Carson Beck’s late heroics punch Miami’s ticket to national title game

By Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Miami Hurricanes are heading home.

And when they get there, they’ll be competing for a national championship.

The No. 10 Hurricanes defeated the No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels, 31-27, in a College Football Playoff semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday at State Farm Stadium.

Quarterback Carson Beck ran for a go-ahead 3-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left to cap a 15-play, 75-yard drive to seal the win. Beck completed 23 of 37 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns with one interception along with that game-winning rushing touchdown.

Ole Miss desperately moved down the field, but their final pass attempt was broken up in the end zone with Ethan O’Connor and Zechariah Poyser in coverage.

Miami (13-2), the last at-large team to make the 12-team playoff field, will now play for its sixth overall national championship and first since the 2001 season on Jan. 19 at the place they call home: Hard Rock Stadium. The Hurricanes will face the winner of Friday night’s Peach Bowl between No. 1 Indiana (14-0) and No. 5 Oregon (13-1) for the title.

Ole Miss’ season ends with a 13-2 record.

That said, it wasn’t the Hurricanes’ prettiest game. Far from it.

And it nearly cost them.

The Hurricanes dominated time of possession thanks to a stout running game — Mark Fletcher Jr. had 133 rushing yards on 22 carries — but had trouble finishing drives throughout the night.

The defense bent a lot and didn’t break often but didn’t have any real signature plays. UM only sacked Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss once — and that came on an intentional grounding call on the Rebels’ opening drive. Hurricanes defenders dropped four would-be interceptions.

After being called for just four penalties through the first two rounds of the playoffs, Miami was flagged 10 times on Thursday — many coming at crucial times.

But in the end, Miami did just enough to move on — and at this point, moving on is all that matters.

UM led Ole Miss 17-13 at halftime behind a 38-yard Carter Davis field goal, 4-yard CharMar Brown rushing touchdown and 52-yard passing touchdown from Beck to Keelan Marion.

The Rebels briefly led 7-3 after a 73-yard Kewan Lacy rushing touchdown on the first play of the second quarter — the longest play allowed by UM’s defense all season — before Brown’s rushing touchdowns capped a 15-play drive.

Ole Miss then tied the game at 10-10 with 4:38 left in the first half on a 42-yard Lucas Carneiro field goal before Beck’s pass to Marion made it 17-10 with 2:18 left in the half. Carneiro then hit a 58-yard field goal with 11 seconds left in the quarter to cut Miami’s lead to 17-13 at the half.

Miami’s offense then came up empty on each of its first three drives of the second half — on a missed field goal, interception off a tipped pass and punt after back-to-back sacks — despite reaching Ole Miss territory on every possession. That allowed the Rebels to take the lead on two more Carneiro field goals from 54 yards with 22 seconds left in the third quarter and 21 yards with seven minutes left to play.

And then? Chaos.

Miami ripped off a four-play, 75-yard drive capped by a 36-yard touchdown pass from Beck to Malachi Toney to make the score 24-19 with 5:04 left to play.

Ole Miss followed with a six-play, 75-yard drive capped by a 24-yard touchdown pass from Chambliss to Dae’quan Wright to make it 27-24 Rebels after the two-point conversion with 3:13 left to play.

And then Beck orchestrated the biggest drive of his career to close it out.

And now, the Hurricanes are heading home to compete for a national championship.

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