the playoffs had we upset Clemson, not that we were going to do so if the offense was healthy.

Or maybe I'm wrong and he's smoking that good ****.

 

[HighSeas]

If the offense was healthy, Diaz had a better gameplan and those huge early swing plays didn't bury us, then yeah it would have been a different game. That Clemson offense was not very good and we played right into their strengths.

 

[reg]

I think it's poorly written and he meant to say we'd have made the playoffs had we upset Clemson, not that we were going to do so if the offense was healthy.

Or maybe I'm wrong and he's smoking that good ****.

I think he meant to say exactly what he said.

 

[Pickle Richt]

If the offense was healthy, Diaz had a better gameplan and those huge early swing plays didn't bury us, then yeah it would have been a different game. That Clemson offense was not very good and we played right into their strengths.

And if our guys didn't look petrified to be in the game, who knows what would've happened. It was similar to the ND game, except we were on the opposite side. Gonna be tougher to beat them this year in my opinion. That D-Line against our O-Line?

 

[Poptimus]

I think he meant to say exactly what he said.

I don’t know. It’s written very poorly, he used “would have” twice in the same sentence.

 

[OriginalGatorHater]

I think he meant to say exactly what he said.

Despite entering No. 18 in the AP Poll, they would have made the playoffs if their offense was not banged up at the end and they would have upset Clemson in the ACC Title Game.

He is saying that even though we only entered the season ranked 18 if our offense was not banged up and we where able to pull off an upset of Clemson we would have made it to the playoffs. He does not say that he thinks we would have won only that we ended up only 1 game out of the playoffs.

 

[reg]

Despite entering No. 18 in the AP Poll, they would have made the playoffs if their offense was not banged up at the end and they would have upset Clemson in the ACC Title Game.

He is saying that even though we only entered the season ranked 18 if our offense was not banged up and we where able to pull off an upset of Clemson we would have made it to the playoffs. He does not say that he thinks we would have won only that we ended up only 1 game out of the playoffs.

I would rather not take a guess or try to interpret what he is saying, especially when what he actually said is right in front of me.

 

[KrazyCane]

RBs 20th and WRs 17th?? he must’ve bumped his head.

 

[ddann]

Despite entering No. 18 in the AP Poll, they would have made the playoffs if their offense was not banged up at the end and they would have upset Clemson in the ACC Title Game.

He is saying that even though we only entered the season ranked 18 if our offense was not banged up and we where able to pull off an upset of Clemson we would have made it to the playoffs. He does not say that he thinks we would have won only that we ended up only 1 game out of the playoffs.

This is exactly how it looks to me, too.

 

[ddann]

RBs 20th and WRs 17th?? he must’ve bumped his head.

I was more shocked at OL being 25th.

 

[OriginalGatorHater]

I would rather not take a guess or try to interpret what he is saying, especially when what he actually said is right in front of me.

I would rather not take a guess either. That is why I just reiterated what he said. If you think what he stated was that Miami would have won if the offense was intact then you need help with your reading comprehension.

 

[rustywalkedaway]

Steele writes for betters, not homers. He is not on anyone's side. And he is usually pretty accurate in terms of final results.

 

[Pickle Richt]

I would rather not take a guess either. That is why I just reiterated what he said. If you think what he stated was that Miami would have won if the offense was intact then you need help with your reading comprehension.

It's clear that he's asserting an opinion that we would have upset Clemson if our offense was not banged up. You should hold off on questioning the reading comprehension of others.

 

[Go Canes!!]

He in no way equates our offensive health to our ability to beat Clemson in that sentence.

 

[Pickle Richt]

He in no way equates our offensive health to our ability to beat Clemson in that sentence.

"they would have made the playoffs if their offense was not banged up at the end"

 

[reg]

I would rather not take a guess either. That is why I just reiterated what he said. If you think what he stated was that Miami would have won if the offense was intact then you need help with your reading comprehension.

Sure, buddy.

 

[OriginalGatorHater]

This is exactly how it looks to me, too.

"they would have made the playoffs if their offense was not banged up at the end"

and they would have upset Clemson in the ACC Title Game. Anyone with an ounce of common sense sees what he is saying. He is saying that we where 1 game away from the playoffs which is a big accomplishment from being ranked 18th. He is saying we have 0 chance of winning because the offense was banged up, but if the offense was not banged up and we somehow upset Clemson we would have made the playoffs.

 

[OriginalGatorHater]

Sure, buddy.

So why did he rank Clemson ahead of us then? Clemson is the number 2 team with us at 7. You would think that if he thinks the healthy Miami team would beat Clemson he would rank us higher.