Notebook: IU Seeks More History With National Title Opportunity
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Once again, college football history looms for top-seeded Indiana (15-0), which will play 10th-seeded Miami (13-2) in the Jan. 19 national title game at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
A victory will tie IU with Yale as the only major college teams to go 16-0 in a college season. Yale did it in 1894, when it averaged 30.3 points, and allowed 0.8 (13 total points). Opponents included Orange Athletic Club, Boston Athletic Club, Army, Harvard, Princeton, and Lehigh (twice). It beat Army, 12-5, and Harvard, 12-4.
The Hoosiers can’t wait.
“There isn’t any time to celebrate because this is what everybody dreams of,” Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza says. “I'm going to put every ounce of my body into preparation going into this game.”
That IU has this opportunity in head coach Curt Cignetti’s second season, that a program that was college football’s losingest at the start of the season is poised for its first national title is the result, All-American cornerback D’Angelo Ponds says, of Cignetti’s winning approach. He is 26-2 at IU (the Hoosiers were 9-27 in the previous three years) and has never had a losing record in 15 head coaching seasons.
“It stems down from the coach's mindset. Coach Cig does a great job keeping us steady, keeping us moving one week at a time,” Ponds says. “We take things one week at a time, success or failure. We don't look back at it. We just keep moving forward.”
IU and Miami -- which has won five national championships, the last in 2001 -- have played twice -- in 1964 (the Hoosiers won 28-14) and in 1966 (the Hurricanes won 14-7).
This will be the first time since the Bowl Championship Series/College Football Playoffs era began in 1998 that a team will play for a national championship on its home field. Still, another huge Hoosier fan crowd is expected, duplicating what happened in the Rose Bowl and Peach Bowl.
“Anybody playing for a national championship would be fired up,” Mendoza says. “It will definitely stir up some emotions. It’s going to be a great game.”
It’s a homecoming for Mendoza and Ponds. Both are from Florida.
Mendoza was a standout at Miami’s Christopher Columbus High School, 30 minutes south of Hard Rock Stadium.
“I haven’t played there before,” he says, “but I’ve been to a lot of games there.”
In a unique twist, Mendoza’s father was a high school teammate of Miami head coach Mario Cristobal.
The younger Mendoza played the Hurricanes once while the quarterback at the University of California. He threw for 285 yards, two touchdowns and an interception in a 39-38 loss.
“It was a tight game,” he says. “The game came down to the wire. I got knocked out of the game, and we lost by that one point. It was heartbreaking. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to play them again.”
Mendoza’s two-game playoff performance has been cartoonishly good. He is a combined 31-for-36 for 379 yards, eight touchdowns, and no interceptions. He’s thrown touchdown passes to four different receivers – Elijah Sarratt, Omar Cooper Jr., E.J. Williams Jr., and Charlie Becker.
“He was incredible,” Cignetti says. “He was great. Our receivers made some nice contested catches. Sarratt was on fire. Charlie Becker made some big plays. E.J. and Cooper got in the act, as well. And when (the pass) wasn't there, Fernando used his legs. He was on top of the game.”
It’s a huge improvement from Mendoza’s late-August Hoosier debut, when he was 18-for-31 for 193 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions in a 27-14 season-opening win over Old Dominion.
“Game one, I threw zero touchdown passes,” he says. “I was trying to be Superman.”
Conversations with Cignetti, offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer quickly corrected that.
“You don’t have to go be Superman,” Mendoza says they told him. “We have a great defense and great playmakers… just do your job.”
So he has.
“My job is to be effective with making really accurate balls and really great decisions. That’s what I pride myself on every single play.”
The Hoosiers attack defenses with impressive balance, rushing for 218.3 yards a game, throwing for 242.7. They average 42.6 points and 461.0 total yards. Mendoza completes 73.0 percent of his passes for 3,349 yards, 41 touchdowns and just six interceptions. He’s also rushed for 284 yards and six TDs.
His 41 touchdown passes trail only Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins (50) and C.J. Stroud (44) in Big Ten history.
Running back Roman Hemby has rushed for 1,060 yards and seven touchdowns. Kaelon Black has 961 yards and 10 touchdowns. Khobie Martin has 505 yards and six TDs.
IU has five receivers with at least 30 catches and 370 yards. Cooper Jr. leads with 64 catches for 866 yards and 13 touchdowns. Sarratt has 62 catches for 802 yards and 15 TDs.
Defensively, the Hoosiers have held their last three opponents -- Ohio State, Alabama and Oregon -- to just 174 rushing yards on 2.5 yards a carry. They have forced at least one turnover in seven-straight games. Ten times they have totaled at least two turnovers.
Linebacker Rolijah Hardy has a team-leading 98 tackles and eight sacks. Linebacker Aiden Fisher has 93 tackles, 9.5 for loss. Linebacker Isaiah Jones has 15.5 tackles for loss, including 7.0 sacks. Safety Louis Moore leads with six interceptions, plus 81 tackles.
Kicker Nico Radicic is 16-for-17 on field goals, with a long of 46 yards.
Miami averages 34.1 points and 425.8 total yards, 150 on the ground. It allows 13.8.
The Hurricanes opened 5-0 and that included a season-opening win against Notre Dame that was ultimately the difference in making the 12-team playoff ahead of the Irish.
After losing to SMU in overtime, Miami has won seven-straight games. It was the last at-large team selected, then defeated No. 7 seed Texas A&M, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 6 Ole Miss in the playoffs.
Quarterback Carson Beck, a transfer from Georgia, completes 74.7 percent of his passes for 3,072 yards, 25 touchdowns. and 10 interceptions. Against Ole Miss, he was 7-for-9 for 25 yards on third down, converting 11-of-15.
Running back Mark Fletcher Jr. has rushed for 685 yards and 10 touchdowns. CharMar Brown has rushed for 389 yards and five TDs. Receiver Malachi Toney leads with 84 catches for 970 yards and seven touchdowns.
Defensively, Akheem Mesidor (seven sacks, 12 tackles for loss) and Rueben Bain Jr. (4.5 sacks, 7.5 tackles for loss) lead an aggressive unit.
The front seven combined for 12 sacks in the first two playoff games but only had one against Ole Miss’s quick-pass attack.
Miami has 79 tackles for loss and 34 sacks. It’s intercepted 12 passes (four each by Jakobe Thomas and Bryce Fitzgerald) and forced 12 fumbles.
By comparison, IU has 128 tackles for loss with 45 sacks, 18 interceptions, and 12 forced fumbles. It allows 11.1 points and 75.0 rushing yards.
The Hurricanes will be without starting defensive back Xavier Lucas for the first half. He was called for targeting in their 31-27 Fiesta Bowl win over Ole Miss.