Is 27 a slap in the face?

With week four's AP and USA Today poll making its debut the Hurricanes are (for once surprisingly) not in the top-25. With this past Thursday's win, it seems to me that the U deserves a little bit of respect. No only did we seriously beat up on a team that was No. 20 at the time but our defense held them to 38 yards in the first half. If you ask me, the 27 ranking we have after this week is ridiculous. The only loss we have this year is to the now No. 3 Oklahoma team who have a better than good shot at playing for the national championship. Still ranked are Nebraska who lost to a lowly Ball State team, Penn State who lost to an unimpressive Michigan Team, and Alabama who lost to a Georgia team who although may be formidable opponents, have a loss and have had much closer games with ranked (and unranked) opponents. Up until the last quarter this game was all Hurricanes. Kyle Wright played one of the best games he has ever played completing almost 81% of his passes for 2 touchdowns and no picks. The defense did more than their part as usual and for once the 'Canes offense looked like a Division 1-A powerhouse rather than a pop-warner team from the suburbs.

Against the Hurricanes, the Aggies' high powered offense, who have scored at least 38 in every game until their loss to the 'Canes, were held to 240 total yards. Even more surprising (or not) is that the trio of rushers that the Aggies have been using rather effectively thus far (Stephen McGee (quarterback), Mike Goodson, and Jorvorskie Lane) were held to only 21 yards in the first half and 69 rushing yards for the whole game. This should be a wake up call to the Hurricanes Defense; if the d-line can stop the run and force a team, especially one like A&M to throw the ball, their secondary will back them up. Some people may be talking about the apparent melt down that the Hurricanes suffered in the fourth quarter, but maybe the defense was just not used to playing so late in the game with so much energy because the offense actually gave them a chance to rest.

Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione was quoted in an ESPN article as saying "We just got beat, got beat by a better team." If a coach of a top 20 school can see that the Hurricanes are indeed a better team then why cant the AP and USA today? Down the line the Aggies play 4 now ranked teams, including Oklahoma in early November. We will really see what the Aggies are made of when they are playing ranked opponents down the stretch after pleanty of practice time.

This victory on the last Thursday the 'Canes will ever play in the Orange Bowl was only the second in the past 9 games against ranked opponents. After a victory like this and the only loss being to a contender for the national championship, there is really only one question that a Miami fan can ask; what the hell is wrong with the ranking system. Just as I stated earlier, there are so many teams that are ranked that do not deserve to be and the coaches know it. I think that more of the country should listen to A&M's coach and realize that this is the U and we are on our way to a comeback.