Miami shocks Ohio State in College Football Playoff Cotton Bowl: Live updates and reaction
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:The Athletic Live Team and more
The 10th-seeded Hurricanes have upset the defending national champions
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Follow live as the Hurricanes and Buckeyes face off in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game at the Cotton Bowl
The Athletic Live Team and more
December 31, 2025 at 5:15 PM EST
Goodyear Blimp pilots prepare the remote controlled dirigible prior to the Cotton Bowl USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Ryan Day’s resume
If this matchup had happened a year ago, a major storyline would have been these two coaches in similar positions — wildly successful in recruiting and roster management in this era of the sport but unable to win the games that matter most.
For Ryan Day, that’s all in the past. Ohio State’s stunning loss to Michigan in late 2024 proved the catalyst for the Buckeyes’ run from the No. 8 seed in the 12-team College Football Playoff to the national title they dreamed of when much of the team’s veteran roster returned after 2023. Then Day exhumed what ghosts remained when Ohio State went into Ann Arbor and beat its hated rival 27-9 on Nov. 29 this season.
Some questions about Day’s close-game management remain after a red-zone turnover on downs and a missed 27-yard field goal against Indiana cost the Buckeyes a Big Ten championship and No. 1 CFP seed. But the questions swirling around Day and Ohio State’s program as a whole are much quieter this time around than they were entering last year’s Playoff. And for good reason — Day has a 54-5 record as a head coach and is one of just three active coaches (Kirby Smart, Dabo Swinney) with a national title on his resume.
Iconic Ohio State-Miami Fiesta Bowl looms large
For all the talk about this being a new era of college football, a game played in an entirely different era will loom over this one. The BCS Championship Game at the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 3, 2003, remains one of the most iconic games in the history of the sport — and one of its most pivotal fulcrums in the 21st century.
Miami entered the game on a 34-game unbeaten streak and as the defending national champion under head coach Larry Coker. Ohio State was an 11.5-point underdog under head coach Jim Tressel. The result — a 31-24 double-overtime win by the Buckeyes aided by a controversial late pass interference flag in the first overtime — and these two programs specifically.
The Buckeyes claimed their first national championship in 32 years, went on to win two more and are firmly entrenched among the top tier of college football blue bloods. Tressel remains a Buckeyes legend despite resigning his post after NCAA violations in May 2011 and is now the lieutenant governor of Ohio. Miami lost two more games in the 2003 season and three more in each of the following two seasons. It then went 7-6 in 2006 to prompt the firing of Coker, who has faded from the public spotlight after an ill-fated stint as head coach at UTSA in the early 2010s.
Tonight will mark what is easily the biggest game for Miami since that ill-fated trip to Arizona before most of its current roster was even born. Our Chris Vannini spoke to some of the participants from that game to illustrate the grip it still holds on both programs two decades later.
Oddly specific prediction for Cotton Bowl
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No. 10 Miami vs. No. 2 Ohio State (-9.5)
The Hurricanes opened the postseason by surviving a 10-3 defensive struggle in heavy winds at Texas A&M — Miami’s most meaningful postseason win since the 2001 national championship. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, are set to play their 12th Playoff game since the format expanded to four teams with the No. 1 defense in college football.
Ohio State hasn’t allowed an opponent to score more than 16 points in a game this season, which doesn’t bode well for Miami. The Hurricanes are playing their fifth game against a top-40 scoring defense. The most the Hurricanes managed to score in any of those four previous games was 27 in the season-opener against Notre Dame.
Ohio State, meanwhile, is playing its seventh game against a top-40 scoring defense — the Hurricanes rank fourth in fewest points allowed. Throw out the 10-point performance against Indiana and the 14 against Texas, and the Buckeyes managed to score at least 24 points in each of the other four games.
Prediction: The problem for Ohio State here is that Miami has the best defensive front it has faced all season, with Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor, and the Buckeyes allowed five sacks in their loss to Indiana. Corey Hetherman’s defense racks up six sacks, forces two turnovers to give the offense a short field, and Miami wins a New Year’s field goal-fest by three.
On site in Arlington
There’s a good amount of Miami fans already at AT&T Stadium tailgating. Really interested to see the crowd split when everybody is inside.
NIL salary cap? Not so fast
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Ohio State and Miami have been two of the best-equipped schools in the country at taking advantage of the current name-image-likeness era of paying players. Both have spent big on both blue-chip recruits (Jeremiah Smith, Malachi Toney) and high-profile transfers (Caleb Downs, Carson Beck). Will the new revenue-sharing cap prompted by the House settlement force big spenders to throttle back a bit?
Our Stewart Mandelinvestigated and found a clear answer to that question: In the words of a recently retired college football icon, “Not so fast, my friend.”
Is Beck misunderstood
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Carson Beck was a backup for Georgia on its two national title teams and then took over as the Bulldogs’ starter, getting them to the Playoff. But he never really seemed to win over the Georgia fan base before transferring to Miami.
After joining the Hurricanes for this season, his critics followed him to Miami, especially in the team’s two losses. But what is Beck? Is he just misunderstood? Our Matt Bakeranswered that question entering tonight’s game.
First round: Miami squeaks past Texas A&M
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A windy day in south Texas, combined with two loaded defenses and struggling quarterbacks, made for a low-scoring rock fight during the first-round matchup between Miami and Texas A&M in College Station.
Both teams’ defenses performed exceptionally well in the red zone, aided by three missed field goals from Miami’s Carter Davis (who had missed two all season) and a blocked field-goal attempt by Miami star Reuben Bain Jr. against Texas A&M kicker Jared Zirkel. Neither team reached the end zone until 1:44 left in the fourth quarter, when star Miami freshman receiver Malachi Toney took a jet-sweep pop pass from Carson Beck for an 11-yard score to break a 3-3 tie.
Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed then furiously drove the Aggies down the field as time wound down, but Texas A&M's last-gasp drive ended when another Hurricanes freshman standout, Bryce Fitzgerald, picked Reed off in the end zone. Fitzgerald’s second interception of the day sealed the 10-3 victory, prompting wild celebrations from the visiting Miami sideline and cheering sections — celebrations which eventually included Hurricanes legend Michael Irvin kissing head coach Mario Cristobal on the cheek during a postgame interview.
Staff picks for the quarterfinals
The quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff begin tonight with four intriguing games during the next two days.
But will they be close, or will the favorites cover the spread?
There is going to be a LOT of talent on the field tonight in the Cotton Bowl. But who are going to be the players to watch in relation to the NFL draft? Our Dane Bruglershares his thoughts on tonight’s game.
Miami has plenty of talent, too
Miami receiver Malachi Toney took over for Jeremiah Smith as the nation’s most talented true freshman in 2025. Toney has 89 catches for 992 yards and seven touchdowns. Against Texas A&M, he took in a forward pitch around the right end for 11 yards with 1:44 left and the game’s only touchdown. Toney is an all-purpose threat, averaging 15.8 yards per punt return, and he has thrown two touchdowns and rushed for another.
The teams have competed head-to-head in recruiting, especially in South Florida, for some of the nation’s elite prospects. Smith, a Miami native, chose the Buckeyes over the Hurricanes as the nation’s No. 1 recruit one day in December 2023. In 2022, Miami running back Mark Fletcher Jr. was committed to Ohio State for seven months before flipping to Miami. Fletcher rushed for a career-high 172 yards against Texas A&M, including a 56-yard run on the game-winning drive.
Smith, Tate form dangerous duo for Buckeyes
Jeremiah Smith went from freshman standout on an upperclassman-heavy 2024 Ohio State team to the unquestioned No. 1 option in the Buckeyes’ offense in 2025 and didn’t miss a beat.
Smith has continued to perform from both a highlights and box score perspective — his 80 receptions in 12 games (despite battling a late-season injury) lead the Big Ten. He has surpassed 1,000 receiving yards for the second time in as many years (1,086) and has 12 total touchdowns. Smith finished sixth in Heisman Trophy voting in 2025, getting by far the most votes for a wide receiver.
He also has a star running mate in fellow five-star recruit Carnell Tate, who also spent some of his high school career in Florida (at powerhouse IMG Academy). Tate has stepped up into a bigger role in his junior season with 838 receiving yards and nine touchdown catches, proving to be a very capable No. 2 target and game-breaking deep threat for quarterback Julian Sayin.
Smith and Tate will both be 100 percent healthy for tonight’s game — the first time that’s been the case since Nov. 1. Smith was dealing with a quad injury over the final month of the season, which he played through in Ohio State’s win against Michigan in late November and loss to Indiana in the Big Ten Championship Game.
More on Smith’s recruitment process
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Speaking of Jeremiah Smith’s near-signing with Miami over Ohio State, it’s worth revisiting this report from our Manny Navarro at his signing day ceremony two years ago to remember just how close the Hurricanes came to landing the superstar receiver they’ll go up against tonight.
Full circle for Jeremiah Smith
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There’s an alternate world, not hard to imagine, where superstar wide receiver Jeremiah Smith is a major focal point of this game — because he’s suiting up alongside fellow South Florida product Malachi Toney for the Hurricanes, forming one of the most talented wide receiver tandems college football has seen in recent memory.
That timeline nearly became a reality, as Miami made a furious push leading up to early signing day in December of 2023 to pry Smith away from his commitment to Ohio State. The broader college football-watching public’s first introduction to Smith came when Ryan Day nearly collapsed with exhausted relief during a news conference after being told Smith was signing with the Buckeyes.
Nearly 13 months later, Smith had validated the hype, establishing himself as the best freshman skill player in college football and capping his first collegiate season by catching the game-sealing third-down conversion in the national championship against Notre Dame.
Despite already solidifying himself as an Ohio State legend and continuing his stellar production in his sophomore season, Smith has made no secret of how close he was to signing with Miami — even admitting to reporters this week that if the Hurricanes had reached stages like this one when they were recruiting him, he may very well have ended up with his hometown team.
Miami’s path to the Playoff
Miami squeaked into the postseason after a long and protracted battle — with a public relations nudge from the ACC — to leap past Notre Dame. The Hurricanes beat the Irish 27-24 in Week 1, but the outcome didn’t seem to matter to the CFP selection committee, which ranked Notre Dame ahead of Miami for five weeks, until the teams lined up alongside one another the final week.
Miami, which ranks sixth nationally in scoring defense, clearly was the ACC’s best team, but two close losses in league play hurt the Canes in tiebreaking scenarios and kept them from the championship game.
