Indiana secures first ever football title with 27-21 win over Miami

The Indiana Hoosiers outlasted the Miami Hurricanes, winning their first football title in school history with a 27-21 victory Monday night.

A program that had played in a grand total of 13 bowl games in the 130-some years before coach Curt Cignetti arrived in 2024 went on a historic run en route to a 16-0 season and a national title.

Miami had a chance to steal the victory, driving down the field with under two minutes to play. But Miami quarterback Carson Beck threw a game-clinching interception with 44 seconds to play.

Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza is also the first Heisman winner in Indiana history, and he grew up within walking distance of Miami – fondly known as “The U.” 

“I was a two star recruit. I wasn’t a five star. Who’s supposed to be in this position, who’s supposed to be on the number one team in the nation?” Mendoza told “60 Minutes” about the team’s improbable run.

The Heisman Trophy winner finished with 186 yards passing, but it was his tackle-breaking, sprawled-out 12-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-4 with 9:18 left that defined this game — and the Hoosiers’ season.

Mendoza’s TD gave Cignetti’s team a 10-point lead — barely enough breathing room to hold off a frenzied charge by the hard-hitting Hurricanes, who bloodied Mendoza’s lip early, then came to life late behind 112 yards and two scores from Mark Fletcher, but never took the lead.  

Two fourth-down gambles by Cignetti in the fourth quarter, after Fletcher’s second touchdown carved the Hurricanes’ deficit to three, put Mendoza in position to shine.

The first was a 19-yard-completion to Charlie Becker on a back-shoulder fade those guys have been perfecting all season. Four plays later came a decision and play that wins championships.

Cignetti sent his kicker out on fourth-and-4 from the 12, but quickly called his second timeout. The team huddled on the field and the coach drew up a quarterback draw.

“We rolled the dice and said, ‘They’re going to be in it again and they were,'” Cignetti said. “We blocked it well, he broke a tackle or two and got in the end zone.”

Mendoza, not known as a run-first guy, slipped one tackle, then took a hit and spun around. He kept his feet, then left them, going horizontal and stretching the ball out — a ready-made poster pic for a title run straight from the movies.   

Indiana would not be denied. 

“I had to go airborne,” said Mendoza, who had his lip split and his arm bloodied by a ferocious Miami defense that sacked him three times and hit him many more. “I would die for my team.”

Fletcher was a one-man force, hitting triple digits for the third time in four playoff games and turning a moribund offense into something much more.

It ended as a one-score game, and the ‘Canes — the visiting team playing on their home field — moved into Indiana territory before Carson Beck’s heave got picked off by Jamari Sharpe, a Miami native who made sure the only miracle in this season would be Indiana’s.

“Did I think something like this was possible? Probably not,” Cignetti said. “But if you keep your nose down and keep working, anything is possible.” 

The College Football Playoff trophy now heads to the most unlikely of places: Bloomington, Indiana — a campus that endured a nation-leading 713 losses prior to Cignetti’s arrival.

“Took some chances, found a way. Let me tell you: We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done,” Cignetti said.

Indiana’s final record of 16-0 — aided by the extra games afforded by the expanded 12-team playoff — matched a perfect-season win total last compiled by Yale in 1894.

In a bit of symmetry, this undefeated title comes 50 years after Bob Knight’s basketball team went 32-0 to win it all in that state’s favorite sport.