during the second half of the College Football Playoff quarterfinal game in the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Wednesday, December 31, 2025
The ball fluttered in the air, no intended target in sight. Jakobe Thomas charged in with room to run, no one around him. The game-sealing interception went right into his arms. Thomas took three steps before falling to the ground, pointing his right hand to the sky. Dylan Day gave him a high five. Zechariah Poyser ran in for a hug. The sideline, meanwhile, was going crazy, no words to explain the emotions. “Indescribable,” center James Brockermeyer said. “Exerting with energy,” wide receiver CJ Daniels said. Doubt these Miami Hurricanes all you want. Count them out. Call them underdogs. They’re not going anywhere. And their latest statement on Wednesday night showed just how tough of an out they are going to be in this College Football Playoff. Miami — the No. 10 seed in the 12-team tournament, the last team to receive an at-large bid into the field, the team that had to rattle off four consecutive convincing wins after losing twice in a three-week span in the middle of the season — pulled off arguably the biggest upset in the 12-year history of the playoff format. The Hurricanes beat the No. 2 seed and defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes 24-14 in the Cotton Bowl for a quarterfinal victory. Miami (12-2) is now heading to the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8 for the semifinals. They Canes will face the winner of Thursday’s Sugar Bowl matchup between the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs and No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels. A win at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, gets the Hurricanes into the national championship game, set for Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium, their home field. “This is all that we’ve worked for,” star edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. said. “This is what coach [Mario] Cristobal told me about when I was in high school. It’s crazy that it’s happening.” Added running back Mark Fletcher Jr.: “[Cristobal] told me that we’ll get this program back to national championship status, and we just continue to keep going one game at a time.”
