TAMPA – After years of false starts and false hopes that ended in Miami mediocrity, it’s time to take the No. 8 Hurricanes seriously. Not just as favorites in the ACC. Not just as contenders for a place in the expanded College Football Playoffs.

But as a team we are capable of competing against the field of 12 teams.

Saturday night’s 50-15 win over USF at Raymond James Stadium was further evidence that this 4-0 team is serious in a way that The U has not been for much of the past two decades.

“The only thing that can stop us is ourselves,” said star quarterback Cam Ward.

USF (2-2) certainly couldn’t stop them — and that’s no insult. The Bulls are at least a solid opponent. Ward called them the toughest team Miami has ever played; the Hurricanes, remember, played in Florida in the opener.

The Bulls even managed to do something the Gators, Ball State and Florida A&M couldn’t: They took the lead. After the Bulls had forced Miami to a 15-14 deficit late in the second quarter, the ‘Canes scored the final 36 points.

“They’re resilient,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “There’s no penalty, no injury, no scoring situation that our guys can’t handle.”

You can point to the level of competition and wonder how one of the AAC’s better teams compares to the teams Miami faces when ACC play against Virginia Tech begins on Friday. That’s fair. But think about how another playoff contender, No. 4 Alabama, needed a push in the final six minutes to pull away at home against USF two weeks ago.

The ‘Canes almost wiped out Saturday night’s triumph midway through the third quarter with one of Damien Martinez’s three touchdown runs. They beat USF 574-365, away from home in front of 58,616 spectators in one of USF’s biggest games in years.

Miami dominated in every way. The Bulls entered the game with a top-10 rushing offense. The Hurricanes held them to 1.9 yards per carry – less than half of what Alabama managed. In USF coach Alex Golesh’s four-plus seasons as head coach/offensive coordinator, only one defense has held its team to a lower rushing average: Georgia’s 2021 national championship team (when Golesh was at Tennessee).

The ‘Canes did what good teams do by playing complementary football in the final period. After Mishael Powell intercepted a pass in the end zone in the fourth quarter, Miami’s offense drove 80 yards in 10 plays for another touchdown that put the game even more out of reach.

“This is the kind of football we want to play,” said Cristobal.

Ward — the early favorite for the Heisman Trophy — threw three touchdowns to three different receivers, with his only interception coming off a deflection. He has averaged over 300 passing yards in all four games since transferring from Washington State, and Saturday’s 404 yards were a season-high. It’s still early in his tenure, but he looks like Miami’s best quarterback since (at least) Ken Dorsey two decades ago.

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““The quarterback is special…” Golesh said of Ward. “No matter how good the coverage was, he smuggled it in, and that’s a big credit to him.”

The rest of its offense deserves a lot of credit, too. Miami has topped .500 in every game. The 2017 team – Miami’s best since the glory days – only reached .500 twice this season. The Hurricanes have scored at least 50 points in back-to-back games for the first time in the program’s illustrious history.

Statistics like these are reasons to believe that this Miami team is finally different from the foolish teams of the past, like last year, which also started 4-0.

Against similar opponents (an SEC opponent, an AAC opponent, a team from the MAC and a team from the lower Football Championship Subdivision), Miami’s team scored 125 more points than its first four opponents last season and outgained them by 984 yards. This year, Miami scored 168 more points than its opponents and outgained them by 1,471 yards.

And Cristobal senses that there is still unrest in the dressing room and that there is a feeling that they are not finished yet.

“There’s no turning back,” Cristobal said. “They know we can be a really good team.”

This is not a new opinion in Miami, whose potential has rarely been questioned. The difference is that this is after at least four games Is a really good team.

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