Miami Defeats Ohio State in Cotton Bowl, Advances in CFP

The No. 10 Miami Hurricanes defeated the second ranked Ohio State Buckeyes 24-14 to capture the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the 90th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at AT&T Stadium. Miami advances to play the winner of No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 3 Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8. 

Following the first scoreless first quarter at the Cotton Bowl since Alabama-Michigan State in 2015, Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck got the scoring started with a 9-yard touchdown pass to running back Mark Fletcher Jr.

“We knew coming into today that it wasn’t going to be easy,” Beck said on the ESPN telecast after the game. “That’s a damn good football team on the other side right there. It was a battle. It took all four quarters until the very last minute.”

Beck, who has two national championships when he was a backup quarterback with the Georgia Bulldogs, completed a Cotton Bowl-record 13 consecutive passes.

On the Buckeye’s following possession, Keionte Scott jumped the route on a screen pass from Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin and returned the interception for a touchdown to give Miami the 14-0 lead they would take to halftime.

Ohio State grabbed the momentum in the second half with two touchdowns to pull within 17-14 with 13:28 left in the fourth quarter. 

CharMar Brown had a 5-yard touchdown run with 55 seconds remaining to give Miami a 10-point lead. 

Jakobe Thomas sealed the game with an interception with 43 seconds left in the game.

With the Hurricanes being 7.5-point underdogs heading into the game, this became the second biggest upset in College Football Playoff history, tying last year’s Ohio State’s win over Alabama as a 7.5 underdog and trailing TCU’s win over Michigan in 2022 where the Horned Frogs were 8-point underdogs.

Prior to the TCU win, the largest underdog to win a postseason game was Ohio State in 2003, when they defeated Miami as a 11.5 dog in the BCS championship game.

Should Miami win the Fiesta Bowl, they will advance to play the national championship game on their home field at Hard Rock Stadium.

Miami Notes

• Miami, the last at-large team selected for the CFP, has now won two playoff games after knocking off the defending champion Buckeyes for their first win over a defending national champion since they topped Florida State in 2000.
• Miami is 6-0 against ranked opponents this season and have won six consecutive games since falling to SMU 26-20 on Nov. 1 in Dallas.
• The Hurricanes are the first team in CFP history with zero accepted penalties in a game.
• Hurricanes luminaries in attendance at AT&T Stadium included Pro Football Hall of Fame members Michael Irvin, Ray Lewis and Jimmy Johnson.
• Miami improves to 2-0 all-time in the Cotton Bowl Classic, joining Clemson (2-0), UCLA (2-0) and Penn State (3-0-1) as the only teams to have an undefeated record with multiple appearances.