As a wild day of college football winds down, it appears as though Virginia Tech will make a significant jump when the national rankings come out tomorrow. Tech entered today ranked 11th in the Associated Press poll. But the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 teams lost—Mississippi to South Carolina, Penn State to Iowa and California to Oregon. And Tech hammered No. 9 Miami 31-7—tying its biggest win ever over a top-10 team, with a 31-7 home victory over No. 2 Miami in 2003.

So the Hokies figure to move up to seventh, likely behind Florida, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana State, Boise State and Oklahoma. All of those teams are undefeated except Oklahoma, which lost the season opener to Brigham Young and was off this week.

That isn’t the only way Tech was fortunate. The Hokies almost botched two punt returns and gave Miami possession in the red zone. But both times, Tech came up with the ball.

The first time, in the first quarter, motioned to fair catch a punt at his own 13-yard line. He stumbled backward as he tried to catch the ball and fumbled it. Luckily for Tech, Kam Chancellor was there to jump on the ball at the 11.

The second time, in the third quarter, Hosley was trying to motion to Eddie Whitley to move away from a falling punt. The ball bounced off the ground and hit Whitley at the 2. But redshirt freshman Lyndell Gibson, a backup linebacker, smothered the ball on the ground.

Not sure how much Gibson played, but it seemed like was out there more than usual. In the first quarter, he almost picked off the ball when Jacory Harris shovel-passed it away while Cody Grimm hit him in the backfield. Heading into yesterday, Gibson had played 10 snaps on defense and six on special teams this season.

For that matter, Chancellor played well, too. In the third quarter, he made a pretty dive to break up Harris’ third-and-13 pass that was heading for LaRon Byrd, who was about a yard past the first-down line.

So there you have it. This week, Miami was the team everyone was talking about. Now, Tech will step into that role, at least to some degree. Here’s what Harris had to say afterward about how the Hurricanes handled their high ranking and the (premature) Heisman Trophy buzz surrounding him: “I’m tired of people talking about stuff like that because it’s not distracting to me. But you don’t know how other people take that. So we’re just going to keep on moving. We just want to stay focused.”

Did all the chatter contribute to Miami losing? It’s difficult to say. I don’t really think players consider those things when they’re on the field. Too much other stuff to worry about. The bottom line: College football is unpredictable, its players flawed compared to pros. That’s what makes it fun to follow and challenging to forecast. Players like to talk about being motivated when analysts pick against them. But they should remember that predictions are flimsy. All it takes to make one is a mouth or a keyboard.

From developments around the country to inside Lane Stadium, plenty of things went the Hokies’ way.