Do the Miami Hurricanes Have a Shot at the National Title?

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00:00One of SportsGrid's great hosts here, Joe Lisi, joins us now.

00:03We're going to talk a little college football,

00:05and we're going to talk some national title.

00:07Joe, appreciate you doing this.

00:09And I'll ask you flat out here, man.

00:11Mike Cain's Monday.

00:13They got a shot?

00:14Oh, of course they have a shot, Dan.

00:16I mean, the combi for the storm, eight-and-a-half-point underdogs,

00:19they proved that with the win over Ohio State

00:22and the come-from-behind win last week against Ole Miss.

00:25Carson Beck stepped up.

00:27The way that defense has played over the past three games,

00:30I mean, it's been in dominating fashion.

00:32Just look at it.

00:34Against Texas A&M, they've shut down the run, 89-56 yards allowed.

00:40They allowed 121, but that was game flow to Ole Miss,

00:43and they've been winning the turnover battle.

00:45The biggest thing is, can they win the turnover battle against Indiana

00:49that is the top team in turnover margin, plus 21?

00:53If they could do that and run the football with Brown and Mark Fletcher,

00:56they'll be in this ballgame.

00:58How about this?

00:59Do you agree that the road that they have had to get to this game,

01:03I mean, you look at they beat A&M at Kyle Field.

01:08They held a football team that put up 40-plus points on Notre Dame to three.

01:12I know they didn't really have a high-octane offense in that game,

01:16but then they turn around, and I think they beat up Ohio State

01:20more than what Indiana did in the Big Ten championship game.

01:23They beat them on both sides of the ball, Joe.

01:26I mean, then you have to go into a shootout to win that game against Ole Miss,

01:31and now you're in the championship game, and you've got a shot to go in here

01:34and really make history here with your sixth national title.

01:37Don't you think they've had a road that kind of makes them battle-tested

01:41for this game?

01:42I mean, look, Alabama, they got throttled by a 5-7 Florida State team

01:47at the beginning of the year that Miami beat,

01:50and some would agree that Alabama didn't deserve to be in the 12-team tournament.

01:54So is it Miami's road to this game?

01:58Haven't they been more prepped for this game than what Indiana has?

02:02Well, yeah, I mean, as the underdog, I think they've taken this on as a mentality

02:07and as a locker room, and that's a testament to what Mario Cristobal has built there

02:12and agreed.

02:13Think about the games that they lost, right?

02:15The Louisville Friday night matchup where they were 13-and-a-half-point favorites

02:19and they lost by basically a field goal, and then the road loss to SMU

02:23in the middle part of the season.

02:25They were 6-and-a-half-point favorites and lost on the road

02:28for the last month and a half of the regular season entering the playoffs.

02:32They had that playoff mentality, and just think about the wins.

02:35To your point, they put the football game on Marcel Reed.

02:39They sacked him seven times.

02:41They went into an environment that people thought the ACC couldn't play in Kyle Field,

02:46and they dominated that game on both sides of the football in the trenches.

02:51Then they took out Julian Sane and put the football game on his shoulders.

02:55That's something that no team, including Indiana, was able to do throughout the regular season,

03:01and in that matchup against Trinidad-Chambliss, that offense was able to dictate the tempo, Dan,

03:08and they held Ole Miss to only eight plays with about five minutes left in the second quarter.

03:14So that's a testament to them being able to dictate the tempo, wear down teams at the point of attack,

03:20run the football, and more importantly, win the turnover battle,

03:23and that's a testament to what Mario Cristobal has done.

03:27Again, this is a different animal with Indiana,

03:30because Indiana has been able to push around everybody they've played,

03:33but the first quarter will dictate this.

03:36But, of course, Miami has a shot.

03:38Eight and a half points is a little bit disrespectful entering this matchup.

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