There are two weeks left of Bowl Bingo, our big postseason game. The idea is simple: Pick 6 props from a list of 30 that you think will hit in this week’s two CFP semifinals. We’ll send the winner a prize.

The best news: Bowl Bingo is free to play! Click below to learn more about the game and get all the details.

This week’s game locks on Thursday at kickoff!

A year ago, Trinidad Chambliss, the Ole Miss quarterback, was playing Division II football at Ferris State. Thursday night, he etched his name in Ole Miss football history by backpacking his team to a 39-34 instant classic victory over vaunted Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

It’s truly difficult to put into words just how remarkable Chambliss played in the second half against a good Georgia defense. He played like a man possessed, whose playmaking was a cauldron of witchcraft and Johnny Football cocaine circus ball. He evaded Georgia pass rushers like a witch on a broom. He laced big throw after big throw, fitting the ball into improbable windows. At one point, he had 13 straight completions. In real time, the only comparable sports equivalent was a Steph Curry three-point avalanche. The only thing missing was a signature Mike Breen BANG! play-by-play call. 

He finished the game 30-of-46 with 362 yards and two touchdowns, but that stat line doesn’t do his performance justice. It was, without a doubt, one of the best performances from a quarterback we’ve seen in this sport in quite some time. 

Chambliss aside, this game packed a punch in every conceivable way. It was a game of swings. A game of momentum. A game of moments. It felt like two prehistoric T-rexes fighting it out with death metal blaring in the background. 

Early in the fourth quarter after Chambliss’ witchcraft, Ole Miss took a ten-point lead and looked like it might close this one out. But Georgia and Gunner Stockton, who showed an unbelievable level of moxie and reckless abandon in his own right, refused to relent. Down 10 points, Stockton laced a laser of a touchdown to Zachariah Branch to trim the deficit to three points with 7:03 remaining. 

On the next drive, the refs missed a very obvious face mask penalty that halted the Rebels’ drive. Georgia got the ball back, rolled the dice on a fourth-and-nine conversion situation and drove down into the red zone. The Bulldogs got a few bites at the apple to score a touchdown and take the lead, but Pete Golding’s defense bowed up and forced a crucial stop and the Bulldogs were forced to settle for a game-tying field goal with 56 seconds remaining.

With less than a minute remaining, Ole Miss had a chance to put itself in a game-winning opportunity and the Rebels took their chance. Chambliss answered the bell one final time, uncorking a bazooka of a pass to De’Zhaun Stribling for a monster 30-yard gain to put the Rebels in field goal range. 

With the game hanging in the balance, Ole Miss kicker Lucas Carneiro, who had been absolute nails all night, stroked home the 47-yard game-winning field goal to push a Lane Kiffin-less Ole Miss team into the College Football semifinals. 

Whatever questions we had about this team without Lane Kiffin can be put to bed. Outside of a strange clock management fiasco to close the first half, this team looked every bit like it belonged. This team stepped into the spotlight and seized its opportunity. What a moment for Pete Golding to be thrust into this situation and to come away with an incredible victory in a revenge spot. 

With the win, Ole Miss moves on to face No. 10 seed Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. The Miami defense versus Trinidad Chambliss Ole Miss offense…give me 12 rounds of that, please!

When Miami head coach Mario Cristobal returned to his alma mater, he set out to build the biggest bully in college football. Wednesday night, his grand vision came to fruition as his No. 10 Hurricanes bullied Ohio State, the defending national champs, en route to an emphatic 24-14 College Football Playoff quarterfinal victory. 

In his four years at the helm, Cristobal has taken plenty of flack. He’s had a number of late-game, clock management fiascos. He failed to reach the CFP with No. 1 NFL Draft pick Cam Ward leading the offense. And at times, he’s struggled to field a competent defense. But after Wednesday night’s win, we can, at least for now, put some of those complaints in the rear-view mirror. “The U” is back.

Miami flawlessly executed its Macho Man game plan against Ryan Day’s Buckeyes. The Hurricanes brought the fight to the defending champs from the opening kickoff. The offensive and defensive lines won again and again in the trenches. And to close out the game, Miami mashed the Ohio State defense into a pulp, executing a 10-play, 70-yard drive that ate up over five minutes of game time. It was a poetic way for the Miami Mean Machine to put an exclamation point on the Cotton Bowl Classic. 

From the jump, Miami looked primed for the moment. The Hurricanes game-wrecking defensive line, led by superstar edge Rueben Bain Jr., sacked Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin on the Buckeyes’ opening drive. After a costly Mark Fletcher Jr. fumble in the red zone, the defense stood tall for the rest of the half, neutralizing the vaunted Buckeyes offense and holding them to -3 first-half rushing yards. 

Miami opened the first-half scoring on a nifty fake QB counter swing pass where quarterback Carson Beck found Fletcher Jr. to put the Hurricanes up 7-0. Later, Miami defensive back Keionte Scott jumped a Sayin pass and house-called the interception to put the Hurricanes up 14-0 in the second quarter. The Buckeyes then closed the half with a strong drive, but fell flat after missing a 49-yard field goal. 

In the third quarter, Ohio State made a charge. After failing to establish the run in the first half, the Buckeyes made it a priority after the break and it paid immediate dividends. Ohio State churned out an 11-play, 82-yard scoring drive to open the third quarter to make it 14-7. Soon after, Hurricanes’ kicker Carter Davis, who struggled in the first round matchup against Texas A&M, drilled a 49-yard field goal attempt to stretch Miami’s lead to 10 points.

