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Paul Finebaum calls Miami a ‘fraud’ after blowing 21-point lead vs. Syracuse
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Paul Finebaum has predictably high standards when it comes to who will make the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.
After seeing Miami’s 21-0 lead melt away into a stunning 42-38 loss at Syracuse on Saturday, the ESPN college football analyst doesn’t believe the Hurricanes meet those standards. Not even close, actually.
Instead of leaving central New York with a victory, Miami left with virtually nothing. Its second loss of the season meant there would be no ACC title game appearance this Saturday night in Charlotte and possibly no Playoff berth, either. The Hurricanes allowed a whopping 482 total yards to the Orange and lost despite gaining 503 yards of their own.
On the “Paul in or Paul out” segment on ESPN, Finebaum went “Paul in” on the question of whether Miami is a fraud after letting it all slip away after taking that 21-0 lead in the second quarter.
“You just can’t do that when you have everything on the line,” said Finebaum. “This has been a tendency of Mario Cristobal teams at Miami. … I realize Syracuse is a very good team, but when you have one of the best quarterbacks and one of the best players in the country, you have to deliver, and the Miami Hurricanes always fail to do that.”
Time will tell if the Hurricanes get another shot from the Playoff committee and squeeze their way in, or if that loss at Syracuse was truly the end of their championship dreams.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
