Miami has lofty expectations entering Year 1 of the Mario Cristobal era in Coral Gables.

The Hurricanes have a star QB returning in Tyler Van Dyke and are even being picked by some as a potential College Football Playoff dark-horse team. If Clemson continues its 2021 struggles (which isn’t out of the question after the Tigers lost OC Tony Elliott to Duke and DC Brent Venables to Oklahoma), the ACC could be wide-open this year.

ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) projected all 12 of the Hurricanes’ regular-season games. As you can see below, the Hurricanes will be underdogs at Texas A&M in Week 3 and at Clemson in Week 12. The FPI projections do give the Hurricanes a 0.6% chance of winning out, though, so there’s at least a chance!

Here are the FPI projections for each game:

  • Sept. 3 vs. Bethune-Cookman — 99.8% chance of winning
  • Sept. 10 vs. Southern Miss — 95.5% chance of winning
  • Sept. 17 at Texas A&M — 43.7% chance of winning
  • Sept. 24 vs. Middle Tennessee — 93.0% chance of winning
  • Oct. 8 vs. North Carolina — 71.9% chance of winning
  • Oct. 15 at Virginia Tech — 82.4% chance of winning
  • Oct. 22 vs. Duke — 95.6% chance of winning
  • Oct. 29 at Virginia — 73.9% chance of winning
  • Nov. 5 vs. Florida State — 74.5% chance of winning
  • Nov. 12 at Georgia Tech — 80.8% chance of winning
  • Nov. 19 at Clemson — 20.0% chance of winning
  • Nov. 26 vs. Pitt — 69.6% chance of winning

For those keeping track at home, that means ESPN’s FPI projects the Hurricanes to go 10-2 in Cristobal’s first year at the helm of the program.

Would that be enough to get them to the ACC Championship Game and potentially to a New Year’s 6 bowl game? We’ll find out starting in only a few short weeks.