CFB Blitz: Miami bullies Ohio State in QF win

College Football Blitz recaps the most important developments from the College Football Playoff quarterfinal games and examines their significance moving forward.

Miami the bully on the CFP block

While most college football fans over the age of 35 associate "The U" with the best collection of skill-position talent we've ever seen, peak-era Miami dominated the trenches like no other en route to punishing the rest of the sport. It took Mario Cristobal a few years to build up the lines in south Florida, but that is once again the case with Miami.

"We talked about it. Our guys talked a lot about being a physical, violent bunch," Cristobal said on the ESPN broadcast after Miami's 24-14 upset win over Ohio State on Wednesday.

It took Miami's defense exactly three plays to show 'violence' was going to be a theme for the night, with Akheem Mesidor sacking Julian Sayin on the Buckeyes' third play of the game. The Hurricanes would eventually bring the Ohio State quarterback down five times on the night.

Only five teams allowed fewer sacks this season than the Buckeyes - and two of those programs (Army and Navy) actively avoid throwing the ball. However, there aren't many Mesidors or Rueben Bains on the Ohio State schedule, and that duo owned the trenches throughout.

Now sometimes the bully gets punched in the mouth, and the Buckeyes did exactly that early in the second half. After being held scoreless in the opening frame for the first time since 2016, two touchdowns brought Ohio State within three.

However, the bully stood tallest and flexed its muscle the strongest it had all night in the biggest moment.

Full of momentum and holding the ball down three in the fourth, most would have bet the Ohio State machine to keep churning and put up more points. The opposite occurred. A sack, a forced holding penalty, and another tackle for loss forced Ohio State to punt the ball back to Miami with just under 6 minutes to play.

The finishing punch was perhaps the most impressive - a 10-play, 70-yard drive that featured eight running plays and 52 yards on the ground. The payoff: a touchdown in the final minute to make the final margin 10 points.

Day's rust hurts Buckeyes

Middle-aged men across the country returned home during the Christmas holidays, fired up the old Xbox in their parents basement to play CFB and immediately realized they are no longer the brilliant playcaller they used to be.

Ryan Day experienced that phenomenon in the opening half of the Cotton Bowl Wednesday against Miami, only his struggles unfolded in front of millions of viewers instead of just your tipsy Uncle Paul and his two teenage sons.

Day announced earlier in the week that he would take over play-calling duties from Brian Hartline, with the offensive coordinator also juggling the job responsibilities of South Florida head coach after his hire earlier this month. He's no stranger to calling plays in Columbus, doing so in his first five years as head coach for the Buckeyes. However, he relinquished those duties to Chip Kelly last season and promptly won the national title. We'll let you decide if that is merely a coincidence or a direct result of the decision.

The offense certainly looked like it was led by a man who hadn't called plays since 2023 with the Hurricanes doing whatever they wanted to the Buckeyes' line and making life hell for Sayin.

Miami's vaunted pass-rush lived in the backfield early, with the result an eye-popping drive chart for the mighty Ohio State offense. Five drives that went just 87 yards on 18 plays and resulted in four punts. The only drive not ending in a punt somehow went even worse, with a lengthy pick-6 on a telegraphed wide-receiver screen resulting in the biggest Buckeyes' deficit since 2022.

Day and the offense would figure things out as the game grew older, notably going to 12 personnel with two tight ends on the field for much of the second half. That resulted in Sayin getting plenty of protection and leading two lengthy touchdown drives. That made the final stat line a respectable 332 total yards of offense at a 5.6-yard clip. However, you cannot give a team with a dominant pass-rush a 14-point head start - regardless of if you have Jeremiah Smith or not.