5 college football breakout teams who will make noise in 2020

This is the year “The U” forces itself back into the national conversation.

If any team is going to pop in the ACC this year, it has to be the Miami Hurricanes. This will be Manny Diaz‘s second season as head coach. He landed two elite graduate transfer players in quarterback D’Eriq King out of the University of Houston and defensive lineman Quincy Roche out of the Temple University. Along with Gregory Rousseau, Roche will eat along that defensive line.

Even though the Mark Richt tenure at his alma mater was largely underwhelming outside of one year, the ‘Canes have been solid defensively the last several years. It has been offensive ineptitude that has been their undoing. By adding a proven signal-caller in King, the ‘Canes can take flight in the ACC. They’ll be battling with several other teams for the right to play Clemson in Charlotte.

Though the ‘Canes do have to play at Clemson and at Virginia Tech, they still get North Carolina at home and they don’t have to play a top-10 team in Notre Dame this season. Assuming a Clemson loss at Death Valley, winning one or both of the games against normal division rivals North Carolina and Virginia Tech can get the ‘Canes to Charlotte and possibly to the Orange Bowl.

A New Year’s Six Bowl is totally within the realm of possibility for Miami football this season. The ‘Canes can go 8-2 in conference play and vie for a trip to the Orange Bowl right down the street or a state north in the Peach Bowl up in Georgia. Anything short of a 7-3 ACC season for Miami will be seen as a disappointment. Expect this team to be ranked all season long and be “The U” again.