Heather Dinich reveals why 'talented' Miami will be Florida State's biggest challenger in the ACC

The ACC appears to be wide open heading into the 2024 college football season. Florida State is currently the favorite to win the league at +320, according to FanDuel. But six other teams have odds of 11-1 or better, including Miami at +380.

Speaking of the Hurricanes, it’s Miami who ESPN college football expert Heather Dinich believes is the biggest challenger to Florida State. Dinich appeared on Get Up Friday morning and explained why.

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“I’m going with Miami. On paper, they might be the most talented team in the conference,” Dinich said. “They’ve got to win the close games. Last year, they lost four one-score games and they out-gained all four of those opponents by a combined 251 yards. If they can change that and win those games, they can win the ACC.”

As Dinich said, Miami wasn’t far off from having a much better season than 7-6 in 2023. The Hurricanes should be even more talented this year after Mario Cristobal loaded up in the transfer portal.

Miami’s most important addition was arguably quarterback Cam Ward, but the Hurricanes also added running back Damien Martinez, receiver Sam Brown and numerous other playmakers.

If Cristobal’s team can stay healthy and finish close games, watch out. The Hurricanes will open the season on Saturday, Aug. 31 against Florida in The Swamp. They should have a pretty good idea then of what kind of team they will be.

Greg McElroy picks Miami over Florida State in ACC Championship

Heather Dinich isn’t the only ESPN analyst high on Miami. ESPN college football expert Greg McElroy shared recently that he expects the Hurricanes to win the ACC.

“At this point, there’s more known commodities on the roster. They’ve been able to really upgrade at just about every position,” McElroy explained. “Now, are there a couple question marks in the back end defensively? Yes. But they did go out and bring in a guy like Mishael Powell from Washington. They feel pretty good about him filling in on one of those safety spots. I didn’t feel like their secondary was great last year. So I think another year in Lance Guidry system defensively, they’re going to be able to take the next step.

“So we’re taking Miami to win the ACC and punch their ticket to the [College Football Playoff] over Florida State. Much like last year, they’ll be waiting around on selection day to find out whether or not they are in.”