The Miami Hurricanes (13-2) defeated Ole Miss 31-27 in the Fiesta bowl to advance to the National Championship at Hard Rock stadium on January 19th.
Carson Beck led the Hurricanes down the field with a 15-play, 75-yard drive capped by a three-yard touchdown run by Beck to give Miami the lead with 18 seconds to play. Beck finished 23 of 37 for 268 yards 2 touchdowns and an interception along with his rushing touchdown and lead two 75-yard drives in the fourth quarter as the Canes came back from 2 deficits in the fourth, first at 19-17 and then at 27-24 with 3 minutes to play.
“We never flinched,” said Beck, who threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. “In the face of adversity, when we had to respond, we responded.”
Mark Fletcher, Jr., rushed 22 times for 133 yards to lead the dominating running attack as the Hurricanes dominated the line of scrimmage throughout the game with a punishing running game, but gimmicky plays killed drives as least twice in the game.
The win for Miami was its third straight win over Top 7 teams, including a win at 7th ranked Texas A&M, 2nd ranked Ohio State and now the 6th ranked Rebels. The Canes improved to 7-0 against ranked teams this year and 4-0 against Top 10 teams. They will have the chance to make it 8-0 and 5-0 on Jan. 19 against either Indiana or Oregon.
The Hurricanes held the ball for a ridiculous 41:22 while Ole Miss only had the ball for 18:38. The Rebels (13-2) could never get a running attack after Kewan Lacy’s 73-yard touchdown run where he also tweaked his hamstring which gave Ole Miss a 7-3 lead.
Miami responded immediately with a long 15-play, 75-yard drive that ate up almost 8 minutes of clock. The Rebels responded with a field goal, but Miami struck right back on a 52-yard touchdown pass from Beck to Keelan Marion who had 7 catches for 114 yards and a touchdown.
Malachi Toney had 5 catches for 81 yards and a touchdowns, a 36-yard tunnel screen that gave Miami a 24-19 lead with just over 5 minutes left, but Trinidad Chambliss led his guys right back down the field to make it 27-24 on a 24-yard touchdown pass to Dae-Quan Wright with just over 3 minutes left setting the stage for Beck’s magic.
Chambliss also finished 23 of 37 for 277 yards and a touchdown pass, but Chambliss got away with some really bad throws and decisions that saw Hurricanes defenders drop at least four easy interceptions, two that could have gone back for pick sixes and then ended up in points being scored by the Rebels.
Miami finished with 28 first downs to 23 for Ole Miss and outgained the No. 2 offense in the nation 459 to 398 and held the Rebels to only 121 yards rushing, 73 which came on Lacy’s big touchdown run to start the second quarter. It broke the 8-game streak of 30-point scoring games by Ole Miss as well.
Miami committed 10 penalties for 74 yards which did hurt the Hurricanes a great deal and stopped drives, but they survived to advance to the National Championship when Chambliss’ final heave for a Hail Mary to the end zone sailed out of bounds.
Miami head coach Mario Cristobal is now one win away from a full restructuring of the program after taking over 4 years ago and dealing with some difficult losses, but he built the program in his vision with huge offensive linemen and a dominant front. He spoke glowingly of Beck.
“He’s hungry, he’s driven, he’s a great human being, and all he wants to do is to see his teammates have success,” said Mario Cristobal, in his fourth season coaching his alma mater. “And that’s what we witnessed tonight.”
Now, the Hurricanes get to try to do something they haven’t had a chance to do in 23 years – play for a National Championship, something that on November 1st after losing to SMU, many people thought was a pipe dream!