Alexander: Indiana’s championship shows ‘anything is possible’ now in college football

Alexander: Indiana’s championship shows ‘anything is possible’ now in college football

Two Indiana fans looked at each other a few minutes before kickoff of the national championship game.

“Can you believe we’re here?” one said.

The other shook his head.

Can you believe it, either? That college football would get to a place where what happened Monday night is possible?

Indiana has been a college football afterthought for most of its existence, a school that cared more about basketball than anything else. Its own fans thought they could only dream of success, but what was once unfathomable has become reality.

Indiana football won its first national championship by beating Miami 27-21, completing a turnaround that no one saw coming two years ago. It beat a blueblood that has struggled to meet expectations for most of the past two decades but still owns four national titles. Indiana had so many fans in the crowd of 67,227 that Miami got booed running out of the tunnel into its own home stadium.

“When you’ve got the right people in your organization — coaches and players — and you’ve got a plan and great leadership and they commit to getting better, anything is possible,” Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said.

The win proved that college football fundamentally has changed. Longtime bottom dwellers are rising up, and no one has done a better job than Indiana. Before the arrival of the transformative Cignetti, the Hoosiers never had a double-digit win season. They entered this year with the most losses in Division I history. They had not finished in the top 5 of The Associated Press Top 25 Poll since 1967.

All of that has changed now. Indiana became the first FBS team to go 16-0 in the modern era, a feat made possible by the expansion of the College Football Playoff two years ago. The only other 16-0 team in high-level college football history was Yale in 1894. In the FCS, North Dakota State also went 16-0 in 2019.

None of this would have happened at Indiana — at least not like this — even five years ago. But direct player compensation and the transfer portal transformed the sport, making it possible for anyone to compete. Indiana grabbed the national title the same year that Vanderbilt won 10 games and Texas Tech won the Big 12 for the first time.

It can happen quickly, too. Cignetti, 64, is the first coach to win a national championship in his first or second season with a team since Gene Chizik at Auburn in 2010. Chizik had quarterback Cam Newton carrying his team. Cignetti assembled a roster without a five-star recruit and only two four-star prospects. He was the head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania a decade ago, and he brought the core of his team with him from James Madison.

“Back when I was waxing the staff table at IUP on Thanksgiving weekend and school was shutting down for the playoffs, did I ever think something like this was possible?” Cignetti said. “Probably not. But if you keep your nose down in life and you keep working, anything is possible.”

It took several gutsy calls.

Indiana controlled the first half to take a 10-0 lead, but Miami kept coming back whenever the Hoosiers extended their lead. The Hurricanes pressured Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza more than he had been in Indiana’s first two playoff games, sacking him three times. Mendoza threw only five incompletions combined in blowout wins over Alabama and Oregon. He completed just 59% (16 of 27) of his passes for 186 yards without a touchdown against Miami.

With Indiana leading 17-14 early in the fourth quarter, it faced a fourth and 5 from the Miami 37-yard line. Cignetti went for it, and Mendoza completed a back shoulder fade to wide receiver Charlie Becker along the sideline. When the drive stalled again four plays later, Cignetti ran out his field goal team on fourth and 4 at the 12 yard line. It didn’t feel right, and he called timeout.

“That one took some thought,” Cignetti said. “They were in the perfect coverage the play before. We banked that they would be in it again.”

Mendoza ran a quarterback draw that will go down in college football history. He bounced off one tackle as he picked up the first down, spun around and extended the ball across the goal line when he dove toward the end zone. Four Miami defenders were closing in on him. Mendoza took a hit. His touchdown was the last of the game.

“I would die for those guys on the field,” Mendoza said.

“They did exactly what we expected and talked about,” Miami defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor said. “It was just miscommunication.”