Cote: Canes’ tour de force a home win vs. Indiana from new glory days | Opinion
The Miami Hurricanes’ march through the College Football Playoff has been a tour de force, and you can give special emphasis to that last word. Force.
The Canes’ flex of size, ball-control and will — what coach Mario Cristobal calls a mindset that’s “relentless” — has Miami one win now from its long-awaited sixth national championship ... and headed home to get it.
The opponent: The No. 1-ranked Indiana Hoosiers and Heisman-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza from Miami Columbus High.
“See you at Hard Rock,” said a smiling quarterback Carson Beck after the game.
Thursday night’s dramatic 31-27 victory over Ole Miss in the CFP semifinal in Glendale, Arizona, elevates Miami into the Jan. 19 championship game on UM’s home field: Hard Rock Stadium. The Canes’ opponent was set Friday when Indiana crushed Oregon 56-22 in Atlanta led by Mendoza’s five scoring passes.
The early betting odds have the Canes a big 7 1/2-point underdog. Sounds logical. But I’d also point out that three of Miami’s five national titles have been won at home, in the Orange Bowl Game. Then again, it’s a home game of sorts for Mendoza, too.
The upcoming title-game story line was guaranteed delicious no matter what, as Miami would either face the Miami-raised Heisman winner, the first of Cuban heritage, or an Oregon program that Cristobal left four years ago to return to his alma mater with this very goal in mind:
Creating new glory days for his beloved Canes.
One win away now.
It has been a long, long wait.
Miami had a jinxed history in the Fiesta Bowl entering this game: 0-4 including national championship game losses to Penn State to end the 1986 season and of course to Ohio State to close the 2002 season.
I say “of course” because Miami was reigning champ from its 2001 title and that ‘02 loss effectively ended UM’s glory days encompassing five national championships.
Canes fans have been waiting for that long-elusive sixth ever since.
That made Thursday’s the biggest Canes game in almost a quarter-century ... or the biggest in a little over a week, depending on your perspective.
Miami seeks to become only the third two-loss national champion in college football’s modern history. Before Ohio State did it just last season, LSU in 2007 was the only other double-loss champ since 1960.
Thursday’s semifinal was a heart-stopper, with the sixth and final lead change — four of them in the fourth quarter — making the final score when Beck ran 3 yards for the winning touchdown in the final minute. He scooted in untouched, the grin shining through his facemask as he shouted joy.
“It’s the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life,” Beck said. “You live for moments like these.”
It was a clock-chewing 15-play, 75-yard drive for those late winning points. That’s what I mean by tour de force. Miami had four-drives of at least 13 plays.
As Beck spoke on the crowded field afterward, Cristobal swept past and stopped for quick bear hug. Beck later recalled their first conversation about his transferring from Georgia to The U.
‘’I believed in his vision and what he’s been able to build here,” Beck said. “We really banded together. We never flinch in the face of adversity.”
Miami had won with defense earlier in the CFP playoff, defeating Texas A&M 10-3 and then Ohio State 24-14.
This time it took everything the Canes had. Including a ton of Beck, who proved he can be counted upon when needed. Before his winning TD run he completed 23 of 37 passes for 268 yards including scoring throws of 52 yards to Keelon Marion and 36 to super-freshman Malachi Toney. Beck’s only interception was off a tipped ball.
The Canes also ran for almost 200 yards and dominated time of possession 41 minutes 22 seconds to 18:38, playing the ball control Cristobal wants to define his team. But Ole Miss never quit — and led on a 24-yard scoring pass with 3:13 to play.
“We got three minutes for the rest of our lives,” Beck told his teammates on the sideline. “When we had to respond, we responded.”
They made the most of those three minutes.
“This is a team, this is a program thing,” said Cristobal. “They love it, they breathe it. I can’t tell you how many of our guys were sick, had the flu. Go Canes!”
After Beck’s winning TD an assistant coach on the sideline hugged Cristobal from behind but the head coach broke free and wanted none if that -- because Ole Miss and gifted QB Trinidad Chambliss had the ball left without about a half-minute left. The game hadn’t been won yet.
Ole Miss likely had the rooting interest of many in America, and not only because the Rebels’ modest history in the sport boasted only one recognized national championship, and that one in distant 1960. The school likely gained sympathy from current headlines, with head coach Lane Kiffin abruptly leaving late in the season, on Nov. 30, to sign with LSU — and taking much of his coaching staff with him.
But the calamity served as a rallying point for Ole Miss. Replacement coach Pete Golding told reporters he believes his players were conveying a message with their CFP showing that the coaches who left them amid their playoff run were replaceable.
All FBS schools including Miami must unfortunately juggle trying to win a national title in the playoff with concurrent obligations regarding recruiting and the transfer portal. But what Ole Miss has had to deal with is beyond the norm, with Kiffin in the villain’s role.
Still, the Hurricanes one win from restoring new glory days and with a title chance in their own stadium Jan. 19 — that’s more than a Miami story, too. It’s the kind of story that reminds you why you love sports.
Home would have been where the hurt is for the Canes had the championship game gone on at Hard Rock Stadium without the home team in it.
This story was originally published January 8, 2026 at 11:58 PM.
