Can the 'Canes be stopped?

By Piet Van Leer Sports Central Columnist

Does anyone else realize that Michael Vick could be starting his senior season at Virginia Tech? The same Hokies that dismantled last year's SEC champs, LSU, and Marshall could have the NFL's best athlete leading their team right now, and I'm still not sure they could beat Miami.

The Hurricanes lost 11 starters off their championship team from a year ago, and all they did was invade the Swamp and hold Florida without a touchdown pass for the first time since Cris Collinsworth was playing there. Miami still has a couple of road bumps (Florida State and at Tennessee), but the prevailing wisdom is they will cruise through those as well as the Hokies.

If this were NCAA basketball, we would be replacing Miami with Duke, and the question would be if Duke could reel of six consecutive victories to win the tournament. But this is football, so the only question is whether or not Nebraska's ass-kicking reserves them a spot in the BCS title game?

There were some other conclusions to be drawn from last weekend. Notre Dame, however unorthodox, remains unbeaten in Ty Willingham's tenure. Whether you believe in them or not, the Irish beat Michigan, who are considered to be vastly superior to the previous Irish opponents (Maryland and Purdue).

Also, Ohio State proved they might be headed for glory again with super frosh Maurice Clarett. Conversation during the week focused around a lack of respect for the Pac-10, and this vastly underrated squad from Washington State. Well, the Cougars came in to Columbus and were sent home wondering whether the lack of respect was deserved, or if the Buckeyes were as good as their performance.

Elsewhere, Oklahoma beat UTEP so bad that people wondered if Barry Switzer had jumped into Bob Stoops' body, a la "Being John Malkovich." Bob Stoops apologized after the 68-0 thrashing! (Some Spurrier disciple he is.) Chris Simms had his doubters apologizing for a week, looking like an NFL quarterback as Texas dispatched North Carolina. Cedric Benson also helped, as he is still piling up the yards in Chapel Hill as we speak. And USC obliterated Colorado in Boulder!

All of which begs the question, is it the late-'80s? Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, and USC are the teams to beat? Florida State would be included, too, but they have to play the Hurricanes, while the rest of the contenders fight for that honor in the championship game.

It's not as easy to hate the Hurricanes as it used to be, either. Their coach has barely said two words, none of them critical of any other programs. They're still arrogant, but no more than any other team, which used to be a stalwart of Miami teams of lore. Instead of Michael Irvin running up and down the sideling belittling every opponent, we have What's His Name scoring a touchdown. Who are these kids? The only one receiving any publicity is Ken Dorsey, and the only thing we know about him is his offensive lineman cuts his hair!

At least the Hurricane fans are still easy to hate. They're like Raiders fans, popping up in all parts of the country, talking all kinds of stick before the game, and continuing to afterwards, unless their team loses. Then they shutup faster than Fernando Vargas. Only problem is, Miami hasn't lost since Bill Clinton was in office, so it's kind of hard to argue with them. And Raiders fans got robbed last year, and haven't lost yet! Miami and Oakland fans are accurate? My world is slowly coming to an end.

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And a quick NFL note ... the Bengals appear to be this year's Super Bowl champions. We need only to look to last year, where the Patriots started off 0-2, looked horrendous, and their starting quarterback was injured. Get excited if you live in Cincinnati!

Article courtesy of Sports Central.