Everything but the Kitchen Sink: Carson Beck and Shannon Dawson Went Deep in the Playbook for First Touchdown

Before the shouting even started, Shannon Dawson and Carson Beck went deep in their bag of tricks to go up 7-0 against the Buckeyes.

Miami Hurricanes running back Mark Fletcher Jr. (4) scores a touchdown during the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas for the College Football Playoff quarterfinal game against the Ohio State Buckeyes on Dec. 31, 2025. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Good coaches always keep a few tricks in their back pockets, and Shannon Dawson is no different. Way back in the fall, he and Beck installed a play into the system that they hadn't run until tonight's College Football Playoff matchup with Ohio State, which the Hurricanes won 24-14.

"I was so ready to run that damn play," said Beck. "We've had that installed for so long, and he actually said if we got in that situation, he was going to call a different play to see what [Ohio State] lined up in, and I heard it come in [my headset], and he was just like 'get the damn first down.'"

The first down didn't come, though. Instead, Beck saw the Ohio State linebacker inch towards him, turned his hips, and found Mark Fletcher for the game's first score, setting the tone for what would be the biggest win for the program in the College Football Playoff era.

The play called for a misdirection in which Beck was meant to keep the ball, scramble for a short gain, and get a fresh set of downs. Instead, it netted the Hurricanes a fresh touchdown. Dawson said that

"It was supposed to be quarterback counter where I just wheel the back out of the backfield," said Dawson. "If he would have gotten covered, Carson would have tried to get the first down. At the beginning, they lined up and covered it, so we felt like we had been in that formation a few times this year, and I just felt like that was something they wouldn't necessarily be prepared for.

Prepared, the Buckeyes were not. Fletcher walked into the end zone for one of the easiest touchdowns of his career at Miami, and put an early exclamation point on a performance that continued to define his legacy at the U.

Head coach Mario Cristobal later praised his offense not only for its ingenuity, but its toughness, too.

"I guess to sum it up, I'm incredibly proud of these guys," said Cristobal. "They're the absolute best human beings and best competitors I've been around. And then for me, really just looking forward to all the things that I could have done better, we could have done better to keep improving, so we could be prepared to go to Arizona."

The Hurricanes now turn their attention towards the Georgia/Ole Miss matchup, where they will discover their opponent in the January 8 Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona.