By Jamal Baker
NDG Sportswriter
The Indiana Hoosiers completed a historic season by defeating the University of Miami 27-21 in the College Football Playoff National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.
Just two seasons ago, Indiana finished the year with a 3-9 record, but that proved to be a blessing in disguise as the Hoosiers hired former James Madison head coach Curt Cignetti to turn the football program around.
“If you look at the record since Indiana started playing football and relative to the success we’ve had the last two years, we’ve broken a lot of records here in terms of wins, championships, postseason games, top-10 wins,” Cignetti said.
“It’s been kind of surreal.”
Cignetti took over one of the FBS’s most historically losingest programs and quickly made his mark, guiding Indiana to the College Football Playoff in his first season before a first-round exit that many pundits labeled a fluke.
A year later the Hoosiers won their first national championship while becoming the first major college team since Yale in 1894 to go 16-0.
“It’s a great story, tremendous story,” Cignetti said. “Most people would tell you that are in the know, it’s probably one of the greatest stories of all time.”
What can the doubters say now? That Indiana is here to stay, and Cignetti is arguably the best coach in college football.
Heisman trophy winner Fernando Mendoza completed 16 of 27 passes for 186 yards and added a rushing touchdown.
Although Mendoza did not have his best statistical performance, the Miami native delivered a clutch 12-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-4 with 9:27 left to put Indiana up 24-14.
“We put it in for this game,” Cignetti said after Indiana claimed its first national title. “It was a quarterback draw, but it was blocked differently. And we rolled the dice and said they’re going to be in (the same defense) again. We blocked it well, he broke a tackle or two and got into the end zone.”
When his team needed him most, Mendoza rose to the occasion and took some big hits from Miami defenders along the way.
“I’ll die for my team,” Mendoza said. “Whatever they need me to do, they need me to take a shot to the front or back, I’m going to die for my team out there because I know they’ll do the same thing for me. That’s what makes this national championship so special.”
With only eight four or five-star players currently on the roster, the Hoosiers proved that strength in numbers and elite coaching are keys to success.
“I think we sent a message, first of all, to society that if you keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard and you’ve got the right people, anything’s possible,” Cignetti said. “In our particular situation in the athletic world, college football has changed quite a bit. The balance of power, also. But we have the right people on our staff, in the weight room, in the locker room, and we have great senior leadership and togetherness, and we had a really good quarterback that played his best when the chips were down.
“Are there eight first-round draft choices on this team? Probably not, no, there aren’t. But this team, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.”
As a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.—founded at Indiana—all I have left to say is Go Hoosiers!
