Despite a strong start to the season, Miami's 2025 College Football Playoff hopes are now in jeopardy after its Week 10 loss to SMU. Head coach Mario Cristobal is aware that the result forces his team into an uphill battle over the final month of the regular season.
While Cristobal remains confident in his team's abilities, he acknowledged that there is clearly work to be done. The fourth-year coach said the loss is “completely” on Miami's critical errors and inability to execute the game plan.
“We didn't take care of business, and that's completely on us,” Cristobal said, via ESPN. “This is certainly a wild college football season, and the focus has to be on us taking care of business. You always give credit to the opponent because that's a good football team. When you make that many mistakes, it's on everybody in the organization. You allow yourself to be put in a position where you can get beat, and that's what happened today.”
Since starting 5-0, Miami is now just 1-2 in its last three games. The Hurricanes lost both games as a double-digit favorite, beginning with a 24-21 defeat to Louisville at home in Week 8.
Cristobal also felt that Miami's loss to Louisville was the result of self-inflicted wounds. He has attributed the team's recent struggles to a lapse in coaching. Cristobal also slipped in a slight accusation of SMU mimicking the Hurricanes' cadences to cause false start penalties that went unnoticed.
“It's the things that we've made a point of emphasis,” Cristobal said. “But obviously, we're not getting a result, so we're not coaching it, teaching it, and executing it well enough. We had some issues with their stems and movements. We try to report when our cadence is being mimicked, but that didn't get any traction. That happens in football, so no excuses. There's not enough discipline as it relates to just holding our water and not jumping.
Miami's College Football Playoff hopes dwindle with SMU loss
Miami entered the game ranked No. 10 in the Week 10 AP poll but is now in danger of falling out of the rankings entirely. The Hurricanes can still make the playoffs by winning the ACC, but their shot at that goal is also slimming.
The SMU loss drops Miami to 2-2 in the ACC, placing it seventh in the conference. They now lose two tiebreakers to teams ahead of them, while also sitting behind Virginia, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Duke.
The Hurricanes end the season with four winnable games against Syracuse, NC State, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh. That gives them an opportunity to rise in the conference rankings, but none of those opponents carries much weight in the rankings. Miami will also still need help to reach the ACC Championship Game for the first time since 2017.
