Fiesta Bowl won't become a Siesta Bowl with Miami, Ole Miss
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For everyone who was expecting a Fiesta Bowl matchup between second-seeded Ohio State and No. 3 Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinals, relax.
Judging from what we saw during the CFP quarterfinals, you’re going to get a whale of a game at State Farm Stadium when sixth-seeded Ole Miss meets No. 10 Miami on Thursday, Jan. 8.
Don’t just take my word for it. Longtime ESPN announcer Dave Pasch, who was in the broadcast booth for the Hurricanes’ 24-14 quarterfinal upset of the Buckeyes Dec. 31, wholeheartedly agrees the Fiesta Bowl won’t turn into a Siesta Bowl just because the two underdogs advanced to Glendale.
“You’ve got, I would say of the four teams left, the biggest national brand in Miami and clearly, they are good enough to win the whole thing,” Pasch said. “It’s because of how they’re built, with their offensive and defensive lines, and they have a veteran quarterback (Carson Beck).
“Ole Miss, meanwhile, continues to prove that they have a lot of playmakers on offense. Their two games with Georgia this year were epic games where the offense was phenomenal. And because they have (quarterback) Trinidad Chambliss, who to me is as great a story as any in college football, yeah, I think it’s a really intriguing matchup because of how good Ole Miss is on offense and how physical Miami is on their offensive and defensive lines.”
The winner of the Fiesta Bowl will play for the national title Monday night, Jan. 19, against the winner of the Jan. 9 matchup featuring undefeated and top-ranked Indiana and No. 5 Oregon in the Peach Bowl, which Pasch will call for ESPN Radio in Atlanta.
That CFP semifinal might carry a bit more clout if for no other reason than an undefeated season is on the line for coach Curt Cignetti and the remarkable Hoosiers (14-0), who, with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, continue to take college football by storm.
“I think like a lot of people, I knew Indiana was good,” Pasch said. “I didn’t know how good until they absolutely just destroyed Alabama (38-3 in the CFP quarterfinals). And beating Ohio State (in the Big Ten championship), you knew they were good. You knew they were a top five team. But obviously, you have to say they’re the team to beat; they haven’t lost a game.”
Pasch also likes what he sees out of coach Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks (13-1), but we agree no one should overlook Miami (12-2) and Ole Miss (13-1).
Miami is the first double-digit seed to win a playoff game and the first to advance to the semifinals, snuffing doubts about whether the Hurricanes should make the CFP. Pasch saw them at their worst while calling their 24-21 loss to Louisville on Oct. 17. Beck was intercepted four times and “Miami played about as poorly as they possibly could,” he said. “It just was an off day, and they ended up having another loss (26-20 at SMU) a couple weeks later.”
The Hurricanes, who last won national titles in 2001, 1989, 1987 and 1993, have now won six straight after dispatching the reigning national champion Buckeyes in what Pasch described as “a brawl – for both teams.”
“It felt like an NFL game,” said Pasch, the longtime radio voice of the Arizona Cardinals. “Just in terms of style, time, physicality, I felt right at home. It was, ‘I’m calling an NFL game in an NFL stadium (AT&T Stadium in Irving, Texas) with two teams that have a lot of NFL players.’
“But the physicality of Miami, that’s (coach) Mario Cristobal. As an old offensive lineman and O-line coach, the rebuild of Miami was centered on the offensive and defensive lines. That’s how you can compete with a team like Ohio State, because you know they’re going to be good on both sides of the line. The best teams in college football and the NFL are, and that’s how he built that thing, and that was very clear in the game.”
The wild card for the Hurricanes will likely be the play of Beck, the fifth-year senior who spent his first four college seasons at Georgia and won two national titles as a backup. He’s battled his way back from an elbow injury that required surgery and has been serviceable when not spectacular.
“We spoke with him a couple days before the (Ohio State) game,” Pasch said, “and I think his experience in big games paid off. He didn’t make a ton of home run plays, but he didn’t have to. For the most part, he made the right decisions. He ran more than I had ever seen him run (seven times for 23 yards), and I think he was just trying to be smart. If it’s not there, just make sure you get something positive.”
Speaking of positive, Pasch has nothing but great things to say about Ole Miss and its transfer quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who won two Division II national titles at Ferris State. Pasch called the game during Chambliss’ first start of the season, Week 3 against Arkansas, and said coaches “were raving” about the QB in the days leading up to the game.
“They thought they had something that they didn’t know,” Pasch recalled, “and all of a sudden in his first six possessions in his first practice (as the starter), they had six touchdowns. They said, ‘He’s got something to him.’ They actually compared him to Baker Mayfield.”
Pasch wondered if it was just a sell job by then-coach Lane Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., simply propping up the backup QB like a lot of coaches tend to do.
“Well, it was real. I mean, he went out and lit it up against Arkansas,” Pasch said. “You saw it. We were there with our own eyes. It was like, ‘This guy’s got something.’ Just watching the (quarterfinal) game against Georgia, that was there. The moxie. The toughness. The flair.”
Kiffin has since departed to become the new coach at LSU, and soon, Weis will be joining him along with three other Ole Miss assistants. But could they be leaving before the Rebels and new coach Pete Golding meet Miami in the Fiesta Bowl? Various reports have surfaced that Kiffin may summon those coaches to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and prevent them from coaching in the CFP semifinals.
That would be atrocious if it were allowed to happen and it would become the biggest storyline surrounding the game in Glendale.
“I would think they’d be allowed to keep coaching, but I have no clue,” Pasch said. “It’s hard to say.”
Meanwhile, the transfer portal officially opened on Friday, Jan. 2, and Ole Miss must prepare for Kiffin potentially poaching some players from the Rebels, which is enough to irk anyone.
“The timing is terrible, just terrible,” Pasch said. “To have the portal open while you still have the biggest games of the season ahead makes no sense. They’ve got to figure it out. … I don’t care how they get it done, they’ve got to change it, they’ve got to fix it.”
There’s nothing broken, however, about the Fiesta Bowl matchup on the field at State Farm Stadium coming this week.
Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. on Roc and Manuch with Jimmy B on ESPN 620 (KTAR-AM).
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Breaking down the Fiesta Bowl matchup with ESPN’s Dave Pasche
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