Miami's absolute bludgeoning of Stanford should put Clemson and the rest of the ACC on notice

It may have only been Stanford, but the Miami Hurricanes look to be in mid-season form already. Mario Cristobal's program did not skip a beat in its first game since playing for last year's national title. Even with a new cast of characters in town, Darian Mensah and the rest of the Miami offense wiped the floor with Stanford on The Farm in a huge statement win. Clemson and the ACC better look out!

It got so bad so quickly in Palo Alto that RedditCFB thought the Canes were playing FCS Samford.

In Miami's scintillating 45-6 blowout victory over the Cardinal, Mensah put on a clinic during his team debut. The former Duke and Tulane starting quarterback showed everyone watching that he can lead the ACC's most talented team to an unprecedented conference championship. He completed 27-of-30 passes for 401 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions on the evening. Mensah was on fire!

The good news for Clemson is the Tigers will have a few weeks to prepare for this buzzsaw of a team coming into Death Valley. The bad news is all the preparation in the world still may not be enough. We have the whole season ahead of us, but Miami clearly looks like the team to beat in the ACC. Teams like Clemson, Louisville, SMU, and Virginia may have a say in that, but they could all be up against it.

Clemson should be worried about what Miami may do to Tigers in Week 5

The really scary part about Miami's obliteration of the Cardinal has nothing to do with the margin of victory, or the fact that the Canes lit the Stanford Tree up like it is Christmastime in Palo Alto. If you look at the box score, Stanford did not turn the football over once. Miami lost the turnover battle 2-0, but won the football game going away. Even if the score says otherwise, Stanford didn't play Miami that poorly.

It may only be a one-game sample size, but any opponent may have to play near-perfect football to beat Miami within the context of ACC play. Although the Miami home date is the hardest game on Clemson's conference schedule, the Tigers might need a prayer or two to come out of Death Valley alive after Week 5. Miami didn't do this to any team. The Canes embarrassed an ACC foe on the road.

Frankly, Clemson and the rest of the ACC have already seen what Miami's best could look like. The Hurricanes did not even have to flex a muscle. Stanford may be a bottom-tier team in the ACC, but the Cardinal have looked better under new head coach Tavita Pritchard since he took over at his alma mater. The big concern is that Miami annihilated a Power Four team on the road, three time zones away.

Miami has three more games between now and the Clemson date. Those are against FCS Florida A&M, at Wake Forest in ACC play, and at home vs. Central Michigan out of the MAC. In addition to Week 1's primetime kick at LSU, Clemson has home dates with Georgia Southern out of the Sun Belt, North Carolina to commence ACC play, and a cross-country trip to Cal on a Friday night kick during Week 4.

We will not know how wide the gap is between Miami and Clemson until we see the Tigers play LSU.

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