Miami Gardens, Florida – as number 1 Indiana The No. 10 heads into Hard Rock Stadium on Monday night to compete for the school’s first national title. miamiOn their home field, the Hoosiers brought with them the burden of the confidence of their head coach, Curt Cignetti, and the program’s heavy history as one of the worst programs in college football.
How impossible it is to understand Indiana’s 16–0 season was, punctuated by its grittiness win 27-21 The game against Miami in front of a crowd of 67,227 – most of whom were dressed in cream and red – required a history lesson. Indiana football had lost 715 games – the second most in FBS history, only one behind Northwestern.
But with a thrilling victory in the College Football Playoff National Championship – a game that went down to the wire – the Hoosiers left Miami as the best team in the country, completing one of the most remarkable two-year turnarounds in history. While there is sure to be debate as to where this Indiana team ranks among the greatest teams in college football – including the 2001 Miami Hurricanes – the simple fact is that nothing like this has been done before with a roster full of unexpected recruits.
“Does this team have eight first-round draft choices? Probably no, no, no,” Cignetti said after the win. “But this team was greater than the sum of its parts.”
It also includes the Hoosiers’ Heisman Trophy winner, Fernando MendozaWho went 12 yards into the end zone on fourth-and-4 with 9:18 remaining to give the Hoosiers a 24–14 lead.
“That’s when I took the drop,” said Mendoza, who completed 16 of 27 attempts for 186 yards but no passing touchdowns. “It wasn’t the perfect coverage for it, but I have confidence in our linemen and everybody involved in that whole offense, that whole team played great today. And we were all putting our bodies on the line, so it was the least I could do for my brothers.”
Was the last player to win the Heisman Trophy and a national championship in the same season alabama RECEIVER devonta smith In 2020. And yet Indiana’s 12-play, 75-yard drive ended with a fourth-down touchdown run by a Hoosier from Miami who was never recruited by the Canes.
Mendoza was hardly alone. Indiana’s national championship roster featured eight 4- or 5-star players, while Miami had 45 players who earned 4- or 5-star rankings out of high school. For four quarters, they went head-to-head on the game’s biggest stage, a showdown between two teams who had a tough time getting even – let alone winning.
Cignetti now has an FBS-best 27-2 record over the past two seasons, after going 9-27 in his final three seasons before being hired to lead Indiana. He has led the Hoosiers to their first two 10-win seasons in program history. Indiana joined the 1894 Yale team as the only teams in major college football history to finish 16–0 – an accomplishment Cignetti said, “A lot of people thought was never possible.”
“This is probably one of the greatest sports stories ever,” he said, “but it’s all because of these guys and the staff.”
In such a tight game, the Hoosiers needed another Heisman moment from Mendoza to accomplish the feat. With 44 seconds remaining, Miami quarterback carson beck was intercepted by jamari sharp To thwart the Canes’ final comeback attempt.
“It’s the perfect place to play with the ball,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “Just going forward a little bit and moving out a little bit. We weren’t connected on it, and turnovers.”
With 5:04 left in the third quarter, Indiana defensive lineman michael kamara Blocked a punt with his left arm and the linebacker Isaiah Jones Retrieved the ball in the end zone for a touchdown, giving the Hoosiers a 17–7 lead. This was the first blocked punt resulting in a touchdown in the CFP era, and Beck reacted by placing both hands on his helmet in disbelief and disappointment.
Kamara said, “Just to be able to do something so crazy, like it’s something you write a book about, you write a movie about.” “To do it in real life and do it with people I love, it’s amazing.”
Indiana led wire-to-wire – but not as effectively as it had all season. The Hoosiers entered Monday night having outscored opponents by 473 points this season, tied with 2019 Clemson for the most in CFP history entering the national championship game.
With 6:37 left, Miami narrowed the gap to 24–21 with an eight-play, 91-yard drive that ended with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Beck. Malachi Tony. The ‘Canes were constantly within reach but could never take the lead – or stop the Hoosiers’ explosive, timely plays.
A 57-yard touchdown run to Fletcher narrowed the margin to 10–7 with 11:06 left in the third quarter. The Canes, who survived six lead changes in the Fiesta Bowl, won against ole missOnly two plays and 47 seconds were needed to score, and the Hoosiers came up empty on the following possession.
Miami (13–3), which was playing for its sixth national title and the program’s first title since 2001, was the visiting team in its home stadium as the Hoosiers earned the higher seed. And as they had throughout the playoffs, Indiana fans packed the stadium, filling nearly 60% of the seats.
As Mendoza took his seat on the bench after a 12-play drive that ended with a 34-yard field goal and a 3–0 lead, he pressed a white towel to his bloodied lip. He was attacked from his blind side early in the drive, and Miami’s defense was aggressive from the start.
Cignetti took issue with the umpiring on that drive, saying after the play that there should have been two roughing the quarterback penalties and a high hit to the head that were not called.
“I’m all for letting them play, but when they cross the line, you have to call them out,” he said.
But there was one call that quickly changed the game.
miami defensive end reuben ben jr., however, the number 13 player Mel Kiper Jr.’s latest Big Board rankingsmade a critical mistake when he jumped offsides on third-and-13 at midfield in the second quarter. On the following play, kelon black Rushed up the middle for a 20-yard gain and a first down at the Miami 23-yard line.
For Miami, penalties have been an issue all season long. The Hurricanes allowed an average of seven penalties per game on Monday night, which is 104th in FBS.
With 6:13 left in the first half, Indiana had the ball at Miami’s 1-yard line. Mendoza handed the ball Riley NowakowskiAn unheralded tight end who embodied everything about Indiana’s roster. Nowakowski, a former walk-on at Wisconsin with a background at fullback, drove for the touchdown and a 10–0 lead.
Including that touchdown, the Hoosiers scored 198 points in the second quarter, the most by any FBS team in any quarter this season. However, despite all the focus on Mendoza, the defense was equally impressive in the first half, holding Miami to 69 yards rushing, the fewest by a team in the first half of a CFP Championship Game.
Meanwhile, Miami’s offense struggled to move the ball one yard at times. The Canes’ offensive line, which had a nearly 53-pound advantage per player, was being outclassed, and by the time Miami converted on fourth-and-1, Beck was clearly frustrated. The Canes’ most productive drive of the first half ended with a missed 50-yard field goal attempt that missed the right sideline.
“They’re mature, they’re big,” Cristobal said. “They understand how to take advantage of the ball, they communicate really well. They definitely played very well in the first half against us. A lot of credit to them. I thought in the second half we were starting to generate a lot of yards and points and at the end I thought we were generating some good chunk plays and then credit to them. They came up with a big play where it counted in the end. But they’re a very well-coached operation, very high-level players.” I know sometimes we lose sight of the fact that people have evolved well both at James Madison and here, and that’s a credit to them.”
Indiana’s victory was also a Big Ten victory, as it was the first time since 1940–42 (Minnesota in ’40, ’41 and Ohio State in ’42) that the Big Ten won three consecutive national titles (only AP and Coaches Poll titles).
“I know Indiana has had some bad football history and some good years,” Cignetti said. “It was because it wasn’t the emphasis directly on football. The basketball school. The coaches.” [Bob] The Knights had great teams. The emphasis is on football. It’s on basketball too. But you have to be good at football these days. We’ve got a president who comes from the South and who loves football. We’ve got an ad who’s a tremendous fundraiser, a people’s person. We’ve got a fan base, the largest alumni base in the country, Indiana University. They are all inside.
“We’ve got a lot of momentum.”
