Miami outlasts Ole Miss in Fiesta Bowl to advance to CFP National Championship Game: Live updates and reaction
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:The Athletic Live Team and more
The Hurricanes beat the Rebels 31-27 on a late Carson Beck TD run and will play at home for the national title
The Hurricanes beat the Rebels 31-27 on a late Carson Beck TD run and will play at home for the national title
The Athletic Live Team and more
January 9, 2026 at 1:20 AM EST
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Canes edge Rebels
The Miami Hurricanes have won the Fiesta Bowl, beating the Ole Miss Rebels in a 31-27 thriller to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
There were four lead changes in the fourth quarter at State Farm Stadium, with the Hurricanes to play either Oregon or Indiana for the national championship.
Miami quarterback Carson Beck scrambled for the game-winning touchdown from 3 yards with 18 seconds remaining. He also threw for 268 yards, with Miami finishing with 191 rushing yards.
Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss did his part with 277 passing yards.
The first step toward addressing a problem, as the saying goes, is admitting you have one. Good news for concerned SEC football fans: It does seem the conference admits it has a problem.
That was true even before Ole Miss lost to Miami, meaning the SEC was shut out of the national championship game for a third straight year. Ole Miss acquitted itself well, played a great game and almost got there. It deserves its flowers.
In fact, Ole Miss being the last SEC team standing was perfect symbolism. The rest of the conference should take heed.
As it is, the reality of the SEC’s situation set in this week among the conference’s defenders and within the league itself.
There was Paul Finebaum, voice of the SEC Network and basically the SEC, saying there was no defense for the conference’s 2-7 bowl record, including Alabama’s loss to Indiana in the College Football Playoff.
“There’s no way to defend the SEC. It’s been terrible,” Finebaum said on ESPN’s “First Take” on Tuesday.
More Miami Fiesta Bowl controversy
Twenty-three years after a controversial defensive pass interference doomed Miami in the Fiesta Bowl, a similar situation in the same event went the other way — sending the Hurricanes to the College Football Playoff national championship.
Trinidad Chambliss’ heave into the end zone as time expired fell incomplete, ending the Rebels’ comeback hopes.
Replays showed Miami defensive back Ethan O’Connor grabbing the back of Ole Miss’ De’Zhaun Stribling’s jersey with his right hand and, at times, the front of Stribling’s jersey with his left, as the receiver stretched out and O’Connor leapt.
Chambliss’ pass hit Stribling’s left hand before hitting the ground.
No flag flew, but Chambliss and Ole Miss coach Pete Golding threw their hands in the air in frustration — and the contact led to the expected amount of social media criticism.
What’s next for Miami?
Miami will play for its sixth national championship and its biggest game since losing to Ohio State 23 years ago in the Fiesta Bowl national title game. The Hurricanes don’t have much of a history with either potential opponent, Indiana or Oregon; the most recent of the three combined matchups happened in 1966, and neither the Ducks nor the Hoosiers have ever won a national title.
There are, however, some commonalities. Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal won a pair of Pac-12 championships as the Ducks’ head coach from 2017-21 before taking over his alma mater, Miami. He went to the same high school (Miami’s Christopher Columbus High) as Indiana’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Fernando Mendoza.
Oregon is built somewhat similarly to Miami, with a premium on the lines of scrimmage. The Ducks’ offensive line ranks in the top 20 nationally in fewest tackles for loss and sacks allowed; Miami’s defensive front is one of the fiercest in the nation.
Indiana is the lone undefeated team remaining and is battle-tested after a regular-season win over Oregon, a victory over Ohio State in the Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl rout of Alabama. Miami pounded its way to 191 rushing yards tonight but would have a hard time matching that figure against an Indiana rushing defense that’s No. 2 nationally (73.7 yards per game allowed).
Ole Miss made through some unprecedented noise
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The loss ended a magical run for the Rebels, who were led by a first-time head coach (Pete Golding) and quarterback (Trinidad Chambliss) who transferred in from Division II Ferris State. Golding took over after Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for rival LSU after the regular season.
The coaching staff he left in Oxford has been in flux. Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. has double-dipped with the Tigers and Rebels during the Playoff, while two other offensive assistants, tight ends coach Joe Cox and wide receivers coach George McDonald, coached Ole Miss in the first two rounds but not in this semifinal.
Ole Miss’ dream ended. So did the SEC’s title hopes
Ole Miss made it farther than anyone would have expected when Lane Kiffin hung the Rebels out to dry, but their defense looked overmatched physically for most of the night, and Chambliss was unable to match his heroics from the Sugar Bowl. In fact, if not for Carneiro, their bionic kicker, the Rebels might have been out of it much earlier.
