Who is already missing college football?

We certainly are.

Luckily, it is never too early to start looking ahead to the upcoming 2020 football season and ESPN writer Bill Connelly whetted our appetite by releasing his Preseason SP+ Rankings on Monday.

So where does Miami stand in the ranking?

The Hurricanes check in at No. 23 overall in the country, which may surprise some people based on UM’s disappointing 6-7 record in 2019.

Here is what Connelly wrote about Miami’s ranking:

“SP+ seemed to have a strange crush on Manny Diaz's Hurricanes last year, continuing to rank them in the top 30 no matter how many unlikely ways they found to lose football games. A combination of bad breaks and bad offense led to a 6-7 finish, and while Diaz can't do much about the former, he addressed the latter by bringing in not only a new offensive coordinator (Rhett Lashlee) but also Houston quarterback D’Eriq King.

“The U also brings back five of its top seven receivers and basically every offensive lineman. The defensive front seven will need a lot of new contributors to step up (the addition of star Temple end Quincy will help), but the secondary is seasoned, at least, and there aren't usually many reasons to doubt a Diaz defense.”

The analytic views Miami as having the ninth best defense going into the season and the 63rd best offense.

Connelly builds his rankings three primary factors, which are weighted by their predictiveness:

1. The returning production. This is based on players graduating, leaving for the pros, transferring etc. This accounts for more than 50 percent of the ranking.

2. The recent recruiting. This addresses the caliber of player that is filling in for the missing production from the previous year.

3. The recent history. This metric can give a measurement to the overall health of a program, in Connelly’s estimation.

North Carolina is the only one of Miami’s opponents on the 2020 schedule ranks higher than the Hurricanes. The Tar Heels check in at No. 17 overall in the country.

In-state rival Florida State checks in at No. 26.

Virginia Tech is the only other team on Miami’s schedule that ranks inside the Top 40 on the list.

Link: Check out the entire ranking here.

Miami is set to begin spring football on February 29th.