Early in the fourth quarter, Sayin found superstar wideout Jeremiah Smith, who finished with seven catches for 157 yards, on a slant pass touchdown in the red zone to trim the lead down to three. At this point, it was hard to ignore the possibility of a late-game, Miami Mario clock situation looming.

But the Hurricanes defense kept them in the fight. Bain Jr., who was at the forefront of the Miami defense’s five sacks and seven tackles for loss performance, applied pressure on what felt like every down. He and that unit did an excellent job of making life hard on Sayin, especially on high-pressure downs.

Across the field, Beck had a limited night throwing down the field. He mostly hit underneath routes and short passes, but did a nice job of staying on schedule and using his legs when required. The Hurricanes tallied just 291 yards of offense, but were seven-of-14 on third down and won the turnover battle 2-0. 

A lot of talk after this game will be about rust and whether the current CFP format makes sense. It’s difficult to say for certain, but it’s hard not to wonder whether rust played a role in Ohio State coming out flat offensively in the first half. Perhaps that’s a different discussion for a later date, though.

With the win, Miami becomes the first double-digit seed to move on to the semifinals. The Hurricanes will face Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl.

The Orange Bowl was supposed to be a showcase for a vaunted Texas Tech defense. Instead, the Red Raiders were upstaged by an Oregon defense that pitched a 23-0 shutout, the first since 2016 in a CFP game.

The first half was a bit strange. Oregon amassed plenty of yards but struggled mightily to convert chances (a theme for the game), while Texas Tech failed to generate much of anything on offense. Texas Tech star edge David Bailey was a first-half game-wrecker. So much so, it felt like he was single-handedly keeping the Red Raiders in the ballgame. 

Oregon opened the scoring with a 50-yard Atticus Sappington field goal on the Ducks’ opening offensive possession. Later, the Red Raiders forced one of four turnovers on downs when they stopped Oregon late in the first quarter. After back-to-back three-and-outs, Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton threw his first of two interceptions on the day. 

Later, after a 50-yard connection between Morton and J’Kobi Williams, the Red Raiders were in business. A few plays later, however, they faltered and missed a lengthy 54-yard field goal attempt. 

On the next drive, Oregon converted a pair of fourth downs, but Bailey once again blew up a drive after batting down a fourth-and-goal pass near the goal line. Texas Tech then had a chance to steal some quick points, but running back Cameron Dickey coughed up a fumble, which resulted in another Oregon field goal right before halftime. 

The defining play of the second half, and game as a whole, came when Oregon edge Mateo Uiagalelei strip-sacked Morton, setting up the Ducks in the red zone. On the very next play, Jordan Davison punched home a short rushing touchdown to put Oregon up 13-0. At this point, the Ducks never looked back and clamped the Red Raiders’ offense the rest of the way.

Oregon quarterback Dante Moore had a solid outing as well. He finished 26-of-33 for 234 yards and one poorly thrown interception. For much of the day, he did a nice job of staying in rhythm, on time, and helped keep the Ducks offense moving. Morton, on the other hand, had an afternoon to forget. He had his worst outing of the season, finishing with 137 passing yards and two interceptions. 

Oregon DB Brandon Finney Jr. deserves a special DUDE ALERT shoutout for how well he played in this one. He tallied two interceptions, one forced fumble, and six total tackles. 

Much like Wednesday night’s game between Miami and Ohio State, much will be made about whether there was a rust factor that affected the Red Raiders.

With the dominant win, Oregon advances to the semifinals where the Ducks will take on No. 1 seed Indiana.

No. 1 seed Indiana operated with surgical precision, cutting Alabama to ribbons on both sides of the ball in a dominant 38-3 win in the Rose Bowl.

Alabama sacked Heisman Trophy-winner Fernando Mendoza twice on the opening drive, but soon after, the Hoosiers settled in and looked every bit the part of the best team in college football.

Mendoza, who finished 14 of 16 with 192 yards and three touchdowns, orchestrated a first quarter drive spanning 15 plays and 84 yards that resulted in an early Hoosiers’ field goal. Alabama then got stuffed on a fourth down attempt on its own 34-yard line. Indiana made swift work after the stop, as Mendoza uncorked a doozy of a ball to wideout Charlie Becker to put the Hoosiers up by 10 midway through the second quarter.

Attempting to jolt some life into the Crimson Tide offense, quarterback Ty Simpson tried to scramble for a first down, but got walloped and coughed up the football. Indiana capitalized on the fortuitous turnover and made it 17-0 at the halftime break. Simpson would later leave the game due to the hit.

Mendoza would later deliver a 24-yard touchdown to Elijah Sarratt to stretch the Hoosiers lead to 24-0. That was all she wrote. Alabama never had a chance.

With the win, Indiana moves on to face Oregon in the Peach Bowl in a rematch of an October 11th contest the Hoosiers won 30-20.  

The CFP Quarterfinals are officially in the books! In this episode, we react to Miami's upset of Ohio State, Indiana's obliteration of Alabama, Oregon's shutout of Texas Tech and a wild finish as Ole Miss got revenge on Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Relive the madness as we go through and react to each game.

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