The loss means we will have no SEC team in the national championship game for a third straight season, a remarkable drought that would have seemed unimaginable back when Alabama was rolling under Nick Saban, or when Cam Newton was at Auburn, Joe Burrow at LSU or ... Stetson Bennett at Georgia. In fact, the last time the SEC went more than two seasons without a team winning a national championship was 2002.
And in a crazy full-circle moment, the team that lost in the national title game that season was … Miami. Which now returns to the final for the first time since.
The Athletic / Austin Green
A triumphant Michael Irvin departs the Fiesta Bowl:
💬 “That was a f---ing fight, but we won! We came, we saw, and we conquered. Now we go home, but we ain’t leaving!”
Canes hurt themselves — and survived
Vinny Testaverde once threw five interceptions at the Fiesta Bowl to cost Miami the 1986 national championship against Penn State. Miami’s defense dropped four of them tonight.
In the end, the Hurricanes survived all of their mistakes. There were plenty. Ole Miss ended up scoring six points — a pair of field goals — following those interception drops. The Hurricanes also hurt themselves with penalties, racking up 10 for 74 yards. And despite outgaining Ole Miss and dominating time of possession (41 minutes, 22 seconds), they needed Beck to engineer a game-winning drive.
You can look at it two ways: The Hurricanes are lucky to be going back home to play for the national championship. Or the ending shouldn’t have been this dramatic.
Hurricanes fans won’t care. Miami is playing for a championship, four years after Mario Cristobal arrived and the administration promised him he’d have everything to build a winner. He’s built one, warts and all.
The Athletic / Austin Green
Charlie Weis Jr. leaves the stadium as Ole Miss offensive coordinator for the final time.
Miami fans cheer for Cristobal
A throng of Miami fans near the ACC network greeted its coach with loud “Mario!” chants. Cristobal turned to the fans, patted his chest and saluted them before walking away to greet others.
The Miami hometown hero then pumped his fist as he left the field.
No SEC team in national title game
Three straight seasons without an SEC team in the national title game.
Last time the SEC went at least three straight seasons without winning a title was 1999 to 2002.
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A Miami player just refused to give away his cleats to fans. His reason?
💬 “I need them for the natty!”
Sankey spotted at State Farm Stadium
Seen in the bowels of State Farm Stadium: a glum-looking SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, whose conference will be shut out of the national title game for the third straight season.
The Pac-12 has made a College Football Playoff championship game (2023 Washington) more recently than the SEC (2022 Georgia).
More from Golding …
Pete Golding addressed Ole Miss fans and the bond his players share:
💬 “A lot of our fans have invested a lot throughout a lot of years and they deserve this. They deserved a better outcome … Hopefully these opportunities will continue.
“I’ll just remember how they embraced each other. There was a lot over the past month or so where somebody could have not been a good dude or not worked hard or not showed up on time, and that never happened … They’re gonna be talking about this (run) for a long time. They made memories in that locker room that will last a lifetime.”
He also talked about the no-call on the game’s final play:
💬 “Those situations are tough to call them. There was definitely contact, it happens a lot. That’s not the reason we lost the game.”
Miami’s dropped INTs
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Miami had four (yes four!) dropped interceptions tonight against Ole Miss. Convert on any of those and the game probably isn’t as close as it ended.
The Hurricanes got away with it tonight but will need to execute in the national championship if it wants to advance.
Golding shows love for Chambliss
Pete Golding praised Trinidad Chambliss in the postgame …
💬 “I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for (Chambliss) since he got here because he’s a D2 boy. To join a team with an offense already in place, with a starter who had already signed to be a franchise guy, it’s just special.”
He also said Chambliss was “seen and not heard” and that he would always celebrate then-starter Austin Simmons’ successes in scrimmage …
💬 “Then we’d play the (second-string offense) and they’d whip our ass.”
Miami can’t take so many penalties
Even though Miami won tonight, it was penalized a lot. It had 10 penalties worth 74 yards tonight against Ole Miss.
In the National Championship Game, that number will need to be reduced against either Oregon or Indiana.
Golding addresses defensive miscues
Pete Golding points to Miami’s two explosive plays in the fourth quarter, Malachi Toney’s 36-yard touchdown reception off a screen and Carson Beck’s game-winning touchdown, as what lost Ole Miss the game — not Miami’s upper hand in the trenches.
Dottery validated by Ole Miss’ run
TJ Dottery said he could tell the Ole Miss program was headed in the right direction when he arrived in 2023, and this Playoff run was a validation of that.
Golding discusses loss
Pete Golding praised his Ole Miss team after its loss to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl:
💬 “I’m so proud of this group. They never panicked, they never flinched. … This group created a legacy for this team and an expectation for this program.”
He also discussed the Rebels’ struggles on third down:
💬 “In these games, on critical third downs, you got to find a way to get off the field, and we didn’t … We knew coming in they were going to be challenging up front, and you got to find different ways to attack them.”
