Indiana completes one of sport’s most astonishing turnarounds with first national title

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – From audacious upstart to unbeaten national champion, Curt Cignetti and the No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers completed their meteoric rise to the top of college football Monday night.

Fernando Mendoza and the Hoosiers took No. 10 Miami’s best shots and beat the Hurricanes on their home field 27-21 in the College Football Playoff championship game.

Indiana began this season as the losingest major program in the history of college football and ended it with the school’s first national championship, capping a remarkable two-year turnaround by Cignetti.

Indiana is the first team in modern college football history to finish a season 16-0, the first first-time national title since Florida in 1996 and maybe the most unlikely champion in the history of the sport.

“Let me tell ya: We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done,” said Cignetti, the curmudgeonly 64-year-old who told fans to Google his record when he arrived and promised he would finally bring a winning team to Bloomington, Indiana.

Mendoza, playing about a half-hour drive from his high school, was bloodied and bounced around by the Hurricanes’ ferocious pass rush, but showed the unflappable poise that helped make him Indiana’s first Heisman winner.

Never more than on fourth-and-4 from the Miami 12 with 9 minutes, 27 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Holding a 17-14 lead but mostly getting outplayed in the second half by the Hurricanes (13-3), Cignetti took a timeout to ponder a kick or go.

The Hoosiers went for it, and Mendoza darted through traffic for the first down with a quarterback draw before pinballing off tacklers and lunging past the goal line for the touchdown and a 24-14 lead. Mendoza took a shoulder in the back while reaching for the end zone and got up slowly with some help from his friends.

Miami’s response was an eight-play, 91-yard drive, with fabulous freshman Malachi Toney electrifying the home fans with a 41-yard reception and 22-yard touchdown catch and run that made it 24-21 with 6:37 left in regulation.

In a season defined by newfound parity in college football, a championship game that no one would have predicted before the season turned out to be a classic.

Needing one more drive to finally put the Hurricanes away, Mendoza converted two third downs, the second on a 19-yard, back shoulder throw to sophomore breakout receiver Charlie Becker that put the Hoosiers at the Miami 33. Miami stiffened, and Nico Radicic knocked home a 35-yard field goal to make it 27-21 with 1:42 to play.

Mendoza finished 16-of-27 for 186 yards, and Becker caught four passes for 65 yards.

The Hurricanes made it to the championship game with a last-minute, go-ahead touchdown run by Carson Beck against Ole Miss in the semifinals. Beck would have had to do it again to earn Miami its sixth national championship and first since 2001.

A roughing the passer call on IU’s Mario Landino gave Miami a boost to start the drive, but there was no more magic left for Beck and the Hurricanes.

On first-and-10 from the Indiana 41 with 51 seconds left, Beck dropped back and looked deep for Keelan Marion, but Jamari Sharpe raced across the field and picked off the pass. All Mendoza needed to do was take a knee twice to set off the confetti cannons, and spark a storm of Indiana crimson and cream in Hard Rock Stadium.

Moments later, Indiana fans got to serenade their hero as Abba’s “Fernando” blared.

Before the game, the vibe on the Miami sideline felt a little bit like a party, with rappers Fat Joe and DJ Khaled holding court in their Hurricanes gear. Sec. of State Marco Rubio flashed the “U” hand signal and chatted with former Hurricanes national championship quarterback Bernie Kosar.

Crowds gathered around Miami legends Michael Irvin and Ed Reed as they joined ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith for what could have been an impromptu episode of “First Take.” President Donald Trump arrived just before kickoff and took in the game from a suite.

It was a championship game that brought back memories of Orange Bowls past, with Miami in position to win a national championship on its home field against a Midwest foe. Back in the day, it was usually Tom Osborne’s Nebraska teams standing in the way.

Indiana fans, who packed yet another stadium for a playoff game, have never been part of anything like this. Well, at least not during football season.

Indiana has five NCAA basketball championships and claims Bob Knight has the patron saint of the program.

IU is a football school now, led by Cignetti, the perfectionist from Pittsburgh hired away from James Madison after the 2023 season.

The Hoosiers were lovable underdogs in 2024, with a surprising run to the Playoff but lopsided losses to Ohio State and Notre Dame that made many question their staying power.

Cignetti added Mendoza, the Cal transfer who grew up in Miami, and turned the Hoosiers into a juggernaut this season. In the postseason, the Hoosiers easily dispatched Alabama and Oregon to advance to South Florida and looked like they might do something similar to Miami at halftime.

Indiana led 10-0 at the half, controlling Miami’s running game and putting together one long touchdown drive. Mendoza went 85 yards on 14 plays, converting four third downs, including one where the Hoosiers got a do-over after an offside penalty on All-America pass rusher Rueben Bain Jr.

Of course, Indiana made the Hurricanes pay for their mistake. It’s the Hoosiers’ specialty.

Riley Nowakowski plunged in from the 1 to make it 10-0 Hoosiers with 6:07 left in the first half.

Miami finally found Indiana territory with its final drive of the first half, but facing fourth-and-2 from the Hoosiers 32, Canes coach Mario Cristobal bled the clock down and sent out Carter Davis for a 50-yard field goal that the senior kicker promptly doinked off the right upright.

After bullying their way through three CFP games behind 225-pound Mark Fletcher, the Hurricanes’ backs managed just 27 yards on 11 carries against Indiana.

Miami got some good licks on Mendoza, bloodying his lip in the first half on a shot from Jakobe Thomas that probably could have drawn a flag for targeting. Bain and Akheem Mesidor each had sacks on IU’s first drive of the second half. Then, on Miami’s second offensive play of the third quarter, Fletcher found a seam on a stretch play and went 54 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 10-7.

After winning their first two CFP games by a combined 69 points, Indiana faced its toughest second-half challenge since the Hoosiers beat Ohio State to win their first Big Ten title since 1967.

Unable to keep Miami’s pass rushers away from Mendoza, Indiana’s response came from special teams.

Mikail Kamara swatted Dylan Joyce’s punt from near Miami’s goal line and Isaiah Jones fell on the bouncing ball in the end zone to put the Hoosiers up 17-7.

Miami was undaunted. The last at-large team picked in the 12-team field, the Hurricanes spent much of the last month of the season trying to prove their playoff-worthiness.

They did it again against IU behind Fletcher, who ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries, and Toney, who had 10 catches for 122 yards.

But this was Indiana’s night and Indiana’s season. Once a laughing stock in college football, a punching bag for the likes of Ohio State and Michigan in the Big Ten, the Hoosiers’ rags-to-riches story ended perfectly.