For No. 10 Miami and No. 6 Ole Miss, the 2025-26 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl was a chance to silence the outside noise.
It was just the third game at the helm for Ole Miss’ Interim-turned-Head Coach Pete Golding, opposite an established program veteran in Miami Head Coach Mario Cristobal, whose Hurricanes ties date back to his own playing days at The U. Cristobal’s Canes were the final at-large team to gain entry into the College Football Playoff, a hotly-contested decision that left them with an uphill climb and a chip on their shoulder.
The game pitted a turbocharged Ole Miss offense against a stout, iron-clad Miami defense. The Rebels made their Fiesta Bowl debut while the Hurricanes looked to turn the tide on their heartbreaking 0-4 Fiesta Bowl record.
It was Miami ultimately coming through in the clutch, avenging previous last-minute Fiesta Bowl defeats with a 31-27 victory over the Rebels to advance to the National Championship. The Canes head home to Hard Rock Stadium as the first team in CFP history to play a championship game on their home field.
Anchoring the Hurricanes’ offense was sixth-year quarterback Carson Beck, a Georgia transfer looking to rebound with a new program. Golding’s squad hinged on Trinidad Chambliss, a DII quarterback who came to Oxford as a backup and had now found a way to forge his team’s path to college football’s final four.
Two quarterbacks taking their final shot. Two head coaches fighting to keep their Cinderella playoff runs alive. Two underdogs with something to prove in a matchup that promised to be an instant classic from the moment it was solidified.
It delivered.
The 55th annual Vrbo Fiesta Bowl was bold from the start, when Ole Miss won the coin toss and elected to receive with the second-best offense in FBS and best among Power Four schools. But Miami’s defense quickly imposed its will, forcing a three-and-out on the Rebels’ opening possession to set the tone for an aggressive, physical semifinal clash that came down to the final play in front of 68,000 fans at State Farm Stadium.
Defense continued to be the story throughout the first quarter, as every drive but one – a 38-yard Miami field goal – stalled out.
Then, on the first play of the second quarter, the Ole Miss offense did what it’s been known to do under Trinidad Chambliss all season – exploded. On 2nd and 3, running back Kewan Lacy split a seam up the middle and sprinted 73 yards to the house, putting the Rebs up 7-3.
On the next drive, a nearly 8-minute trudge, the Canes made their first end zone trip thanks to running back CharMar Brown powering in from four yards out. Ole Miss immediately evened the score at 10 with a 42-yard field goal courtesy of Lou Groza Award finalist Lucas Carniero.
With the ball back in Carson Beck’s hands as the first half approached the two-minute mark, the Canes took a shot downfield for Keelan Marion, who easily corralled the 52-yard pass for a go-ahead touchdown.
Despite the monster play, the Rebels got the last word of the half as Carniero drilled a 58-yard field goal with time winding down. It was the second-longest field goal in Fiesta Bowl history, trailing only Jake Moody’s 59-yarder in the 2022-23 TCU-Michigan CFP Semifinal.
With Miami holding a 17-13 margin, the third quarter mimicked the defensive stalemate of the first. The Canes fielded the opening kickoff and assembled a discombobulated drive that included a 12-yard sack, intentional grounding and a missed field goal. Carniero missed a 52-yard try of his own on the Rebels’ ensuing march downfield.
Still up four, the Canes pushed their paced offensive scheme deep into Ole Miss territory with a 13-play, 42-yard drive that bled 7:37 off the clock.
Right when they needed it most, the Ole Miss defense came up big.
With Beck looking to throw over the middle on 3rd and 12, Ole Miss safety Kapena Gushiken capitalized on a tipped pass to haul in a momentum-shifting interception, leading to the Rebels parading downfield for a 54-yard field goal to bring them within one at 17-16.
Carniero had his number called yet again halfway through the final quarter after an 86-yard drive stalled in the red zone. He chipped in a field goal to send Ole Miss up 19-17, its first lead since the breakaway Lacy touchdown.
Thus began the back-and-forth thriller of a finish that had a stadium full of fans on the edge of their seats.
Miami went 75 yards in four plays, capped with a 36-yard touchdown pass to ACC Rookie of the Year Malachi Toney, who took a screen and busted through tacklers to find the end zone. Canes up, 24-19.
Ole Miss bit back with its own 75-yard, sub-two-minute scoring drive as Chambliss bulleted a 24-yard touchdown to tight end Dae-Quan Wright. The Rebs swiftly converted a two-point attempt to give them a three-point lead at 27-24.
With just over three minutes to play and 75 yards to go, the Canes did indeed respond.
Beck led a 15-play, legacy-defining drive that will go down in CFP-era and Fiesta Bowl history.
Second-and-goal. Twenty-four seconds on the clock. Beck looking to pass but coming up empty. Pocket collapsing.
With his season in the balance and a National Championship at stake, the sixth-year quarterback took it himself – a scramble to the left through a wide-open lane that sent the Canes ahead, 31-27.
The Miami sideline – including a slew of highly-accomplished former Hurricanes stars – exploded, but Ole Miss did not go gently.
Chambliss proved that 18 seconds is enough to threaten, moving the ball 40 yards in two plays and teeing up a last-ditch shot at the win from the Miami 35-yard line.
As time expired in Arizona, Chambliss fired a Hail Mary to the corner of the end zone. Though he got his hands on the ball, wideout De’Zhaun Stribling couldn’t come up with it through contact.
Miami punched its ticket to the National Championship amid heartbreak for Ole Miss.
For both programs, the 2025-26 season will be defined by their resiliency. It will be forever remembered for the way they blocked the outside noise and clawed through adversity, all the way to the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.
