As I type this, it’s Monday, January 12th. We are officially one week away from our Miami Hurricanes playing for the 2026 CFP National Championship against Indiana. I am already anxious and excited for the game. I’m not sure how I’m going to make it to next Monday night.

Looking back on the Fiesta Bowl win over Ole Miss, the fourth quarter will be what everyone remembers. That’s not wrong, as it will be the same for me. However, I want to take some time to appreciate the dominant (yes I said dominant) first quarter performance the Canes put on. I think it was a huge key to the win that hasn’t been discussed. Let’s break it down!

Ole Miss wins the coin toss and takes the ball. In today’s football world, it’s always a surprise when a team chooses to take the ball as opposed to deferring to the second half. Watching the coin toss live, I was initially surprised by Ole Miss’s choice to receive. Then after thinking about it for a minute, it made sense to me. The Rebels’ offense is a far superior unit to their defense. They probably thought they had a script of plays that would take them down the field for a touchdown, putting pressure on the methodical Miami machine to play from behind. Lucky for Canes fans, Corey Hetherman had his guys ready to play.

We can go play by play for Ole Miss since there were only seven!

1st down – Pass for 4 yards to Harrison Wallace

2nd down – Run for 2 yards by Kewan Lacy

3rd down – Trinidad Chambliss sacked for 13 yards by Mo Toure (intentional grounding)

I was pumping my fists after Toure’s sack on third down. That was big. I was hoping Miami would hold Ole Miss to a punt on its opening possession. The fact that it was a three-and-out that ended in a sack was even better. Miami took the ball and settled for a field goal after a 13-play drive that took up 7:21. Of course Canes fans wanted the touchdown, but it was a good start for the Miami offense. Points were scored and nearly half a quarter of game time was used to do so.

1st down – Pass for 4 yards to Lacy

2nd down – Run for no gain by Chambliss

3rd down – Incomplete pass

Boom. Another three-and-out. I was elated. The Canes showed Ole Miss early that this was the best defense it was going to face all season. Miami’s offense then held the ball for another 4:47, but had to punt after a bad holding penalty negated a 18-yard Marty Brown run, and backed them up after crossing midfield. Not ideal, but another drive with a first down that ate up nearly five minutes.

1st down – Run for 2 yards by Lacy

We all know what happened next. David Blay got fooled by the snap count and pushed over the center. Many Canes fans noted he does this about once per game, so it was nice to get it out of the way in the first quarter. (Sigh). That dumb penalty gave Ole Miss a much more manageable second down. Then, to open the second quarter, Lacy ran untouched for a 73-yard touchdown to give the Rebels a 7-3 lead.

Does the above paragraph completely undermine the point I’m making in this article? No! I promise it doesn’t. I mentioned it before, but from the first snap, Miami showed Ole Miss what kind of defense its offense was up against. Hetherman and his group didn’t give the Rebels any momentum at all to start the game. In my humble opinion, that was enormous.

Ole Miss finished the first quarter with 8 passing yards and -9 rushing yards. Holding one of the best offenses in the country to -1 total yards in a quarter is awesome. Ole Miss only ran seven plays. Again, awesome. Lastly, Ole Miss held the ball for just over 3:00 in the first quarter, compared to nearly 12:00 for Miami. Those numbers perfectly describe Canes football in 2025-26. Hopefully they can do the same thing against Indiana.