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UM can't catch a break

Undefeated 'Canes move to No. 3 in the BCS but don't pass once-beaten Oklahoma.

By MICHAEL SNYDER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 30, 2001

CORAL GABLES -- It seems the University of Miami can't win -- even when others ahead of it lose.

But the Hurricanes are inching closer.

Undefeated Miami moved from fourth to third Monday in the Bowl Championship Series standings, trailing Oklahoma, which lost Saturday at top-ranked Nebraska. With five undefeated teams losing Saturday, the BCS saw a radical change in its second week. And for 6-0 Miami -- ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls -- there's some light in the murky rankings tunnel.

Defending national champion Oklahoma was beaten by Nebraska 20-10, but all that did was flip-flop the Big 12 powers in the BCS rankings, with the Cornhuskers (9-0) taking over the top spot at 2.02 points. The Sooners (7-1), on pace to face Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game, dropped to second with 7.59 points.

Even with Oklahoma and last week's BCS No. 3 UCLA losing , Miami was unable to move up further than third. But the 'Canes, who have 7.71 points, are virtually deadlocked with Oklahoma.

"As the games of this past weekend so strongly demonstrated, it is vitally important for us to keep our concentration focused on the game at hand," Miami coach Larry Coker said, whose team was No. 4 last week. "While we understand the BCS standings will be a hot topic of conversation for the remainder of the season, the only measure of control we have over any of it is to win our games."

Michigan (11.75 points) and Texas (14.25) round out the top five. Stanford, which upset UCLA, jumped 10 places to sixth.

Florida moved up to eighth, and UCLA fell to ninth. Virginia Tech, upset by Syracuse, dropped from fifth to No. 15.

The only other undefeated team in Division I-A is Brigham Young, ranked No. 13 in the BCS.

The two top teams in the final BCS standings, scheduled to be released Dec. 9, will play for the national championship in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 3. The standings are compiled by a complicated formula that includes the writers and media polls, eight computer polls, strength of schedule, losses and a "quality win" component.

"Our players deserve to be rated very high and a lot of people feel we deserve to be No. 1 in the BCS poll," Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. "They earned it. We've played nine games and they have responded and won them all."

The Hurricanes, who routed West Virginia 45-3 Thursday, have been hampered by a weak schedule. Their schedule is ranked 76th nationally, compared with eighth for Nebraska, ninth for Oklahoma and first for Stanford.

"Our strength of schedule is going to get increasingly better, and I have no doubt about it -- if we win out, we will be where we want to be," Coker said.

Solich agrees that it's too early to put much stock in the BCS.

"I think it will all work out," Solich said. "We just want to take care of ourselves each week."

Miami hasn't been helped by poor starts from its opponents (Penn State 2-4, Florida State 5-2, Pittsburgh 2-5) that were thought to be tough before the season began. After facing Temple this weekend, Miami closes with Boston College (6-2), Syracuse (7-2), Washington (6-1) and Virginia Tech (6-1), which should raise UM's strength of schedule considerably. Miami moved from No. 92 to No. 76 in schedule strength after facing West Virginia.

Coker said he doesn't feel the 'Canes are being penalized because other teams on their schedule are weaker than anticipated.

"I don't think we're being penalized, that's just the way things worked and that's just the way the schedule is," Coker said.

"I think Virginia Tech and Syracuse and Washington -- and BC is playing extremely well -- make it obvious that we have some very difficult teams yet to play. So we won't be penalized. Our strength of schedule will certainly be there."

This latest poll might seem like an injustice to UM, especially because the 'Canes left out of the national championship picture last season in favor of Florida State.

But no one is panicking yet.

"We let a computer decide our fate last year after losing once," right tackle Joaquin Gonzalez said. "This year I don't see that happening. Everyone understands the situation we're in, and we have five straight weeks."

And they also realize they control their Rose Bowl fate.

"We know what happened last year, and we don't want it to happen again," left guard Sherko Haji-Rasouli said. "We just want to believe if we win out the rest of the games, we'll play in the championship game."

-- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.

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