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By Bryan Colbert Jr.
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Kirk Herbstreit had a question about the nation’s highest-scoring offense hours before Miami took the field at Notre Dame on Saturday. He also had an answer that made his criticism of the Hurricanes a little more complicated.
“Who has Miami played?” Herbstreit asked during ESPN’s "College GameDay." After questioning the praise for Miami’s offense, he added, “They haven’t played anybody. Wake Forest. They’ve played Wake Forest who’s a good team.”
That September trip to Winston-Salem looks better for Miami now than it did at the time. The Hurricanes beat Wake Forest 33-20 on its home field.
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The Demon Deacons have won five straight since, including road victories over Louisville, NC State and Cal. At 7-1, they landed at No. 16 in the first College Football Playoff rankings, with Miami still responsible for their only loss.
Herbstreit himself saw Miami differently a month ago.
After the Hurricanes beat Clemson 41-13 on the road to improve to 5-0, he called Miami the best team in the country on "GameDay."
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The weeks since have included a double-overtime win over Florida State and a 38-35 escape at North Carolina. Miami also put up 52 points against Pitt between those two games.
The playoff committee put the 8-0 Hurricanes at No. 1 in its opening rankings, a first for the program. Miami had won four games on the road and scored at least 30 points in all eight.
Quarterback Darian Mensah entered Saturday with 25 touchdown passes against one interception, helping the Hurricanes average an FBS-best 47.6 points per game.
Miami beat Notre Dame 27-24 in last season’s opener. Winning the rematch will require the Hurricanes to take their nation-leading offense into South Bend without their most productive receiver.
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Malachi Toney will miss Saturday’s game after catching 13 of Darian Mensah’s 25 touchdown passes.
Notre Dame has held six of its first eight opponents below 14 points.
The Irish enter at 7-1, ranked fourth in the AP poll and 11th by the playoff committee.
A road win over Notre Dame would strengthen Miami’s hold on No. 1 and give Herbstreit another opponent to account for when questioning the Hurricanes’ schedule.
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