Bill ConnellyJan 1, 2026, 04:12 PM ETCloseBill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.Follow on X
play0:35Oregon forces a fumble to set up a Jordon Davison TDOregon extends their lead after a forced fumble leads to a 6-yard touchdown run from Jordon Davison.
play0:35Miami stuns Buckeyes with a 72-yard pick-sixMiami’s Keionte Scott intercepts Julian Sayin and takes it 72 yards to the house for the Hurricanes.
Oregon’s defense dominates Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl (1:26)Oregon’s defense forces four turnovers to take down Texas Tech and win the Orange Bowl. (1:26)
Oregon forces a fumble to set up a Jordon Davison TDOregon extends their lead after a forced fumble leads to a 6-yard touchdown run from Jordon Davison.
Oregon extends their lead after a forced fumble leads to a 6-yard touchdown run from Jordon Davison.
Miami stuns Buckeyes with a 72-yard pick-sixMiami’s Keionte Scott intercepts Julian Sayin and takes it 72 yards to the house for the Hurricanes.
Miami’s Keionte Scott intercepts Julian Sayin and takes it 72 yards to the house for the Hurricanes.
Oregon kicked a field goal in the first quarter, and the game was over. Basically. Tech’s defense played heroic ball, but the Ducks dominated the Red Raiders’ offense so thoroughly that nothing else mattered. Oregon allowed just 215 total yards, with four turnovers and three turnovers on downs; its offense’s only touchdowns came on drives of 6 and 28 yards, and it still hasn’t done much damage against elite defenses in 2025. But the Ducks’ own elite defense carried the day.
With the Red Raiders’ offense so ineffective, they needed some serious turnover luck to have a chance. Instead, Oregon recovered all five of the game’s fumbles — three of its own and both of Tech’s — and that removed all hope. Despite allowing just 88 yards in the first half, the Ducks led only 6-0 when Matayo Uiagalelei changed the game with a strip sack of Behren Morton. He grabbed the ball himself and took it to the Tech 6, setting up the first of two short Jordon Davison touchdowns.
Oregon forces a fumble to set up a Jordon Davison TD
Oregon’s win probability jumped from 70.2% to 85.9% in those two plays, and although Tech responded with two solid, sustained drives, the first ended when the Red Raiders’ line got blown up on a fourth-and-1 run by J’Koby Williams, and the second ended when Morton threw a poor pass into double coverage and it was easily picked by Brandon Finney Jr. Finney picked off two passes and recovered a fumble. The freshman corner was brilliant.
Another Tech 3&O (three-and-out), and Morton’s sacked for 17-yard loss by Tuioti. Yikes. (Yards: Oregon 100, Tech -2.)
HUGE 50-yard cutback run by Williams but 3&O from there. Stone Harrington hooks a 54-yarder wide left.
Morton makes a couple of 3rd down completions to dig out of hole, but Cameron Dickey fumbles. Jeez. Oregon ball at the TT 29.
Another 3&O to start Q3: run stuff, pass batted down, short pass, punt returned by Malik Benson into Tech territory. Guh.
Oregon’s offense will face burden of proof in either matchup, but the defense will likely be up for the challenge.
Miami combined steady and efficient offense with a 72-yard Keionte Scott pick-six to race to a 14-0 lead, and when Ohio State rallied to get to within 17-14 in the second half, the Hurricanes responded with a perfect five-minute, 70-yard touchdown drive to ice the game.
Miami’s defense dominated early. Star ends Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor combined for three sacks in the first half, and Ohio State punted on four of its first five drives. After Julian Sayin hit Jeremiah Smith for a 59-yard bomb in the second quarter, Scott pounced on a telegraphed screen pass and took it the other way for a score.
Miami controlled the early going, but a Mark Fletcher Jr. fumble prevented the Canes from taking a quick lead. He made up for it with a 9-yard touchdown catch off of a faked Carson Beck sneak, and Scott’s pick-six shifted the odds in the Hurricanes’ favor.
Ohio State heads into 2026 in perfectly solid shape, of course. Sayin will return after throwing for 3,610 yards and 32 touchdowns in 2025 (he had 287 and one TD on Wednesday night), and the major stars in the skill corps — Smith and running back Bo Jackson (11 carries for 55 yards) — should be back as well. The Buckeyes are built to compete every year in a 12-team playoff era.
Still, a missed opportunity is a missed opportunity. After looking like the best team in the country for 12 games, the Buckeyes finished 2025 with back-to-back losses, and as Miami made this game a test of physicality and toughness, Ohio State couldn’t respond appropriately.
This was, quite simply, the biggest Miami win since 2002. With loads of former Hurricanes greats on the sideline — from Michael Irvin, to Ray Lewis, to former coach Jimmie Johnson — college football’s history was very much present in Arlington. And the Hurricanes managed to overcome both recent ghosts and Ohio State’s talent to survive and advance.
