The College Football Semi-Finals were played this past weekend, and the 4 teams facing off all had really intriguing storylines. The Miami Hurricanes were a borderline playoff team, finishing 3rd in the ACC, which is the worst conference out of all of the Power 4 conferences. They were this year’s “Cinderella,” a team that has shocked the world this season. The Ole Miss Rebels had their head coach leave for the LSU Tigers before the playoff run, and had used that anger to be 2 games away from being the National Champions. Indiana had blown the doors off of everyone they played, including Alabama. Oregon was coming off a great season with only one loss, which came against Indiana.
In this post, we will take a deep dive into both of the Semifinal games: Miami vs. Ole Miss and Indiana vs. Oregon.
The first game took place on Thursday, where Miami took the field to face off against Ole Miss. If the Hurricanes took home the win, they would play in a home game in the national championship. Both led by new faces at the QB position, for Ole Miss, Trinidad Chambless, a D2 transfer who played great in the playoffs. and Miami, the Georgia transfer Carson Beck, who is on the hunt for his 3rd national championship win in his 7-year career, and 1st as a starter.
The first quarter of this game was pretty boring, with only a Miami field goal. Then Ole Miss would find the endzone with a Kewan Lacy 73-yard rushing score. Cha’Mar Brown would find the endzone for the Canes, making it a 10-7 game. The scoring in the half was far from over. Keelan Marion would have the first receiving TD of the game as Carson Beck and Marion would connect for a 52-yard score. Ole Miss would kick a pair of field goals to make it a 4-point game. Going into halftime, the score was 17-13 in favor of the underdog.
Coming out of Half, the Rebels were seeking a TD, but that would have to wait. The entire 3rd quarter went scoreless until the final 30-seconds where Ole Miss kicker would continue his day with another field goal, making the score 17-16. In the 4th quarter, the kicking continued, Ole Miss took their first lead of the game, 19-17. Beck would later find superstar freshman Malachi Toney for the score to go up 24-19. Trinidad Chambless found the endzone, as Daequan Wright would have the first TD through the air for the Ole Miss Rebels. What followed was a successful 2-point conversion to make the score 27-24.
Beck would need to lead his team down the field; a TD would win the game, a field goal would tie the game, and we would see OT. Beck would march down the field, and Beck would find the endzone on a 3-yard scramble to win the game. Miami was going to play at home in the National Championship.
The second game had no big game-winning drive, as 1st overrall pick hopeful Dante Moore would throw an INT on the very first play from scrimmage, which was returned for a pick six. The score was 7-0 early. By the end of the half, the score was 7-35 in favor of the Hoosiers. The final score was 21-56 as the Hoosier Nation was going to Miami to play the home team.
My prediction, I personally want to see Miami win this game, but I do not see this being possible. I think the Hoosiers win by multiple scores with a final score of 42-14.
