About Syracuse (8-3, 4-3): The Orange have played well for first-year coach Fran Brown, securing a solid record and a bowl spot. Now Syracuse has a chance to play spoiler. Kyle McCord is the only quarterback with more passing yards than Cam Ward, and he poses a threat when he has the ball.

Win, and the Hurricanes are in the conference title game against SMU. Lose, and the Miami is holding its breath to see if it can somehow sneak in as an at-large for the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Miami’s focus has been on going 1-0 every single week. Cristobal said, “It’s almost like our process has been really good for us so our guys believe it. They regurgitate it, they speak it and live it before we even get to them... This is Miami against Syracuse in the most important game of the year. So the 1-0 process continues.”