CFB Blitz: Takeaways from playoff semis

College Football Blitz recaps the most important developments from the CFP semifinals, during which Indiana and Miami booked spots in the national championship game.

Old Indiana has mastered the sport

Malcolm Gladwell pitched a rule in his book "Outliers" that suggests 10,000 hours of deliberate practice at one thing is necessary to master a skill at a world-class level. The Indiana football team might be the latest example of such a phenomenon.

The massive gulf in performance between the Indiana Hoosiers and Oregon Ducks was the biggest discrepancy in the 56-22 blowout Friday, but the second biggest might be the rating of the rosters coming out of high school. Oregon dominates recruiting at a national level, routinely ranking among the best classes in the nation. Its roster includes 55 players who were four- or five-star recruits entering college. Indiana has eight.

There are plenty of ways the Hoosiers narrowed that talent gap, but one is fairly basic: In the world of college football, Indiana is really, really old. The average age of the its roster is almost 23, with a number of significant pieces - especially on offense - playing their third and fourth collegiate season.

Four of the five starting offensive linemen who limited Oregon to just one sack are in at least their fourth season. The senior running back tandem of Roman Hemby and Kaelon Black combined for 116 yards and two touchdowns. Senior wideout Elijah Sarratt killed the Ducks' secondary with death by back-shoulder receptions, finishing with seven catches for 75 yards and two scores.

The catalyst for the whole operation is the Heisman winner, Fernando Mendoza. The Cal transfer is in his fourth collegiate season and has clearly mastered the sport at this level. Mendoza, whose five touchdowns on the night nearly doubled the amount of incompletions he threw, finished 17-of-20 in a standout showing. He's now completed an absurd 31-of-36 passes in the playoff with eight touchdowns against zero interceptions.

If that isn't mastery, I don't know what is.

'We're whipping them up front'

The man who gave us "I win. Google me." and "Purdue sucks, but so does Michigan and Ohio State" added another banger to his endless list of quotes on his way to the locker room at halftime.

"Anytime the quarterback gets hit, he's less effective," Cignetti said. "And we're whipping them up front."

Let's break down what exactly "whipping them up front" means by looking at Indiana's dominant pass-rush.

• 3 sacks on 14 dropbacks in 1st half of Peach Bowl
• 6 sacks on 34 dropbacks in October meeting

We'll save you the math: That's nine sacks for the Hoosiers on only 48 dropbacks through three halves of football versus the Ducks. Considering Indiana also generated two fumbles and a pick-6 in the opening half Friday, disaster essentially hit Oregon's offense every five dropbacks in these matchups.

The latest performance moved Indiana into second nationally with 45 sacks on the season. The only team with more happens to be Miami, its upcoming opponent in the national title game.

"Whipping them up front" indeed.

Oregon needed NFL-caliber Moore

Entering Friday's contest, there was debate whether Mendoza or Dante Moore will be the top pick in April's NFL Draft. Perhaps the only question left is which classes Moore will take at Oregon in the fall. With injuries ravaging the Ducks' running back room, Moore needed an all-time performance to keep his team in the fight. It became clear from the opening play of the game that it wouldn't happen.

The performance isn't all on Moore. We touched on his offensive line's inability to block the pass rush earlier. The Ducks were missing three of their top four running backs. However, we only need to rewind 24 hours to Trinidad Chambliss' performance in the Fiesta Bowl to see how an elite quarterback operates in the face of immense pressure. Moore too often shrunk in big moments, turning the ball over three times. Those turnovers led to 21 points for relentless Indiana and essentially decided this contest by half.

Rematches aren't Oregon's thing

We hear plenty of chatter in football circles about how hard it is to play a team twice in the same season. That may be true in many cases, unless the opposition has a giant 'O' on its helmet and a Duck on the sideline. Dan Lanning is unquestionably one of the top coaches in the sport, but we now have a three-year sample of failure in rematches to suggest there may be an issue.

Two separate three-point losses to Washington in the final year of the Pac-12 kept the Ducks out of the four-team playoff two seasons ago. Last year ended in equally embarrassing fashion to Friday's showing, with Ohio State racing out to a 34-8 halftime lead in the playoff before finishing off a 20-point win. That came after Oregon actually beat the Buckeyes earlier in the season.

Friday was Lanning's second shot at Indiana this season after the Hoosiers notched one of the program's biggest wins in recent memory in October. While the earlier contest was a close affair, the Peach Bowl was the opposite with the Indiana pass-rush once again wrecking the entire game plan. The ensuing 34-point blowout means the Ducks have been outscored 97-43 in their last two rematches - both CFP games.

It's fair to point out that a rematch in college football usually means you have progressed to at least the conference title game. Ohio State won the national championship last year and Indiana is now favored to do the same this year. There's certainly no shame in losing to either opponent. However, Oregon hasn't even been close in either rematch.

Lanning had the added distraction this time around of both coordinators having taken head-coaching jobs following the regular season. That presented the awkward scenario where both were trying to do two jobs over the past few weeks. That cannot be the entire blame for the performance, but it's fair to point out Indiana retained its coaching staff and didn't have to deal with the same issue.

