Monday Musings: Canes’ Coaches Poll ranking gives opener vs. Notre Dame a tad more spice

Happy Monday, y’all. Hope your weeks have gotten off to a good start.

It’s now August, which means there’s football at the end of this month! And for those who don’t mind NFL preseason football, there’s that this week too, so there’s something to keep an eye on. The long offseason is finally ending.

Let’s get to it…

1) The coaches did the networks a bit of a favor for the Sunday night tilt between your Miami Hurricanes and the Notre Dame fighting Irish – they made both top 10 teams.

The preseason Coaches Poll came out on Monday, and the Canes checked in at #10. Notre Dame sits at #5.

I’m not too surprised, but I could have seen the Canes down around #12-14 range, so it’s a bit more respect from the coaches across the country as far as how they view Miami going into a very curious 2025 season.

Of course, the Irish have plenty of questions themselves, but they managed to ride that success from the end of 2024 – where they were the national runner up – to receive a top 5 spot.

So, now, the Miami Hurricanes will have a top 10 showdown (at least by the coaches) at Hard Rock Stadium to get their season going.

2) That said, the preseason rankings don’t matter all that much from a CFP perspective.

I’ve seen some chatter about getting rid of the preseason polls, but why, when the real poll (CFP rankings) comes out in November and is based on work done up through the first two months of the season?

The polls have been largely watered down for anything beyond television hype to get folks to watch. They’re like a bowl of Reese’s cups. Fun, but empty calories.

That being said, I do find the Coaches Poll interesting because it offers an insight into those who are closest to the game think about the teams. And it’s curious to me they have that much faith in Miami going into the season.

3) One of my two biggest concerns on this roster is whether this pass catching group can be good enough to fill the shoes of last year’s star at a CFP-contender level. One player has been making quite the impression so far in camp as both a playmaker and leader: LSU transfer WR CJ Daniels.

Daniels has apparently been impressing early on the field with a number of notable grabs during the first week of fall camp.

He’s also served as the positional group leader and player that the younger wide receivers have been looking up to this offseason, according to Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson.

I admittedly was bullish on Sam Brown coming in last year from Houston as one of the top options behind Restrepo, but he turned out to be largely an afterthought in comparison to the rest of the primary pass catchers in Miami’s offense. I don’t feel like I’m going to get bitten by being bullish on Daniels being the man in 2025 at the wide receiver position.

I think Miami has players with the talent to break out and help fill those shoes beyond Daniels. We’ll see how things shake out with Malachi Toney – who appears to be a candidate to play a significant role on the offense – and sophomores Jojo Trader and Ny Carr, but the Canes also picked up some veteran additions after the spring game in Keelan Marion from BYU and Tony Johnson from Cincinnati. Both come in with significant experience, but Johnson had 6 receiving touchdowns last year on 48 catches for 449 yards, so that’s substantial. Marion’s big-play ability was impressive last year – in the return game, where he had two kickoff return touchdowns to lead the nation.

We’ll see how things shake out this week, but for now, the early vibes appear good with Daniels leading the way.