Jamari Sharpe would deliver on a sealing interception to deliver Indiana their first national championship in school history as the Hoosiers defeats Miami 27-21 in the CFP national championship game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL. In a rags-to-riches story, the Hoosiers would fight their way to make sure that they did not give up on the lead and seal the win.
Despite Miami’s home-field advantage and the presence of legendary Hurricanes like Michael Irvin, Ed Reed, and Ray Lewis, Fernando Mendoza and his Hoosiers, led by coach Curt Cignetti, staged a dream ending worthy of ‘Hoosiers II.
The Hoosiers (16-0) would overcome the odds throughout the entire season with great defense and key players on offense that were not heavily recruited and not having any five-star players.
At the end, this is a fulfill dream to Cignetti, Mendoza, and the entire Hoosiers team to uplift their dreams to become national champions.
Indiana would score first on a Nico Radicic 34 yards field goal for a 3-0 lead. It took about 12-plays 55 yards.
The Hoosiers would go 10-0 on Miami before the half on a Riley Nowakowski 1-yard run which capped off 14 plays 85 yards drive. Mendoza would connect on a few key passes in the drive to extend.
Miami (13-3) would get on the board with a Mark Fletcher 57 yards touchdown run to make the game 10-7.
Indiana special teams would make a big play with a key block from Dylan Joyce and recovered by Mikail Kamara to make it 17-7.
Miami would make this game interesting with Fletcher’s second touchdown of the game. This time it was for three yards in to make it 17-14 in the start of the fourth quarter.
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 Heisman trophy winner would not be denied as he finished the game with 186 yards passing, but it was his tackle-breaking, sprawling-out 12 yards touchdown run that put the game into a 10-point lead in the fourth 24-14.
Mendoza and wide receiver Charlie Becker would connect on some of the key drives for the score.
The Hurricanes would not go away as Carson Beck connected to Malachi Toney on a 22-yards touchdown pass to make it 24-21.
The 10th seed Hurricanes won the total yards category (342 to 317); but the Hoosiers won the third down efficiency 6 of 15 to Miami’s 3 of 11.
Indiana, the top seed in the CFP playoffs, dominated the entire playoffs with smashing Alabama in the Rose Bowl and Oregon and the Peach Bowl.
This game would come down to who wanted it the most in the time of possession which was won by Indiana.
Indiana finished 16-0 — using the extra games afforded by the expanded 12-team playoff to match 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.
Players like Mendoza–a transfer from Cal who grew up just a few miles away from Miami’s campus, “The U”–certainly don’t come around often.
For Miami, they cannot put their heads down as they had a historic run to the championship. The Hurricanes will go to College Station in December and take down the seventh seeded Aggies 10-7; beat second seed Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl; and defeat Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl.
In the championship game, the Hurricanes could not find a way to take the lead in the game. Beck was 19 of 32 for 232 yards passing and a touchdown but the late game interception would seal the game.
Fletcher had 112 rushing yards, and Toney would have 122 receiving yards. The Big Three could not do everything out on the field and the Hurricanes defense looked tired on most of the drives from Indiana.
