National Championship Preview: Miami’s Carson Beck Faces the Ultimate Test Against Indiana’s Disruptive Defense
MIAMI BEACH - It took just one play in the Peach Bowl for Indiana to make its presence felt. Oregon quarterback Dante Moore dropped back, looked to his right, and fired a quick pass - only to find D’Angelo Ponds waiting.
The standout Indiana cornerback jumped the route, picked it off, and took it to the house. Just like that, Oregon was down 7-0.
They never found their footing, and Indiana rolled to a dominant 56-22 win.
Now it’s Miami’s turn to try and solve the riddle that is Indiana’s defense - and quarterback Carson Beck knows the challenge ahead is no joke.
“Obviously, they do a lot of really different things on defense from their fronts to different pressures to coverages,” Beck said this week. “They try to keep you guessing as an offense.”
And “guessing” might be the right word. Under defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, Indiana has built one of the stingiest units in the country.
They’re allowing just 11.1 points per game - second-best in the nation - and giving up only 185.9 passing yards per contest. They’ve also picked off 18 passes this season, tied for seventh nationally.
That’s not just good defense - that’s game-changing stuff.
What makes Indiana so dangerous isn’t just their talent. It’s the way they force quarterbacks into uncomfortable situations.
They bring pressure, disguise coverages, and force quick decisions. If you’re not sharp post-snap, you’re in trouble.
Beck understands that.
“At the end of the day, it’s all going to come down to kind of read and react once I do get on the field,” he said. “And I feel like that’s what we’ve been able to do well.”
That ability to react quickly and process what’s happening in real time will be crucial. Indiana thrives on confusion - they want quarterbacks to hesitate, to misread, to throw late. That’s how they flip the field and turn defense into offense.
Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson sees it too. He praised Indiana’s ability to mix up their coverages, especially within their zone schemes.
“The way they mix up zone coverages is really elite,” Dawson said. “They don’t really get into a rhythm … I would say it’s almost like they have these things they do - how much ever it is; let’s say it’s like eight - and they just kind of pick them out of a hat.
They’ll call a similar coverage on 1st-and-10 as they do on 3rd-and-4. So it’s hard to get in a rhythm against them because they’re mixing stuff up on the back end a lot.”
That unpredictability is what has made Indiana such a tough out all season. They don’t rely on one look or one scheme. Instead, they constantly shift gears, keeping quarterbacks from settling in.
But Dawson believes Beck is built for this kind of test. Miami’s offense doesn’t lean heavily on pre-snap reads. Instead, it’s a progression-based system that puts the responsibility on the quarterback to read the defense after the snap and find the open man.
“I would say the good thing is our pass game is not dictated on pre-snap looks, if that makes sense,” Dawson said. “We’re a progression-based offense, and our quarterback, we put a lot on him as far as seeing space and going through his progression and getting it to the open guy.
So I feel like we’re equipped. But ultimately, there hasn’t been a lot of people having a lot of success versus them and so we’ll see how it goes.”
That’s the truth. Few teams have managed to consistently move the ball through the air against Indiana. Their ability to force turnovers, limit big plays, and control tempo has made them one of the most disruptive defenses in college football this season.
For Beck and Miami, the national title game will come down to execution. Can Beck stay calm under pressure?
Can he make the right reads when Indiana throws its curveballs? Can he avoid the early mistakes that doomed Oregon?
One thing’s for sure - Indiana’s defense isn’t going to make it easy. They’ve been a puzzle all season long, and now, with a championship on the line, Carson Beck gets his shot at solving it.