Indiana has captured its first-ever National Championship.
The Hoosiers beat Miami in a thrilling game on Monday night, 27-21. Indiana clinched the win by intercepting Carson Beck in the closing minute of the game.
Fernando Mendoza made the play of the game — and maybe the play of his life — in the second half. Facing a 4th-and-5 inside the 10-yard line, Indiana dialed up a quarterback draw. Mendoza made multiple defenders miss and heroically dove into the end zone to give IU a 24-14 lead.
Miami would respond with a touchdown of its own and had a chance to win in the game’s closing minutes, but Mendoza’s touchdown proved to be the difference.
Indiana also scored a special teams touchdown thanks to a blocked punt midway through the third quarter. The Hurricanes out-gained Indiana on a yards-per-play basis (6.5 to 4.4) but were unable to overcome significant mistakes throughout the game.
The result is one of the more improbable results in college football history — Indiana is taking home the National Championship just 2 years into Curt Cignetti’s tenure. Prior to his arrival in Bloomington, Indiana hadn’t won more than 8 games in a single season since 1967.
Indiana also becomes the first-ever 16-0 team in college football history.
Indiana 27, Miami 21
Here’s the CFP national championship box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
