{"id":424429,"date":"2026-10-10T20:44:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T20:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/424429\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T20:44:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T20:44:24","slug":"nick-saban-and-kirk-herbstreit-give-miami-hurricanes-fans-a-reason-to-smile-on-their-bye-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/424429\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit give Miami Hurricanes fans a reason to smile on their bye week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\tHome<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\/<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCollege Football<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\/<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMiami Hurricanes<\/a><\/p>\n

The popular \u201cCollege Gameday\u201d duo gave the Canes some high praise on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKirk Herbstreit points at Nick Saban during ESPN\u0092s College GameDay at The Grove in Oxford, Miss., on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. The GameDay visit for the Ole Miss-LSU game marks the return of head coach Lane Kiffin since leaving Ole Miss.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAyrton Breckenridge\/Clarion Ledger \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a terrific showing this 2026 season for the Miami Hurricanes. It\u2019s hard to really say it\u2019s early at this point anymore, as we\u2019re reaching the midpoint for a number of teams this season on Saturday in Week 6. <\/p>\n

The banged up Hurricanes aren\u2019t playing game number six this week, as they are on a desperately needed bye week after improving to 5-0 with an impressive but costly 41-13 win over Clemson last weekend. Miami saw two crucial starters join their list of walking wounded in starting guard Max Buchanan and DL Marquise Lightfoot, along with a number of other players get banged up. <\/p>\n

But that hasn\u2019t dissuaded two prominent members of ESPN \u201cCollege Gameday\u201d from tabbing the Canes as their best team through five weeks. Kirk Herbstreit, during their roundtable of topics, picked who the best team in college football is right now, and he went with Miami. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the best team right now in college football resides in Miami of Florida,\u201d Herbstreit said .\u201dDarian Mensah, the quarterback, Damon Wilson despite all the injuries on that defense. The Canes are only going to get healthier. Right now, I give Miami the nod.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI agree with you on that one,\u201d Nick Saban responded. \u201cThey are very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

When playfully asked by Herbstreit to repeat his statement to the group, Saban repeated his pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree with you on that. That\u2019s who I would pick, Miami, at this point. I mean, I\u2019m not giving up on the Tide. I roll on.\u201d <\/p>\n

Herbstreit\u2019s comments on the injuries are well taken, and they apply not just to the defense (which is where injuries mostly lie), but the whole roster. Buchanan returned to the game against Clemson after suffering a lower body injury and finished the game, but Lightfoot left in the first half and did not return. Buchanan is out for an undisclosed period after posting a picture of himself in a hospital bed<\/a>, and clarity on Lightfoot\u2019s status won\u2019t be given until next week at the earliest.<\/p>\n

Miami could be set to get some good news, with starting CB Xavier Lucas inching closer to a potential return. Miami has been down its starting cornerback duo in Lucas and OJ Frederique, Jr. for weeks, with reserve Ja\u2019Boree Antoine also out of action. <\/p>\n

In any event, if Miami can finally get some breaks to go their way on the injury\/recovery front, then they could be set to earn even more believers once the initial College Football Playoff rankings are unveiled in less than a month. <\/p>\n

\"Play<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

Miami Hurricanes News<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMiami vs. Florida State just got some added stakes for the Hurricanes with some notable visitors expected to attend\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The Canes are rolling out the red carpet for their biggest home game of the season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home \/ College Football \/ Miami Hurricanes The popular \u201cCollege Gameday\u201d duo gave the Canes some high praise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61194,34806,123,7209,129587,125,5079,7118,124,21842],"class_list":["post-424429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-espn-college-gameday","tag-kirk-herbstreit","tag-miami","tag-miami-football","tag-miami-football-news","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-hurricanes","tag-miami-hurricanes-football","tag-miami-news","tag-nick-saban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}