- - Miami vs. Ole Miss: College Football Playoff players to watch, key to the Fiesta Bowl

Nick Bromberg January 7, 2026 at 10:54 PM

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Miami is two wins away from its first national title since the 2001 college football season. Ole Miss is two wins away from its first national title since 1960.

Which team will be one step away after winning the Fiesta Bowl?

[More CFP: Peach Bowl players to watch, key to game]

Fiesta Bowl: No. 6 Ole Miss vs. No. 10 MiamiHow these teams got here

Ole Miss (13-1): The Rebels were 6.5-point underdogs to a Georgia team that had won the first game between the teams. The Bulldogs won the regular-season matchup 43-35 in Athens. In that game, Ole Miss faded in the fourth quarter as Georgia’s defense took over. On New Year’s night, Ole Miss took over in the second half and it was Georgia that faded down the stretch. The Rebels outscored the Bulldogs 20-10 in the fourth quarter in a 39-34 win.

Miami (12-2): The Hurricanes pulled the biggest upset in College Football Playoff history when they beat No. 2 Ohio State 24-14 in the Cotton Bowl. Miami was a 9.5-point underdog at kickoff and you have to go way past the CFP to find the last time a larger underdog beat a team in a postseason game with national title implications. That game? The national title game after the 2002 season, when Ohio State stunned Miami as a double-digit underdog.

Miami beat Ohio State by keeping the Buckeyes’ offense and offensive line in check. As Ohio State was unable to push Miami around up front, the Hurricanes took advantage.

Will Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss continue to be the star of this College Football Playoff? (Nick Tre. Smith/Getty Images) (Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)How the QBs stack up

A Georgia win would have pitted Miami QB Carson Beck against his former team. Crazily enough, there may be a little less pressure on Beck with Ole Miss as the opponent.

Beck has thrown just one interception across Miami’s last six games. That came in a 38-7 win over Pitt in the final week of the season. That convincing win was a reason why Miami jumped ahead of Notre Dame and into the College Football Playoff in the final rankings.

Beck’s stats in the postseason have not been spectacular in the slightest. But given the margins that Miami has been playing with, he hasn’t made a key mistake. That’s probably more important. Against Texas A&M, Beck was 14-of-20 passing for 103 yards and a TD. Against Ohio State, he was 19-of-26 passing for 138 yards and a TD. Can he find success down the field against the Ole Miss defense? Or will it be more of the same short passing game?

Trinidad Chambliss has been the breakout star of the postseason, especially after his performance in the Sugar Bowl. After throwing for 282 yards and totaling three touchdowns in the Rebels’ first-round win over Tulane, Chambliss was 30-of-46 for 362 yards and two scores against Georgia.

And it wasn’t just the numbers that Chambliss put up — it was the way he did it. Chambliss’ improvisation was imperative in the second half of the game as Ole Miss mounted its comeback. He repeatedly got away from Georgia defenders to make plays while moving outside the pocket. Can Miami’s defensive line crash the pocket enough to prevent Chambliss from making magic again?

Players to watch

Ole Miss WR Harrison Wallace III: The Penn State transfer picked a fine time for his first 100-yard game of the season since Week 2. Wallace had nine catches for 156 yards and Ole Miss’ final touchdown of the game in the Sugar Bowl. It was Wallace’s best performance of the season and his first 100-yard game with Chambliss as the team’s starting quarterback.

Wallace had five catches for 130 yards against Georgia State and four catches for 117 yards against Kentucky, but backup Austin Simmons started both of those games. Simmons was injured in that Kentucky win and Chambliss took over.

The two have forged a connection — Wallace had four games with at least five catches with Chambliss as the primary QB — but he hadn’t been as prolific as he was on Jan. 1. Can he continue that?

Miami WR CJ Daniels: Daniels was the team’s leading receiver in the Cotton Bowl with five catches for 49 yards. With Mark Fletcher powering a physical run game that’s beaten up both Texas A&M and Ohio State and defenses wanting to take away star freshman WR Malachi Toney, the opening is there for Daniels to take advantage.

Daniels has 42 catches for 469 yards and seven scores despite missing three games due to injury in November. Since returning against Pitt, he has just nine total catches for 128 yards and a TD, but the Miami offense needs more than Fletcher and Toney to make plays. Ohio State limited Toney to just 16 yards on five catches on New Year’s Eve.

Key to the game

This matchup is going to be all about the Miami defense again. The Hurricanes held Texas A&M to 326 yards on 75 plays in the first round of the playoff and sacked Marcel Reed seven times. In the Cotton Bowl, Miami held the Buckeyes to 332 yards on 59 plays while sacking Ohio State’s Julian Sayin five times.

Oh, Miami got a massive pick-6 from Keionte Scott in the second quarter too. Scott’s interception flipped the game and after Ohio State cut the Miami lead to three early in the fourth quarter, Ohio State ran nine offensive plays the rest of the way for a grand total of six yards.

Does Ole Miss need to get out to a fast start to have a chance and also force Miami to play from behind? The first quarter of the Cotton Bowl was scoreless and there were no points in the first half in College Station. Miami moved the ball well against A&M, but settled for (missed) field goals too often. The Hurricanes may need more than two offensive touchdowns to win this game.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Sports”