Indiana Outlasts Miami in Instant Classic to Claim First National Title
MIAMI GARDENS - The Hurricanes didn’t get run off the field like Alabama or Oregon, but for long stretches of Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship, they were suffocated. And when Miami finally started to breathe on offense, it was already too late. Indiana, with a performance full of grit and championship-caliber moments, held on for a 27-21 win to finish a perfect 16-0 season and capture the program’s first national title.
For Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, this was more than a title game - it was a homecoming. The Heisman Trophy winner returned to his hometown of Miami, but for most of the night, he didn’t look like the same player who lit up defenses in Indiana’s previous playoff wins.
Miami’s defense made sure of that. Mendoza took hits, got bloodied, and looked human.
But when it mattered most, he reminded everyone why he won college football’s most prestigious award.
The defining moment came late in the fourth quarter. Indiana faced a fourth-and-4 at the Miami 12-yard line.
A field goal would’ve made it a six-point game. Instead, head coach Curt Cignetti put the ball - and the season - in Mendoza’s hands.
The call was a quarterback draw, and it was executed to perfection. Mendoza slipped past the rush, spun out of a tackle, and launched himself toward the end zone in a Superman-style dive that will be replayed in Bloomington for decades to come.
That touchdown didn’t just extend Indiana’s lead - it symbolized their night. Tough, timely, and fearless.
Miami wasn’t done, though. The Hurricanes had finally found rhythm on offense, and with time still on the clock, they were moving the ball with urgency.
But Indiana’s defense, just like its offense, delivered in the clutch. Wide receiver Charlie Becker stepped up with two massive catches - one on a fourth-and-5 before Mendoza’s touchdown run, and another on a third-and-7 on the Hoosiers’ next possession.
Both times, Becker was blanketed. Both times, he made the play.
For Miami, the margin for error was razor-thin. And against this Indiana team, even the smallest slip turned into a landslide.
The Hurricanes made history - just not the kind they wanted. Early in the third quarter, they gave up the first blocked punt for a touchdown in College Football Playoff history.
Alex Bauman missed his assignment, Mikail Kamara broke through, and Isaiah Jones was there to scoop and score. Just like that, Indiana had a two-score lead, and Miami’s uphill climb got even steeper.
There were other moments that stung just as much. In the second quarter, with Indiana facing third-and-12, Miami defensive star Rueben Bain Jr. jumped offside.
The penalty wiped out an incompletion that would’ve forced a punt. Instead, Indiana got a fresh set of downs and methodically marched to the game’s first touchdown, capped by a Riley Nowakowski run.
It’s easy to point fingers after a loss like this. But Bain and Bauman weren’t the reason Miami came up short.
Bain, in particular, was sensational - again. The likely NFL Draft entrant had 2.5 tackles for loss and was a force all night alongside Akheem Mesidor, who added two tackles for loss of his own.
Together, they led a defense that held Indiana to a fraction of the 56 and 38 points it had scored in its previous two playoff games. They also sacked Mendoza three times and made him scramble more than he had all season.
But the defense could only hold the line for so long. Miami’s offense didn’t convert a third down until the final three minutes of the third quarter.
Their field goal attempt early in the second half clanged off the upright. Outside of Mark Fletcher Jr.’s electric 57-yard touchdown run, the Hurricanes managed just 53 rushing yards.
That’s a sharp drop from the ground dominance they displayed in previous playoff rounds.
And when Miami had one last shot to pull off a miracle, the final pass sailed high - a misfire that sealed the game and the season.
Still, this Hurricanes team deserves credit. They weren’t supposed to be here. From barely making the playoff to nearly pulling off a title upset, they brought big-time football back to South Florida in a way it hasn’t felt in over two decades.
“I couldn’t be more proud to be associated with them,” said head coach Mario Cristobal. “I love them.
They had the guts, the faith and the trust to look at a place that was a complete mess and say, ‘I’m gonna be a man of action. I’m gonna make the University of Miami a prominent program once again.’”
Even in defeat, Miami finished the game with more total yards than Indiana - a remarkable turnaround after managing just 69 yards in the first half. They played with heart, with flair, and with the kind of resilience that defines championship-caliber teams, even if they didn’t leave with the trophy.
But Indiana? They made every moment count.
They didn’t blink. They didn’t break.
And now, they’re national champions.
As Cristobal put it: “You feel it and you use it and you give those feelings a direction.”
For Miami, that direction is forward. For Indiana, it’s straight into the history books.