The 12-team College Football Playoff has existed for two seasons now, and the lower-seeded team has won all six quarterfinals to date. Granted, not all six of those games were upsets, but that’s a pretty blatant trend. In this season’s first two quarterfinals, we saw No. 10 Miami ride an early 14-0 burst and a clutch, late touchdown drive to a 24-14 win over No. 2 Ohio State, and No. 5 Oregon, a 2.5-point favorite over No. 4 Texas Tech, overcome a brilliant defensive performance with an even better defensive performance in a 23-0 shutout. Two quarterfinals are left on Thursday — do we have more upsets on the way? Will a top-four seed ever win a CFP game?
When I asked if we could trust the Tech offense in the quarterfinal preview, I didn’t expect such a resounding answer. Both offense and special teams imploded, leaving coach Joey McGuire with a pretty clear glimpse of the state of his program. Loading up on brilliant transfer defenders led to a Big 12 title and a first-ever playoff bid, and so many stars made plays in Miami: Edge rusher David Bailey had two TFLs (one sack) and two pass breakups, tackle Lee Hunter had two TFLs, linebacker Ben Roberts had another interception to go with the pair he snagged in the Big 12 championship game (he was in on 16 tackles, and Jacob Rodriguez was in on 11). Tech held Oregon to just 3.8 yards per play. The defense did its job. But the offensive line couldn’t move Oregon’s defensive front, and Morton — who entered with the lowest Total QBR of any quarterfinal quarterback — was not up for the moment. For Tech to both return to this stage and perform better the next time around, those expensive deficiencies must be addressed.
Oregon now awaits the winner of the Rose Bowl between Indiana and Alabama. The Ducks would be favored over a Bama team with an offense that doesn’t grade out much better than Tech’s on paper, and an Indiana rematch would offer Oregon a revenge opportunity. The Ducks fell 30-20 to the Hoosiers back on Oct. 11; Finney’s 35-yard pick-six tied the game for the Ducks early in the fourth quarter, but a Fernando Mendoza-to-Elijah Sarratt touchdown put IU ahead with 6:23 left, and after Dante Moore threw an immediate interception, IU put the game away with a short field goal.
The second half was a battle of toughness. Ohio State established a solid run game and got a few more big catches from Smith — he finished with seven catches for 157 yards and a touchdown — and crawled back to within 17-14. But Miami dusted off burly North Dakota State transfer CharMar Brown; in his first six touches of the CFP, he gained 31 yards. After the Hurricanes pulled off third-and-4 and third-and-3 conversions, Brown scored from 5 yards with 55 seconds left. Jakobe Thomas’ interception sealed the upset.
After cutting Miami’s lead to 17-14, Smith caught a huge, 16-yard pass on third-and-15 as the clock ticked under eight minutes. But a holding penalty — the first accepted penalty of the game — forced the Buckeyes backward. After a 53-yard punt was nullified by an illegal formation penalty, a shorter punt set up Miami at the 30. The Hurricanes basically iced the game with a lovely, 13-yard screen pass to CJ Daniels on third downs (he moved the chains three times on third downs), but Brown’s touchdown officially sealed it.
Ohio State’s season was almost perfectly crafted for another national title run. The Buckeyes survived a rock fight against Texas in Week 1, then won their next 11 games by an average of 39-8. And though they lost to Indiana in the Big Ten championship game, they were still set up beautifully for a title run. Instead, they failed to offset a growing trend. In the first five quarterfinal games of the 12-team playoff era, the teams that had a first-round bye have fallen behind by scores of 14-0 (Boise State vs. Penn State), 34-0 (Oregon vs. Ohio State), 17-3 (Arizona State vs. Texas), 20-3 (Georgia vs. Notre Dame) and now 14-0 (Ohio State vs. Miami). The first-round bye, combined with a neutral site bowl, haven’t yet proved to be any sort of reward. Miami took the fight to the rusty Buckeyes early and was rewarded for it.
After becoming the first double-digit seed to win a playoff game, Miami has now become the first to reach a semifinal. It was very much in doubt whether Mario Cristobal’s Hurricanes would make the CFP at all, but they’ve made the most of the opportunity. They’ll play either Georgia or Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl. With the way their defensive line has dominated, and with Beck’s excellent ball control — he threw for only 138 yards Wednesday, but he was 19-for-26 and almost never put the ball in harm’s way — the Hurricanes are going to have a shot against any team they play.
Oregon’s defense dominates Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl (1:26)Oregon’s defense forces four turnovers to take down Texas Tech and win the Orange Bowl. (1:26)
CloseBill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.Follow on X