Where Miami Football Ranks After Injury Riddled Win at Wake Forest
The Miami Hurricanes are not concerned with the AP and USA Today coaches poll.
Miami has started the season showing they have one of the best offenses in the country and it keeps them inside the top 25 of the week 4 polls. However, with an Ole Miss win over then ranked No. 7 LSU, they move ahead of the Hurricanes in the latest polls.
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Miami drops to the No. 6 team in the country after a sleepy second half in the 33-20 win at Wake Forest. They remain the top ACC team in the polls, while Louisville passes SMU after a victory over the Mustangs.
The Hurricanes will return to Saturday night play for the rest of the season and take on Central Michigan looking for some time to run of the score and rest more players.
Injuries are starting to pile, and it’s becoming a concern for the Canes. However, Miami’s defense is starting to gel, and Mario Cristobal is starting to like it.
I mean, those were really big stops,” Cristobal said after the victory. “At the end of the day, it’s, I don’t know how many plays we played. It was good to get extensive play, because I think with both of those first couple of games that we played, we had no more than 40, 45 snaps for starting units. That make sense? We hadn’t played extensive football, extended downs or whatnot. So, but I think a ton of credit goes to the defense for just bowing up and executing at a high level.
“They affected the passer. He’s hard to tackle. He escaped from a lot of stuff. We felt that we had ourselves another four to five sacks, and that obviously will be assessed and worked on. You got to get guys on the ground. Really elusive quarterbacks, they rule college football. If those guys can extend plays, there’s a lot of people running open down the field, and they did that tonight. And credit to their receivers as well. They make some plays.
“But you got to get guys on the ground. And when you force fumbles, you can’t have just flat-out dumb penalties on a late hit on the quarterback. So we got a lot of growing up to do and a lot of learning to do as well. But that being said, proud of the effort, because no one ever stopped fighting, no one ever stopped working, and you get yourself a 13-point win on the road.”
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AP Top 25 – Week 3
| Rank | Team | Record | First-Place Votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Texas | 3-0 | 58 |
| 2. | Georgia | 3-0 | 3 |
| 3. | Notre Dame | 3-0 | 0 |
| 4. | Ole Miss | 3-0 | 3 |
| 5. | Indiana | 3-0 | 4 |
| 6. | Miami | 3-0 | 1 |
| 7. | Ohio State | 2-1 | 0 |
| 8. | Alabama | 3-0 | 0 |
| 9. | BYU | 3-0 | 0 |
| 10. | LSU | 2-1 | 0 |
| 11. | Texas Tech | 3-0 | 0 |
| 12. | USC | 3-0 | 0 |
| 13. | Penn State | 3-0 | 0 |
| 14. | Tennessee | 3-0 | 0 |
| 15. | Utah | 3-0 | 0 |
| 16. | Louisville | 2-1 | 0 |
| 17. | Iowa | 3-0 | 0 |
| 18. | Michigan | 3-0 | 0 |
| 19. | Missouri | 3-0 | 0 |
| 20. | Oregon | 2-1 | 0 |
| 21. | Florida | 3-0 | 0 |
| 22. | SMU | 2-1 | 0 |
| 23. | Texas A&M | 2-1 | 0 |
| 24. | Mississippi State | 3-0 | 0 |
| 25. | Houston | 2-1 | 0 |
Others Receiving Votes: Washington 107, Kentucky 98, West Virginia 93, Oklahoma 91, Oklahoma State 50, Boise State 48, Virginia Tech 46, Western Michigan 27, Duke 20, Tulsa 18, Arizona 12, Pittsburgh 10, UCLA 10, James Madison 7, North Dakota State 6, Kansas State 3, Nebraska 2
Coaches Poll – Week 3
| Rank | Team | Record | First-Place Votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Texas | 3-0 | 46 |
| 2. | Georgia | 3-0 | 16 |
| 3. | Notre Dame | 3-0 | 2 |
| 4. | Indiana | 3-0 | 3 |
| 5. | Miami | 3-0 | 4 |
| 6. | Ole Miss | 3-0 | 0 |
| 7. | Ohio State | 2-1 | 1 |
| 8. | Alabama | 3-0 | 0 |
| 9. | BYU | 3-0 | 0 |
| 10. | Texas Tech | 3-0 | 0 |
| 11. | LSU | 2-1 | 0 |
| 12. | USC | 3-0 | 0 |
| 13. | Tennessee | 3-0 | 0 |
| 14. | Penn State | 3-0 | 0 |
| 15. | Utah | 3-0 | 0 |
| 16. | Oregon | 2-1 | 0 |
| 17. | Iowa | 3-0 | 0 |
| 18. | Michigan | 3-0 | 0 |
| 19. | Louisville | 2-1 | 0 |
| 20. | Texas A&M | 2-1 | 0 |
| 21. | Missouri | 3-0 | 0 |
| 22. | Florida | 3-0 | 0 |
| 23. | Washington | 3-0 | 0 |
| 24. | Oklahoma | 2-1 | 0 |
| 25. | SMU | 2-1 | 0 |
Schools Dropped Out: No. 23 Houston; No. 25 Virginia
Others Receiving Votes: Houston 116; Mississippi State 114; Duke 70; West Virginia 55; Kentucky 54; Oklahoma State 36; Pittsburgh 35; Virginia Tech 30; Vanderbilt 29; Boise State 29; Tulsa 20; UCLA 18; Kansas State 18; Western Michigan 17; Nebraska 11; North Dakota State 8; Northwestern 4; Clemson 3; Massachusetts 2; James Madison 2; Arizona
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- Where Miami Football Ranks After Program Offensive Night Against FAMU
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/miami as Where Miami Football Ranks After Injury Riddled Win at Wake Forest.
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This story was originally published September 20, 2026 at 5:15 PM.
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