Cote: Notre Dame wins Orange Bowl, CFP semi ... as Miami Hurricanes sink into, ‘What if?’ | Opinion
The way the Miami Hurricanes season ended so miserably had to hurt all over again Thursday night, or should have, as Penn State and Notre Dame played in UM’s home stadium in the 91st Orange Bowl Game — the College Football Playoff semifinal at Hard Rock Stadium.
If Canes coach Mario Cristobal could bear to have watched, I guarantee that thought occurred as the pain resurfaced.
One day later Miami would kick off its plans for 2025 right by landing former Georgia starting quarterback Carson Beck in the transfer portal (more on that in a bit), but, still, this Orange Bowl had to sting Cristobal over all that might have been.
That’s the thing about the Orange Bowl. Without meaning to it heaps added pressure on the hometown Hurricanes to be good enough again to partake of the benefit of the OB’s annual CFP stage. Three of The U’s five national championships have been won in the Orange Bowl Game, after all.
And it seemed for so long that this season might finally bring the elusive sixth one, and first since 2001.
Call it the collateral damage: When the Canes fail to make the playoff, especially with it now tripled to 12 teams, the failure is fast magnified as two better teams parade through Miami and into UM’s backyard to catapult toward the trophy the Hurricanes so desperately want to win again.
Except, this time, were the Fighting Irish or Nittany Lions better teams at all?
Notre Dame was better Thursday, coming from behind to win 27-24 on a last-second 41-yard field goal in a slow-starting game that roused itself to turn entertaining and end compelling. And historic, as Irish coach Marcus Freeman on his 39th birthday became the first Black head coach to play for a top-tier college football championship.
“We found a way to make plays when it mattered the most,” said Freeman afterward. “It isn’t about a birthday, it’s about this moment. The best recruiting we can do is to win.”
Said Penn State coach James Franklin: “We came up a few seconds and a few inches short.”
But would either Orange Bowl team, neither with a special quarterback, have beaten the Miami we saw most of this season?
Not so sure at all.
But it’s Notre Dame advancing to play for the championship now vs. the winner of Friday’s Ohio State-Texas semifinal in the Cotton Bowl.
While Miami is left to fathom all it lost.
UM at 9-0 was ranked No. 4 in the CFP ranking. Quarterback Cam Ward was then atop the Heisman Trophy lists leading the highest-scoring team in the nation as Miami was favored in its last three regular-season games and expected to sail 12-0 and favored into the ACC Championship Game — and be in the CFP ... maybe even playing Thursday night at home.
That Miami team hoped, no, expected, to be this far in the playoff. Felt a championship in its sights.
Then the implosion happened. Two late losses, no ACC title game, no CFP and, then a loss in something called the Pop-Tarts Bowl, a fitting humiliation as punctuation for Cristobal’s third year as UM’s coach. His Canes have improved each year, but this one finished brutally, and in the end was a waste of Ward’s historic one and only season here.
Credit Cristobal for striking back, not wallowing, with the signing of Beck as the presumptive ‘25 starting QB. I am hearing his Name, image & Likeness deal will be just north of $3 million. The fact Beck is dating Canes basketball player Hanna Cavinder had to make that much easier his decision to join Miami. Beck fell out of favor with Bulldogs fans but still is a major get for Cristobal.
Three quick side notes before we continue. Think of it as a written halftime show:
1. It was heartwarming to hear Notre Dame and Penn State fans, along with host Miami fans, set aside differing allegiances and all come together as one in shared humanity Thursday night to loudly boo coach Urban Meyer upon his pregame introduction as a new Orange Bowl Hall of Fame inductee.
2. Penn State has its funny nickname because the campus is near a Mount Nittany. Notre Dame’s nickname is funny because it tries unsuccessfully to make a tiny leprechaun seem menacing.
3. On behalf of the city of Miami, apologies that we failed to arrange for the weather out-of-towners may have expected. It was 57 degrees at kickoff, second coldest OB in history. This is deep winter for us. When it dips below 70 here, we put sweaters on our dogs.
