Who would’ve thought that Carson Beck would have more magic than this Ole Miss team?
Published:
Not until Carson Beck high-stepped into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown did reality hit that he would end up having more magic than Ole Miss.
The Fiesta Bowl hero wasn’t Trinidad Chambliss, though who knows if defensive pass interference had been called on Miami on the final pass attempt of this unprecedented Ole Miss run. That run wasn’t about just showing Lane Kiffin what he missed out on. That ship sailed weeks ago. This was about a team who needed 1 defensive stand to play in its first national championship since that sort of thing was actually settled on the field.
It was settled on the field on Thursday night in the Fiesta Bowl, and it was Beck who got the last laugh en route to a College Football Playoff National Championship berth.
Yeah, the guy who was seen as a walking turnover when he left Georgia on murky terms and landed at Miami. As in, the guy who still had the 4-interception games pop up without warning and was seen as the weak link of this beat-you-in-the-trenches Miami offense. Like, the guy who played the worst game of his career last year when Georgia was blown out at Ole Miss. You know, the guy who hadn’t had a rushing touchdown since Week 3.
That guy.
Who would’ve thought? Not “who would’ve thought that Miami would win on Thursday night?” The Hurricanes were 3.5-point favorites to reach their first national championship since the 2002 season, when a late defensive pass interference call against Miami in the Fiesta Bowl changed the fortunes of the program in ways that nobody could’ve predicted 23 years ago.
Ironic? Just a little. The college football gods have a sick sense of humor.
They did give us this magical story of Chambliss, from a post-spring, Division II transfer who was supposed to provide a veteran presence for QB1 Austin Simmons. And yeah, they gave us Pete Golding, who assumed the role of head coach under unprecedented circumstances and proceeded to out-duel mastermind Kirby Smart.
A less-than-fairytale ending shouldn’t take away from what Chambliss and Ole Miss did in 2025
Even if Kiffin had been on that sideline, it still would’ve been a run for the ages. Of course, it only added to the lore that he wasn’t.
Instead, that was Golding, who likely ran out of curse words watching Beck pick up key 3rd down after key 3rd down. In total, Miami converted 11-of-19 on 3rd downs (and 2-for-2 on 4th down), while Ole Miss was held to 2-for-10 in those spots. That’s magic. Beck had it, as did Malachi Toney and CJ Daniels, both of whom were difference makers. At some point, a bend-don’t-break Ole Miss defense broke.
It broke in the form of playing man coverage and forgetting about Beck.
You could argue a few things. The final glimpse of that play didn’t tell the full story. That was the byproduct of Beck working through his progressions and instead of forcing the action, a 6th-year college player recognized that he could’ve moonwalked into the end zone.
You could also argue that on the 87th Miami play of the night, Ole Miss ran out of gas at the worst time. Mental gas, physical gas, all the gas.
Including that 3-yard touchdown scramble, Ole Miss allowed 51 rushes for 191 yards. A defense that was closer to mediocre against the run than most semifinal defenses usually are picked the wrong time to be mediocre.
Sure, you could point back to the 4-point difference that came from Toney breaking the tackle of star Suntarine Perkins, and roughly 3 other Ole Miss defenders, to pick up a key first down that turned into a Miami touchdown instead of a field goal. You could point to how brutal it was that Ole Miss got that 73-yard touchdown run from Kewan Lacy, but then had to watch the nation’s leader in carries grit his teeth for just 9 more carries the rest of the game because of a hamstring injury.
But even as those moments unfolded and it seemed like Miami wouldn’t need magic, and that it simply needed to get out of its own way, Chambliss always had hope. The go-ahead drive and touchdown pass to Dae’Quan Wright was a perfect example of how poised Chambliss was in big spots.
Even in a loss, that’ll go down as one of the all-time touchdowns in program history. Down 5 with 3 minutes left and a national championship berth on the line? Are you kidding me? It doesn’t get any more clutch than that.
Well, check that. It does get slightly more clutch than that.
It’s wild that Chambliss even gave Ole Miss that instantly-controversial opportunity with a last-second heave to the end zone. Offenses with 18 seconds left and 75 yards to go aren’t supposed to have a shot.
Then again, teams without any Playoff history who enter the season ranked dead last in the SEC in percentage of returning production aren’t supposed to have a shot. They’re definitely not supposed to have a shot when their starting quarterback becomes a Division II transfer or their coach bolts for another job before the postseason begins.
Ole Miss wasn’t just magical; it defied logic.
The context of this semifinal run should never be lost. A week after an instant classic went the way of Ole Miss against Georgia, it was on the wrong end of another thriller. Some would say that was magic running out, and that the better team won. Even if that was the case, the better team still needed some magic.
The magic ran out for Ole Miss in Phoenix. It just happened on a logic-defying way.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
