{"id":101966,"date":"2026-01-01T04:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T04:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/101966\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T04:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T04:41:11","slug":"miami-beats-defending-national-champion-ohio-state-in-cotton-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/101966\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami beats defending national champion Ohio State in Cotton Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Keionte Scott returned an interception 72 yards for a touchdown, Carson Beck threw a scoring pass and No. 10 Miami shocked defending champion Ohio State 24-14 on Wednesday night at the Cotton Bowl in the first College Football Playoff quarterfinal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes (12-2, CFP No. 10 seed) have won two playoff games to get into football\u2019s final four after needing an at-large berth to make the 12-team field, after not even without playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. One more win and they will get to play for a national championship in their home stadium.<\/p>\n

Next for Miami in coach Mario Cristobal\u2019s fourth season is a CFP semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8 against No. 3 seed Georgia or No. 6 seed Ole Miss, the SEC teams in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

There hasn\u2019t been a national title for \u201cThe U\u201d since 2001, when Cristobal was an offensive tackle for the Hurricanes and part of his second championship there. The Hurricanes were denied a repeat the following season with a double-overtime loss in the Fiesta Bowl to Ohio State, the only other time the teams met in a bowl \u2014 and the last they played in that game.<\/p>\n

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\"Texas<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about me. It\u2019s about all these guys up here, the guys that came before them,\u201d Cristobal said. \u201cThis is a joint team effort and a family. … We\u2019re progressing, we\u2019re getting better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s third-ranked Ohio State (12-2, CFP No. 2 seed), which went into the game as a 9 1\/2-point favorite according to BetMGM Sportsbook, that can\u2019t win back-to-back national titles for the first time in program history.<\/p>\n

The Buckeyes hadn\u2019t played since a 13-10 loss to now-No. 1 Indiana in a Big Ten championship game matchup of undefeated teams on Dec. 6. They still got a first-round bye, then lost just like all four teams that went directly to the quarterfinal round in the inaugural 12-team playoff last season.<\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s second pick-six this season came when he jumped a quick screen pass to the left thrown by Heisman Trophy finalist Julian Sayin, then had a wide-open field to sprint untouched to the end zone for a 14-0 lead with 11:49 left in the first half.<\/p>\n

That came only 1:42 after Beck\u2019s quick pass to Mark Fletcher Jr. coming out of the backfield for a 9-yard score.<\/p>\n

Beck, who was part of Georgia\u2019s national titles in 2021 and 2022 when Stetson Bennett was the starter, completed 19 of 26 passes for 138 yards.<\/p>\n

When asked what stood out to him about Miami, Beck said, \u201cJust the way that this team has responded to adversity. We knew coming into today that it wasn\u2019t going to be easy. … That\u2019s a damn good football team on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

The TD throw to Fletcher, who also ran 19 times for 90 yards and was the game\u2019s offensive MVP, was the seventh of 13 consecutive completions for Beck. That set a record in the Cotton Bowl, which was played for the 90th time.<\/p>\n

Sayin, a freshman backup behind Will Howard for Ohio State\u2019s championship run last season, was 22 of 35 for 287 yards with two interceptions and a TD to Jeremiah Smith. Sayin was sacked five times.<\/p>\n

AP All-America receiver Smith, the Miami native, caught seven of those passes for 157 yards, including a 14-yard TD on a fourth down in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Carter Davis added a 49-yard field goal in the third quarter and ChaMar Brown ran for a 5-yard TD in the game\u2019s final minute for the Hurricanes, whose 24 points were the most Ohio State gave up this season.<\/p>\n

The takeaway<\/p>\n

Miami: The Hurricanes have won six games in a row since an overtime loss Nov. 1 at SMU<\/a>, less than 25 miles from AT&T Stadium, where the Cotton Bowl is played. They also made their CFP debut in the Lone Star State, winning 10-3 at No. 7 Texas A&M<\/a> in the first round on Dec. 20.<\/p>\n

Ohio State: All-America safety Caleb Downs, who started in the CFP for the third season in a row, became the first player to force two fumbles in a CFP game. … The Buckeyes had gone four consecutive quarters \u2014 the equivalent of a full game \u2014 until Bo Jackson\u2019s 1-yard TD run to cap its opening drive of the second half.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Miami waits to see who it will play in the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State is scheduled to open the the 2026 season at home against Ball State on Sept. 5.<\/p>\n

North Texas men\u2019s basketball team drops American Conference opener at Memphis<\/a>Former Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin named head coach of UFL\u2019s Houston Gamblers<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more college sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Keionte Scott returned an interception 72 yards for a touchdown, Carson Beck threw a scoring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1111,111,20228,123,125,124,110],"class_list":["post-101966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-article","tag-college-sports","tag-colleges","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}