Regardless, Oregon will have to address the rematch issue going forward, as the 12-team playoff format makes it very likely this could become an annual thing for the top programs in the country.

Beck delivers in the moment

It was 361 days ago that Carson Beck announced he was withdrawing from the NFL draft and transferring from Georgia to Miami. The price tag was a reported $3.2 million - second only to Duke's Darian Mensah among quarterbacks. Beck's been steady, but unspectacular, thus far in the Hurricanes' season, but the game-winning drive against Ole Miss was proof the money was well spent by Miami.

Down by three with 3:13 to play, Beck took the Canes 75 yards in 15 plays before delivering an all-time Miami moment to send the team back to the national title game for the first time since 2003.

Beck was clutch with a laser over the middle to convert a crucial 3rd-and-10 on Ole Miss' 35-yard line. That kept the drive going with the potential of a game-winning touchdown instead of a tying field goal - a critical situation considering Trinidad Chambliss had spent the 4th quarter lighting up the Miami defense. Another 11-yard completion to set up 1st-and-goal, and all that was left was Beck's walk-in touchdown.

Look, it's neither pretty nor comfortable most of the time with Beck. He spent a large part of the contest giving Miami fans heart palpations with numerous near-interceptions. A lot of his work is done on quick outs or screen passes to avoid throwing into coverage down the field. That can limit the passing attack, but when Malachi Toney is one of your receivers, a 3-yard pass can become a 36-yard touchdown real quick.

But, when Beck was needed the most, he stepped up and played like the extremely experienced player he is. An unflappable face in the biggest situation of the season was exactly what Mario Cristobal - not exactly the calmest man on the sideline - needed in the moment. Beck gave him that and sent the Canes home to play for a long-awaited national title.

You can't shake this Ole Miss team

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made the catchphrase "It doesn't matter!" famous during his legendary wrestling career. While he played his college football for Miami, it's Ole Miss' attitude during its playoff run that can best be described by those words.

We won't re-litigate Lane Kiffin's choice to leave for a conference rival before the playoff and take a number of assistants with him. Sure, he loaned a number of those coaches back, but they have been pulling double duty flying back and forth between Baton Rouge and Oxford the past week. That left Pete Golding in a position he'd never been before - head football coach. Yep, a reminder that Golding's first game as the boss came in the playoffs.

"It doesn't matter."

How about a 21-12 half-time deficit to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl - a team that had already beat you once this season?

"It doesn't matter."

A large portion of Thursday's game evolved into a "Boys vs. Men" type of match, with Miami imposing its will throughout. The Hurricanes had run the ball 41 different times through three quarters, while the Rebels had executed a total of just 37 plays. The time of possession looked like someone was fudging the math - an absurd 33:50 to 11:10 advantage for Miami.

"It doesn't matter."

An electric fourth quarter from both teams gave us an incredible show - and once again Ole Miss rose to the occasion thanks to Chambliss. With star running back Kewan Lacy hobbled, the D-II transfer recaptured the superhero role we've grown accustomed to. Chambliss led an 86-yard field goal drive, and then answered a Miami touchdown in style, taking Ole Miss 75 yards down the field for a go-ahead touchdown.

Surely, Miami's go-ahead touchdown with just 18 seconds to play was enough to finish the job and end the season for even the most resilient group in the country, right?

It almost doesn't matter.

Chambliss somehow drove the Rebels into Hail Mary range in 18 seconds for one final prayer at a victory. While it ultimately fell short, not one person out there will hold Ole Miss in anything but the highest regard for its incredible run.

This may have been the team that Kiffin built, but the attitude shown by the Rebels throughout the playoff was a unique brand that shows the page is officially turned to the Golding era.

Miami tried so hard to lose this game

For all the success Mario Cristobal has had in his coaching career - both with Miami and beyond - he still has a lingering reputation for dropping games his team really had no business losing. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, if you will.

It looked like that was once again happening in the Fiesta Bowl for very large stretches, with television cutaways to incredibly-stressed Miami fans coming fast and furious. It was certainly a shock coming off the heels of a virtually flawless performance against Ohio State last week.

The second half was a penalty and mistake-filled 30 minutes of football, that will now be long in the rearview after the dramatic win. Well, after you read this, of course.

The first thing that puzzled in the second half was one of the most inexplicable flea-flicker plays we've seen. Miami was moving the ball at will down the field to begin the half, reaching the Ole Miss 34-yard line after a 19-yard bruising run. One would think another running play over the tired and bruised Rebels defense would be the call. Nope! How about a flea-flicker that turned into a disastrous intentional grounding penalty leading to a missed field goal.

The next drive featured another crucial penalty that took a 3rd-and-3 into a 3rd-and-8 and forced a passing attempt to convert deep in Ole Miss territory. The result: a tipped pass that ended with an interception. Two very successful drives to open the second half that resulted in a total of zero points.

Two crucial 15-yard penalties - one for targeting and one for a late hit - helped sustain the next Ole Miss drive that eventually led to a touchdown. The targeting one seemed questionable, but there was no doubt on the late hit. Those were two of ten penalties on the night for a whopping 74 yards for Miami.

It didn't bite them on Thursday, but a return to the mistake-free football we saw versus Ohio State will be needed to win the national title.