CFP First Round Takeaways: Miami Moves On, a Roll Tide Rally, and Re-Ranking the Final Eight Playoff Teams

It’s the morning after in college football, and I’ve got you covered with my biggest takeaways from the first round of the College Football Playoff. 

A few quick programming notes before we dive in:

How Miami topped Texas A&M: Breaking down the three biggest X factors from the Canes’ 10-3 upset win over the Aggies in College Station

Alabama rallies—and writes a new narrative in the process: Ty Simpson and the Crimson Tide bounced back from a 17-0 hole to defeat Oklahoma 34-24 and quiet critics in the process

My Playoff Power Rankings: Here’s how I’d stack the final eight teams heading into the CFP quarterfinal

1. Miami RB Mark Fletcher Jr. was flat-out special on Saturday night. He finished with 172 rushing yards on 17 carries (10.1 YPC) and leaned on his offensive line to win the trenches battle against an Aggies front seven that’s fast but not immovable. A strong run game—coupled with a standout performance from Miami’s D that kept the game from turning into a shootout—allowed Carson Beck to play within himself and avoid making the type of backbreaking turnovers we’ve seen from him in the past.

When I looked at the box score after the game, I was actually surprised Miami didn’t run the ball more, but considering Beck attempted only 20 passes and Miami had just 49 offensive plays in this game, it feels like the Canes found the sweet spot with a roughly 60-40 run-pass ratio. The margins were slim, but Mario Cristobal and his staff deserve a lot of credit for managing this game with a specific winning formula. 

2. Speaking of the Miami D: Talk about having your finest moment in the biggest spot of the year! Let’s start by giving some helmet stickers to Keionte Scott in that hybrid defensive back role, as well as linebackers Mohamed Toure and Wesley Bissainthe. Those three guys were all over the field and combined for 25 tackles (31 percent of Miami’s team total). Scott alone had 10 tackles (three for loss) and two sacks.

Rueben Bain Jr. added three sacks and four TFL, but he was actually the second-best Miami edge rusher in this game. Akheem Mesidor dominated all night and though he didn’t finish with overwhelming counting stats (five tackles and 1.5 sacks), he provided constant pressure and created opportunities for his teammates to make plays. This is a guy whose draft stock has been on the rise throughout the season—remember the name. 

And a well-earned five stars for safety Bryce Fitzgerald, who came up with two interceptions in this game, including the game-winner late in the fourth. If Marcel Reed and the Aggies offense—which had marched 70 yards down the field with ease on that final possession—managed to tie the game or take the lead with a two-point conversion, we’d potentially be viewing this game through a completely different lens this morning. 

3. Reed’s turnovers cost his team—an unfortunate truth we predicted on the show in early November:

I went into this game thinking that the QB who took care of the football was going to come out victorious. Yes, that’s a coaching cliché, but one I thought was particularly applicable in this matchup, given neither team had a sizable talent advantage and the passing conditions were suboptimal. Beck’s experience in these big moments was on display throughout the night, while Reed showed yet again why I thought he was both A&M’s biggest asset and its biggest liability this season. 

On that game-ending interception specifically, Reed was late on his read, he forced the pass, and threw an inaccurate ball behind his receiver:

These are the types of mistakes you just can’t get away with in the playoff, especially in crucial late-game situations.

Reed has special mobility for the position, but he’ll need to become a more consistent passer on a down-to-down basis for the Aggies to have any chance at a title run in 2026.

If Alabama lost Friday night, the entire college football landscape could’ve shifted. In the week leading up to the game, it seemed like the noise about Kalen DeBoer being linked to the Michigan job, as well as the rumors about QB Ty Simpson’s future, was getting louder by the minute. There was even a sect of college football fans who thought Alabama didn’t belong in the playoff field because of how they flopped against Georgia in the SEC championship.

The whispers were out there, and they were crescendoing all week. So how did the Crimson Tide respond? By coming out flat—again. Bama’s offense started the game with three three-and-outs and they were trailing 17-0 midway through the second quarter. But then something changed. 

We started to see the version of Simpson who made history with six consecutive SEC wins this season and looked like a future no. 1 pick in the process. And let me tell you, he made some gutsy throws on Friday night. 

It takes confidence and excellent ball placement to make this 30-yard touchdown pass to true freshman receiver Lotzeir Brooks:

I also loved this outside-shoulder teardrop pass down the right rail to Isaiah Horton in the fourth:

On a day when his team’s running game stalled, his star receiver Ryan Williams disappeared, and Simpson was up against one of the best defenses in college football (that’s coached by arguably the best defensive mind in the sport in Brent Venables), the Alabama QB rose to the occasion and willed his team to victory. We’ll see if they can ride this momentum into a faster start against Indiana in the Rose Bowl 10 days from now, but even if they don’t, this win should prove that the sky isn’t falling in Tuscaloosa after all (at least for now).

One quick note from the Oklahoma side: I was thrilled to see John Mateer look more like himself in this game than he has since suffering a broken bone in his throwing hand in September. Before that injury, Mateer was the story of college football. Assuming he’s fully healed to start next season, I expect him to be right back in the Heisman conversation and to have Oklahoma in playoff contention.

The broadcast footage used in this piece is credited to ESPN