The Miami Hurricanes are off to a good start in 2026, moving to 4-0 last Saturday after defeating Central Michigan 52-3 at Hard Rock Stadium.

The task is about to get tougher starting this weekend, as the Hurricanes travel to Clemson for a big primetime ACC matchup. Miami is a 17-point favorite, but the Tigers are improving after a season-opening 51-10 loss to LSU, as evidenced by their 24-10 win at Cal last weekend.

That said, the Hurricanes have looked the part of a title contender this season, winning every game comfortably despite letting the foot off the gas a bit in the second half against Wake Forest after building a 31-7 second half lead.

And that first month has resonated with ESPN’s college football writers. Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach both updated their college football playoff projections this week, and they both have Miami as the No. 4 seed projected ACC champion.

Schlabach in particular sees another big run coming for the Hurricanes. He has Miami defeating Indiana in the Fiesta Bowl and Florida in the Orange Bowl to reach the national championship game for the second straight year. He sees the Hurricanes facing Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs in Las Vegas for all the marbles.

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach projects Miami to face Georgia for the national title in latest College Football Playoff projection

A Miami—Georgia matchup would be interesting in a couple of respects. The Hurricanes and Bulldogs were potentially lined up to play in last year’s playoff semifinal after Miami upset Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. However, Georgia couldn’t take care of business itself, losing to Ole Miss on a late score in the Sugar Bowl.

But a matchup between Mario Cristobal and Smart would in and of itself would be interesting from this past offseason, when the two made headlines together in February at the Steve Spurrier awards ceremony in Gainesville. The duo tossed some friendly but sharp jokes/barbs at each other.

“He’s like, ‘you ought to start getting on some protein shakes. You’ve had too many carbs’,” Smart said of Cristobal. “And I said, ‘well you probably ought to spend some time with Steve Spurrier because he won more conference championships at Duke than you have in Miami.’ So, Coach Spurrier and him, they’ve got to visit some.”

Zing. Cristobal had his own retort as well.

“You’ve got to give a guy like Kirby credit,” Cristobal added. “You know what I mean? When you have all that time to sit at home watching us play on TV throughout the playoff when you don’t take care of business. But, congratulations on the SEC and the championship. That’s awesome. We were 5-0 against the SEC — I don’t know what you were — but, man, I’m in enemy territory, too.”

Imagine what a playoff game press conference would be like. We will have to wait and see if we’ll get that gem in a few months.