Posted on 01/01/2026 7:08:58 AM PST by C19fan
More than 20 years after it was on the other end of one of the biggest upsets in BCS history, Miami pulled off the biggest upset of the College Football Playoff era on New Year’s Eve.
The No. 10 Hurricanes beat No. 2 Ohio State 24-14 in the Cotton Bowl to advance to the semifinal round of the playoff. Miami was a 9.5-point underdog at kickoff. Before Wednesday night, the biggest upset in playoff history — in either the four-team playoff or the current 12-team format — was Ohio State’s win over Alabama as a 7.5-point underdog on Jan. 1, 2015.
After Ohio State’s offense showed signs of life in the second half, Miami put the Buckeyes away much like they did Texas A&M — with a power run game. The Hurricanes gave the ball to Mark Fletcher and CharMar Brown five times over the course of six plays before a wide receiver screen to CJ Daniels got Miami inside the Ohio State 10-yard line with less than two minutes to go.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
once again Ryan Day showed up to a gun fight with a water pistol...
This game was going to mirror the Indiana game- IU pressured Sayin and made him uncomfortable...Miami has two elite pass rushers including Reuben Bain who’s going to be a top ten pick in the draft....so what did Day, who called the offensive play do??
Short screens to start the day? Quick passes from the snap of the ball???
Nope- had Sayin take snaps out of the shotgun then drop back from there, making it a deeper pocket and easier for the pass rushers to get to him- which they did....
This is also the second game in a row where the OSU front seven was pretty much neutralized and Avril Reese was a no show- so Matt Patricia deserves blame as well...
“They’ve got the math on their side, the only time they lose is when somebody monkeys with it.”
And IF they have not balanced the bets.
To be fair, UM's defensive line had been pressuring QBs all year. Hard to throw when constantly getting chased around.
It's one reason for their success - along with great runningbacks, good QB and a YUGE offensive line... *average* 6'5" and 324 lbs!
I give credit to Cristobal for turning Miami around, but I still give him debit for how he left Oregon.
He took a boosters private jet on a recruiting trip to Florida, giving no indication of interest in the Miami job. Apparently he told no one at Oregon. He accepted the job at Miami, flew home and only then broke the news. It was quite the shock to the players.
Anyways, I’m happy that Miami took dow Ohio State.
They ALWAYS balance the bets. That’s entire point of odds and spreads and all that. None of that stuff has anything to do with how they think the game will go. It’s just to make sure that nothing ever happens that makes the house lose. The house owns the odds, the house ALWAYS wins, anybody that tells you otherwise is probably working for the house and trying to get you to be more.
It was a New Years Eve game.
Playcalling? And then there’s Ohio State losing Brian Hartline. CFB is now beclowning itself, with teams now firing coaches mid-season because the successor needs to get an early jump on the portal, and coaches jumping early for the same reason. Ryan Day shouldn’t have been calling the plays to begin with, but the whole sport is drunk on tv and booster cash.
At least CFB should fix its own off-field schedule. At the rate they’re going, key players are going to take the check, hit the portal, and transfer at halftime lest they risk injury in the second half. The people who run the NCAA and the cash grab conferences don’t care. Because television doesn’t care. At at some point, fans will stop caring.
Ahh, that makes more sense. Shows how much I pay attention. Thanks
I only saw the highlight replays, but to my eye there's pass interference and offensive holding on almost every play.
Miami made it in because of their market, Texas would have beaten OSU in style.
Georgia will pull their ears off.
My UM son was at the game with his OSU half-brother. Can’t wait to hear from him!
Somebody forgot to tell Sayin he only had 2 seconds in the pocket to do something with the ball.
Big difference in Miami and a lot of teams these days, is that Miami runs the ball well. OSU (No, not the Cowboys or the Beavers) had no solution for that. The other OSU had no solution to that problem.
Hey, we still beat Michigan, so all is not lost.
“They ALWAYS balance the bets. “
They mostly try to balance but situations arise where they do not or can not.
Sometimes they get greedy.
I would have put TCU’s victory over Michigan above this one. Now Georgia did annihilate TCU in the final.
Good take.
TCU was less than a 7.5 pt underdog?? I hadn’t realized that.
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