After sneaking into the College Football Playoff as the 10-seed-amid plenty of debate over whether they even belonged-Miami has done nothing but silence the noise and stack wins. First, they went into College Station and took down Texas A&M.
Then, they dominated Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Now, they’re two wins away from a national title, and based on how they’ve been playing, there’s every reason to believe they’re capable of finishing the job.
Forget the seeding. Forget the skepticism. This Miami team isn’t just surviving-they’re thriving.
What’s changed? For starters, quarterback Carson Beck is playing the kind of football that wins championships.
He threw for just 103 yards against Texas A&M and followed that up with 138 against Ohio State. On paper, those numbers might not jump off the stat sheet.
But as ESPN’s Joey Galloway pointed out, it’s not about the yardage-it’s about the when and how.
“It wasn’t the 138 yards,” Galloway said on Get Up. “It was the way it was done. It was the timely fashion of when he needed to make a play to move the chains.”
That’s the kind of poise and situational awareness that transforms a team from a playoff hopeful into a legitimate title contender. Beck isn’t lighting up the scoreboard, but he’s making the right reads, protecting the football, and delivering when it counts. And that’s a massive shift from earlier in the year, when turnovers were a real concern.
“The weak link when you watch them play when they lose games was Carson Beck turning the ball over,” Galloway added. “Now he’s gone two straight games without turning it over.
They’ve won those football games. The way he’s playing makes them look like a favorite.”
That’s not just praise-it’s a statement. When a team’s biggest question mark becomes a strength, everything changes.
Miami’s defense has held up its end, the coaching staff has made the right adjustments, and now the quarterback is playing clean, clutch football. That’s a recipe for a deep run.
The Hurricanes are no longer the “just-happy-to-be-here” team. They’re playing with confidence, with purpose, and with a chip on their shoulder. Whether you thought they belonged in the playoff or not doesn’t matter anymore-they’ve earned their spot, and they’re making the most of it.
.@Joey_Galloway says the Miami Hurricanes are CFP title favorites after last night 👀 pic.twitter.com/ffJZJegQ7t
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) January 1, 2026
And sure, there’s always going to be a “what if” conversation-what if Notre Dame had made it instead? But that’s all hypothetical.
What’s real is what Miami is doing on the field. They’ve knocked off two of the biggest names in college football, and they’re not done yet.
The Hurricanes are rolling. The quarterback is locked in. And with two more wins, Miami could go from controversial inclusion to national champions-and maybe, just maybe, the team that redefines what it means to be a 10-seed in the playoff era.