GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) \u2014 Carson Beck scrambled for a 3-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left, and Miami will head back home for a shot at its first national championship since 2001 after beating Mississippi 31-27 in an exhilarating College Football Playoff semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The 10th-ranked Hurricanes (13-2) had their vaunted defense picked apart by the sixth-ranked Rebels (13-2) in a wild fourth quarter, falling into a 27-24 hole after Trinidad Chambliss threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Dae’Quan Wright with 3:13 left.<\/p>\n
Beck, who won a national title as a backup at Georgia, kept the Hurricanes calm amid the storm, leading them down the field for the winning score \u2014 and a shot at a national title on their home field at Hard Rock Stadium on Jan. 19. Beck is 37-5 as a starter, including two seasons at Georgia.<\/p>\n
The sixth-seeded Rebels lost their coach before the playoff, but not their cool.<\/p>\n
If anything, Lane Kiffin\u2019s decision to bolt for LSU seemed to harden Ole Miss\u2019 resolve, pushing the Rebels to the best season in school history \u2014 and within a game of their first national championship game.<\/p>\n
Ole Miss kept Miami within reach when its offense labored and took a 19-17 lead on Lucas Carneiro\u2019s fourth field goal, from 21 yards.<\/p>\n
Malachi Toney, the hero of Miami\u2019s opening CFP win over Texas A&M, turned a screen pass into a 36-yard touchdown that put Miami up 24-19.<\/p>\n
Chambliss’ TD pass to Wright put the Rebels back on top, but improbable run came to an end when the defense couldn’t hold the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n
But what a run it was.<\/p>\n
With Pete Golding calling the shots after being promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach, and most of the assistants sticking around, the Rebels blew out Tulane to open the playoff and took down mighty Georgia in the CFP quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
They faced a different kind of storm in the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n
Miami has rekindled memories of its 2001 national championship team behind a defense that went from porous to nearly impenetrable in its first season under coordinator Corey Hetherman.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes walled up early in the Fiesta Bowl, holding Ole Miss to minus-1 yard.<\/p>\n
One play revved up the Rebels and their rowdy fans.<\/p>\n
Kewan Lacy, the nation\u2019s third-leading rusher, burst through a hole up the middle for a 73-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter \u2014 the longest run allowed by Miami\u2019s defense since 2018.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes seemed content to grind away at the Rebels in small chunks offensively, setting up CharMar Brown\u2019s 4-yard touchdown run and a field goal.<\/p>\n
Miami unlocked the deep game just before halftime, taking advantage of a busted coverage for a 52-yard touchdown pass from Beck to Keelan Marion.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) \u2014 Carson Beck scrambled for a 3-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left, and Miami will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[81894,81895,2910,7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-665568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-ap-sports","9":"tag-ap-u-s-news","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115863351685434334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}