The ACC announced its 10-game conference schedule on Wednesday afternoon and it was obviously a big change from the original plan.
Miami will now play a heavy conference schedule that adds home games against Georgia Tech and Virginia, which were originally scheduled to travel, and will travel to Clemson, Louisville and NC State.
A quick summary of the hurricane calendar:
Home: State of Florida, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pitt and Virginia
Far: Clemson, Louisville, State of North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest
No times or dates have been set for any matchups, but the conference announced that contests can begin the week of September 7-12.
There will be no divisions. Instead, the top two teams based on the conference winning percentage will meet at Bank of American Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina for the ACC title. If that wasn’t interesting enough, Notre Dame will be part of the conference and will have a chance to compete for a conference championship for the first time in the history of the school.
With that said, Manny diaz He has high expectations in his second year as head coach of the Hurricanes. Offensive coordinator additions Rhett lashlee and his extended power offensive and record-breaking Houston transfer quarterback D’Eriq King they are supposed to be the catalyst to ignite the Canes offensive. Miami also has the nation’s most disruptive pass corridor group with Greg Rousseau and temple transfer Quincy Roche leading the front. The two combined for 28.5 sacks and 38.5 tackles for loss a year ago.
The mix of talent and UM’s transition to a modern offense are believed to help bring the show back to the forefront. With so much at stake for Diaz and the Hurricanes in 2020, InsideTheU is breaking down how many Miami games would have to win for this season to be considered successful.
With the original calendar, ten wins were the milestone. The Hurricanes most likely would have been the double-digit favorites to win their first three games of the season against Group of Five opponents. That momentum could have led to a major showdown with the Spartans.
But that is no longer happening.
Not knowing how the timeline finally lines up, I think eight regular season wins is probably the number you want to hit if you’re Miami. You get some tough draws, starting with a trip to Clemson to face Dabo Swinney, Trevor Lawrence and the tigers. Louisville is also a show that has only gotten better with the former Appalachian state head coach Scott Satterfield and you have to go to his house to play them.
Otherwise, I think Miami has a pretty favorable design. Georgia Tech is sure to continue to go through some growing pains as they move through their second transition from Paul Johnson’s triple option and you can host them again. Virginia is a program that lost some key players, especially quarterback Bryce Perkins.
Miami is also host Sam Howell and North Carolina, which may be the biggest threat apart from Clemson and Notre Dame at the conference. Speaking of Notre Dame, the Hurricanes also don’t play against the 11-win team.
If the Hurricanes can reach that eight-win marker, it may not be good enough to compete for an ACC Championship, but it would be a solid step forward for a program that is directly entering conference action after implementing a new offensive scheme without the benefit of a complete list of spring practices.
I also think it would be enough to keep hurricane recruitment class No. 10 intact. Eight wins show tangible improvement and, given the circumstances of what happened in 2020, they should be enough to allow the show to continue to progress in the right direction under Manny Díaz.
For full ACC schedule details, click here.
