Ohio State and Miami will square off in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals on New Year’s Eve. On a recent episode of The Triple Option podcast, former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer revealed his prediction for the highly-anticipated showdown.
“I’m just concerned about Miami’s offense. I’ve kind of been concerned about them all year, but they didn’t look good,” Meyer said. “… I think Ohio State covers. I just don’t know how Miami is going to score points against the top defense in the land. And, they’re going to watch that film, and you’re going to see an excited group of Buckeyes getting ready to play that offense.
“Now, on the other side, Miami’s defense is legit. They’re legit. They made A&M look really bad on offense. If Ohio State comes out and plays—they just didn’t play well on offense against Indiana. This could be a low scoring game, but I just don’t see Miami scoring. If Ohio State scores two touchdowns, they win.”
Miami’s offense didn’t inspire much confidence from analysts in its 10-3 win over Texas A&M on Saturday. While the Hurricanes escaped the game with a victory, they only recorded 278 yards of total offense against the Aggies.
They also committed one turnover in the game. Miami’s offensive woes are nothing new. The team averages the 35th most yards per game in the country this season after ranking No. 1 in all of college football last year.
Of course, Ohio State’s offense isn’t infallible either. As Meyer mentioned, the Buckeyes’ offense looked far from impressive in OSU’s 13-10 loss to Indiana in the Big Ten Championship.
Ohio State logged 322 yards of total offense in the loss and threw an interception. Evidently, oddsmakers expect Ohio State to step up its game in the Cotton Bowl. According to BetMGM, the Buckeyes are 9.5-point favorites against Miami. The over/under for the game is set at 42.5 points.
The two teams will square off on New Year’s Eve at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ESPN. The winner will advance to the CFP semifinals.
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