A game that will go down in history, a historic turnaround for the Indiana Hoosiers program, and the perfect ending to the football season that will live forever in Bloomington. The Indiana Hoosiers faced off against the Miami Hurricanes in Hard Rock Stadium for the College Football National Championship game.
The two teams couldn’t be more different. For Indiana, they were Big Ten Champions, defeating the defending National Champions, Ohio State. 15-0 on the season, ranked first in all of college football, a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, and a coach who had previously come from a national championship-winning program at James Madison University.
The Hurricanes were quite the opposite; they didn’t make the ACC championship, and had a quarterback who was new to the program and coming off a UCL tear in last year’s SEC championship game, where he played for Georgia. The Canes were also the last at-large team to make the playoffs and ranked 10th out of 12 teams that made the College Football Playoffs (CFP).
The Hoosiers were favored going into the game, after crushing Oregon 56-22 in the prior game. The analysis expected the game to be a blowout, especially facing a tired, beaten-up Miami team that had just beaten Ole Miss to punch their ticket to the CFP.
The game started slowly, with the first quarter ending in a 3-0 advantage to Indiana. The Miami defense was making the Heisman Trophy winner look human for the first time all season. Indiana would eventually score in the second quarter after going on a 14 play 85 yard drive to secure the first touchdown of the game. Miami would miss a field goal wide right, helping the Hoosiers lead the Canes 10-0 going into halftime.
The second half was a completely different ball game. Miami came out of the half with a 6-play, 6-yard stop on defense, and immediately responded with a 2-play, 62-yard touchdown score, making the game 7-10. All the momentum looked to be in Miami’s favor until Mikail Kamara blocked the Canes punt and Isaiah Jones recovered it in the endzone for an Indiana touchdown, making the score 17-7 and switching the momentum to Indiana.
The fourth quarter was full of fireworks: three drives, three touchdowns. Two for Miami and one for Indiana. Indiana would kick a field goal late in the fourth quarter to make the score 27-21, in favor of Indiana. Carson Beck and the Hurricanes needed a touchdown to win the game and secure his spot in college football history. 44 seconds left on the clock, Beck wants the touchdown, but underthrows the ball right to the corner, who picked off the ball, giving Indiana their first National Championship in their school’s history.
After the interception, the party is on in Bloomington, players are jumping up and down, and the stadium, full of 67,227, erupts, and people realize they have witnessed history and one of the most dominant programs since Joe Burrow and the 2019 LSU Tigers. The Indiana Hoosiers are National Champions, and the Mendoza, Cignetti connection will go down in history.
