MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Fernando Mendoza ducked his head down and barreled toward the end zone, weaving, bobbling and bouncing off defenders and teammates alike. As he reached the goal line, he extended both arms, willing the football he held to cross the plane.
Touchdown, Indiana.
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Mendoza’s gutsy play — after a long season filled with gutsy plays — came on fourth-and-four from the Miami 12-yard line. With nine minutes and 27 seconds to play and Indiana clinging to a three-point lead, the Hoosiers initially opted to kick a field goal. It would have been a safe, defensible decision, but coach Curt Cignetti called a timeout and changed his plan. On the next snap, he and his offensive coordinator called a quarterback draw and put the ball in their Heisman Trophy winner’s hands.
The rest, as they say, is history. Indiana went up 10 points, which gave the Hoosiers enough of a cushion to hold off the Hurricanes’ late comeback bid. Indiana defensive back Jamari Sharpe picked off Miami quarterback Carson Beck in the game’s final minute to secure a 27-21 victory and the Hoosiers’ first football national championship. The program that began the season with more losses than anyone else in the history of college football ended it by hoisting the trophy that proves it is the best of the best.
What will we remember from Indiana’s run from “the outhouse to the penthouse,” as billionaire alum Mark Cuban put it? Cignetti’s bold fourth-down decision and Mendoza’s bumbling run into the end zone. Mendoza said afterward that the entire team, including Cignetti, likes to make fun of his awkward running style. “But as long as it gets the job done,” he said, he doesn’t mind the laughter and the jokes from his teammates.
“A big constant that we’ve had this year is always bet on ourselves,” Mendoza said. “When they called that play, we were going to bet on ourselves one more time on the biggest stage of the game. It wasn’t the perfect coverage for it, but I trust my linemen and everybody in that entire offense. …
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“It’s fourth down, so no matter how you run, no matter what it is, you’ve got to put it all on the line, and that’s something I was willing to do.”
That toughness is what defines Mendoza as a player, just as his happy-go-lucky demeanor defines his off-field persona. Of course, he is a smart guy who can pick apart coverages because of his preparation. And, yes, he can throw the ball with incredible precision. But it’s the hits he takes — and gets back up from — that tell you a lot about who Mendoza actually is.
His bottom lip was bleeding early in Monday night’s game after taking a few hard hits, and it didn’t faze him. His jersey was covered in grass stains by the final whistle; he still wore the biggest smile on his face. He knew he’d pushed his body as far as it could go for this fairytale ending. The two-star recruit who nearly went to Yale came back to Miami to win a national championship in his hometown — as the quarterback of a program that had long been one of the sport’s most reliable punching bags. It almost sounds too unbelievable to be true.
But the Hoosiers couldn’t have done this without Mendoza. They couldn’t have done it without that fourth-down run. It didn’t decide the game, per se, but every single person watching the game knew how tenuous things were in that particular moment. You can’t ignore the 130-plus years of futility that predated it, either.
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“Fernando — I know he’s great in interviews and comes off as the All-American guy, but he has the heart of a lion when it comes to competition,” Cignetti said. “That guy competes like a warrior.”
Which was exactly what Cignetti wanted. On the eve of the title game, he said that he needed his players to “have a sharp edge going into this game” because “you don’t go to war with warm milk and cookies.” As always, the Hoosiers heeded that message and prepared for a physical, draining, four-quarter slugfest — which was exactly what they got.
They needed to squeeze every ounce out of every player to win it. They needed to block a punt and return it for a touchdown. They needed to capitalize on multiple Miami penalties that gave Indiana drives new life. They needed that final interception to seal the game.
Because climbing to the mountaintop of college football is not easy. It’s not supposed to be. It requires all the right puzzle pieces to be obtained one by one and then put together.
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That final puzzle piece came from Miami by way of Berkeley. Mendoza was the key to unlocking this team and this program. Indiana fans knew it, too. As the confetti fell on a most unlikely dream realized, tens of thousands of Hoosier fans serenaded their quarterback with ABBA’s “Fernando.”
There was, indeed, something in the air that night.
