The Rundown Take
Cotton Bowl Hype Show: U Talk's Keys to Beating Ohio State — and a Promise to Go Viral
On New Year's Eve eve, Devin, Larry Frank Jr. and Melvin "G5" Bratton gathered for the Cotton Bowl hype show — Miami vs Ohio State with a national championship berth on the line. Bratton compared the night before to Christmas Eve: nobody in orange and green is sleeping, and the toy under the tree is a victory.
Key Takeaways
- Larry Frank's keys to victory: don't buy the Ohio State talk, penalty-free football, let Shannon Dawson call his game (not the perfect game), pressure the redshirt freshman quarterback, stuff Bo Jackson and the run, bend-don't-break on the dinks, and never put the game in the referees' hands.
- Bratton's warning to the young Canes: don't be the one who fouls this up — "this is a lifer move." And his blessing in disguise theory: the SMU and Louisville losses gave Miami the adversity Ohio State never faced.
- The panel broke down the Mark Fletcher moment — consoling a tearful Malachi Toney after his fumble against A&M — as proof of a brotherhood Miami hasn't had since the early 2000s.
- An actual Ohio State fan, GoJ, came on live to make his case — sparking a spirited debate over Ryan Day taking play calling from Brian Hartline, which the U Talk panel read as pure nervousness.
- Bratton told the Uncle Luke story of a lifetime: the night Luke promised him a bag to "throw the D" on national TV at the Orange Bowl — and G5 scored, celebrated, and forgot. He's vowing to make up for it if Miami wins.
The Fletcher-Toney Moment
Devin played the clip of Fletcher lifting Toney's head up after the fumble — "God just wants to see how bad you want it" — and the room got emotional. Bratton compared it to Jerome Brown pulling a young teammate aside: big brother to little brother, the kind of bond that wins championships. Larry Frank's take: for the upperclassmen to rally around a freshman like that shows a culture change from the teams of the last 20 years — this group is playing for each other.
Enemy Territory, Welcomed
Credit to GoJ, the Buckeye fan who didn't hide in the chat: he argued Day is the better sequencer and Ohio State's receiver room would force Miami to cover or get burned. Bratton countered that flipping play callers at the dance puts the bullseye squarely on Day's chest — and promised to mail GoJ a U Talk shirt to wear after the whupping. GoJ said it'd make a fine car-wash rag. Callers piled in with predictions: 27-24 on a late Fitzgerald interception, 24-10, and 26-17 with a safety.
Us Against the World
Bratton loved Mario Cristobal invoking the old-school mantra from the podium. His answer to the "Make-A-Wish team" media disrespect: Miami is the Lakers, the 80s Celtics — either you love us or you hate us, and if a kid can't handle that, "go to Notre Dame and put on a brown belt." Chris Kane won the week's raffle (an Andre Johnson plaque), the chat planned its game-day menus, and the show closed with marching orders: win Wednesday night, send in your three-second videos, and the whole U Talk family goes viral throwing the D. Kickoff 7:30 on ESPN — postgame show to follow.