Now back to the column.
If any are still among us, they are surely a dwindling few: The very old, perhaps centenarians by now, with the acuity to recall the start of the Orange Bowl Game — not so much that very first football game itself on New Year’s Day 1935, but the enduring Miami and South Florida phenomenon it would grow to become.
They are the ones who lived through the Great Depression, the Petri dish which led Miami civic leaders of the day to concoct a way to promote tourism in a time of economic desperation. (Miami’s Palm Festival game preceded the OB by two years but is not recognized as an official bowl game by the NCAA).
Those living witnesses could have no idea what an important and lasting institution the Orange Bowl Game game would become.
The 91st version of the OB tradition started dull.
Notre Dame and Penn State gifted us the Orange’s first scoreless first quarter since 2007. You know we said the forerunner of the Orange Bowl was the Palm Festival? This was the Punt Festival. Two defensive teams, sure. But these two offenses, oh lord! It was like watching Iowa play Iowa.
Then fun happened. Not exciting, Cam Ward fun. These are two pretty bad QBs. But running game fun. Points, at least.
(After Penn State coach James Franklin’s gentle pregame dig at Notre Dame coach Freeman, Freeman‘s suggested headline for the game should be, ‘Independent beats Conference, wins Orange Bowl.’
OK, yeah, being honest, Miami got the lesser semifinal. Buckeyes vs. Longhorns is the sexier game nationally even as Notre Dame is a national brand in the sport disproportionate to its recent success (like the Yankees in baseball or the Cowboys clinging to that whole “America’s Team” thing.)
Quick aside: Notre Dame with its gaudy, preposterously shiny gold helmets forfeited the OB’s Best Headgear trophy to Penn State’s plain white helmets, the most daring flair of understatement since Andy Warhol painted a tomato soup can and called it art.
In any case, though it wasn’t Ohio State-Texas, Miami Thursday night hosted two major-stature programs with huge fan bases in the biggest sporting event in America. And what turned out to be a pretty good game.
The city of Miami won as much as Notre Dame did.
Across the decades and through the tumult of college football, especially recently with paid athletes burying the sham of amateurism, a drastically shifting conference landscape and the onset of the transfer portal, the Orange Bowl has stood undiminished as a college football titan second only to the Rose Bowl in .longevity and perhaps second to none in stature.
The Orange Bowl has crowned 20 national champions across time. Thursday marked the OB’s fourth time hosting a CFP semifinal, this one the first of the expanded 12-team playoff era. Next year the Orange will host a playoff quarterfinal game, with the CFP championship game back here at Hard Rock-- thanks to the OB’s influence.
The Orange Bowl has poured millions in tourism dollars and beyond-sports stature into Miami ... but done something less intentional as well.
Heaped pressure on the hometown Hurricanes to be good again. No, great again.
The sliver of hope for Miami fans? Getting Carson Beck. And this:
Penn State and Notre Dame were sent to remind you that waiting since 2001 for a next national championships isn’t really that long.
The Fighting Irish have won eight crowns but are trying to win their first since 1988.
The Nittany Lions have won two — but none since 1986, back when Joe Paterno was beloved Joe Pa and hadn’t yet been swallowed by scandal.
So there is hope for the Hurricanes and their long(ish)-suffering fans.
Meantime, there is the annual Orange Bowl Game and CFP playoffs in UM’s home stadium to remind us the Canes fell short yet again.
This one especially hurt.
Because the Hurricanes that were 9-0 and ranked No. 4 with Cam Ward flying — that team was better than either team we saw playing Thursday night. More dynamic, at least. More exciting.
Having none of the top four-seeded teams in the playoff’s semifinals and what we just saw in the OB underlines this truly coulda been/shoulda been Miami’s season, with a run for the championship in its sights through nine games.
But Notre Dame lost a game this season to lowly Northern Illinois and hasn’t lost since, while Miami started 9-0 then choked late.
It’s how you finish.
So Notre Dame advances to play for the national championship now.
While Miami sinks back into the eternal misery, “What if?”
This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 11:33 PM.
