Nick Saban on Miami being prominent: 'It's good for college football'

Nick Saban and ESPN brought College GameDay to Miami last weekend. The energy in the crowd, along with the Hurricanes’ win that followed over Florida, has the former Alabama leader thinking The U might be back.

With the win, Miami is now ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll, its highest since reaching No. 2 back in 2017. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Saban sang Miami’s praise, believing college football is better when the Hurricanes are a prominent team.

“There was great enthusiasm. It’s a fantastic environment. I just want to see Miami get back,” Saban told McAfee. “I think it’s good for college football. I think it’s good for the ACC, when Miami is a contender, you know, in this day and age in ball.”

Saban might be in luck. With the way Miami is playing, it seems like it could rip off an undefeated regular season and fight for the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

He’s far from the Hurricanes’ only believer, as well. ESPN colleague Paul Finebaum proclaimed The U to be back following their win over the Gators last weekend.

“They’re back this time,” Finebaum said via SportsCenter. “That was a false alarm (in 2017), just like many of the other 1000s of false alarms I’ve uttered on Sunday morning. But this feels real.

“Carson Beck didn’t even play an A-game on Saturday night against Florida, and they still managed to win convincingly. So yes, I’m going to go out and say it again. No turnover chain today, no drama. But ‘The U’ is back.”

Moving forward, Miami will have a Top 10 showdown against Florida State on the road to kick off October. For now, it’s a bye week for rest, recovery and preparation, according to Mario Cristobal. No other nonsense.

“I’m the one saying `block out the noise,’ try to keep it business-like,” Cristobal said. “This stays about team, it’s team first and nothing can get in the way of the team. Nothing … It’s a full throttle week, we all recognize what we want to accomplish. We have a lot of work to do.”

Cristobal noted that this is the real season for Miami. With ACC play being a massive indicator of where this team can go this year, it’ll start with the Seminoles.

“There’s a lot of bad blood, intensity behind this thing,” Cristobal said Monday morning on WQAM. “It’s a great start in our out-of-conference, now the real season starts.”

Alas, Miami and Florida State will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 4th. That game could mean a great deal to Saban and Finebaum, as a win would be the final signal that the Hurricanes are here to stay. We’ll see if they can come through.

— On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this article.