How 'Easy' Is Miami's 2023 Schedule?
How would you rank the 2023 Miami Hurricanes football schedule? Difficult? Moderate? Some place in between? What do you believe Miami head coach Mario Cristobal would say?
Well, Pro Football Focus has one way of looking at it that came out on July 16, ranking Miami's 2023 slate of games as the sixth easiest in the country:
Easiest 2023 Schedules🏈 pic.twitter.com/zGDq2YMLDX
— PFF College (@PFF_College) July 16, 2023
Now, that’s based on 2022 records. There are many ways to project schedules for an upcoming season. Here are a few items to consider about Miami’s 2023 slate, and a different take via a podcast, plus a closer view right here in this article:
1) The ACC talent at quarterback is really good. Several future NFL hopefuls among the group that Miami will go against would be North Carolina State’s Brennan Armstrong, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, and Florida State’s Jordan Travis, among others.
All of them can carry a team on their back on a given day. They’ve proven it. While one category, facing off with signal callers that possess legitimate NFL aspirations, is far from easy.
Do not forget about Clemson’s Cade Klubnik either. That young man has a ton of talent.
2) The timing of Miami’s games are not good. The front half of the 2023 Miami schedule, one could say, would be fairly easy, sans the home game versus Texas A&M (Sep. 9). The second half of the slate, however, is game after game against Power 5 opponents from the ACC. Again, many of those squads possess potential pro quarterbacks.
Conversely, look at how many other teams schedule cupcakes towards the backend of their schedules (SEC is famous for this) to give the team a break prior to a big game. Miami has no such luxury.
3) More specifically, let's dive into a couple of the stretches Miami will go through this season.
The back-to-back games at North Carolina (Oct. 14) and home to Clemson (Oct. 21), followed shortly thereafter by playing at North Carolina State (Nov. 4), at Florida State (Nov. 11), and home to Louisville (Nov. 18) will not be easy by any objective measure.
Quarterback play or not, those are teams that will all likely head to bowl games. If those games were spread out more – with a few of them in September to early October – it’s a different conversation.
In sum, is Miami’s 2023 slate easy? That’s for any one person to determine basing it off of various criteria selections. That being the case, at the least, Canes fans should note that Miami has several potential pitfalls on their 2023 football schedule.
AllHurricanes.com is your home for all things Miami Hurricanes football, recruiting, basketball and other athletics, all the time. Follow along on social media at @AllHurricanes on Twitter and All Hurricanes on Facebook for round-the-clock news and analysis.
Fan Nation High school football recruiting analyst covering the state of Florida, as well as across the Southeastern United States and the state of Texas.