Indiana football’s historic season was full of memorable moments.
The Hoosiers captured their first-ever national championship and became the first team since the 1890s to finish 16-0. The Daily Hoosier has compiled our list of the top 10 plays and moments from IU’s march to the title. If you missed any previous posts in this series, check them out at the links below.
No. 10: Special teams sends Memorial Stadium into pandemonium against Illinois
No. 9: Indiana doesn’t budge at the Rose Bowl
No. 8: Mikail Kamara steps up in the National Championship Game
No. 7: “CHARLIE B.! FROM NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE!”
No. 6: A moment of magic at Iowa
No. 5: A mighty response at Oregon
No. 4: ‘The drive’ and ‘the catch’
No. 3: Setting the tone in Atlanta
No. 2: Sharpe secures the title
No. 1: Mendoza magic
Was there any doubt which play would be No. 1 on our list?
Indiana’s offense drove downfield on a huge possession early in the fourth quarter, following a Miami touchdown on the first play of the quarter. The Hurricanes remained close in the game, trailing just 17-14 after that score.
The Hoosiers converted on a critical fourth down during the drive, from Miami’s 37-yard line, on a big play by Charlie Becker that put them in the red zone. But IU would face another fourth down on the next series, prompting Curt Cignetti to take Indiana’s second timeout.
He’d originally sent Nico Radicic and the field goal unit on the field, but he had second thoughts.
Cignetti screamed from the sideline, “We’re going for it!”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Fernando Mendoza dropped back for a moment before taking off, needing four yards to pick up a first down. But he got more than just four yards. IU’s offensive line paved a path for its quarterback to get near the 5-yard line. Then, Mendoza showed his toughness, barreling through multiple Miami defenders, and diving across the goal line for a touchdown.
“That particular play didn’t feel really good about kicking a field goal there. The play before they were in the coverage for the quarterback draw, which we put in specifically in the medium package in the low red against that look. We had to block a little different than we normally do, and that was about a 45-minute discussion in the staff room how we were going to call it and do it,” Cignetti said after the game. “Line did a great job executing, so did the back, and Fernando trucked the linebacker, broke a few tackles.”
“Drew a few things up in the dirt”: IU football’s fourth down conversion for the ages
It was a remarkable moment, one of the greatest in the history of IU Athletics. Cignetti and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan made a big call there — in a low-scoring game, there was a legitimate argument to kick the short field goal to make the score 20-14. Plenty of time remained in the game, and Radicic was pretty close to a sure thing from that close — it would’ve been around a 30-yard field goal. If the Hoosiers turned the ball over on downs, Miami would’ve had a big momentum surge, trailing by only three points.
But Cignetti wasn’t playing to not lose. He was playing to win.
“A big constant that we’ve really had on ourselves this year is always bet on ourselves … Whenever Coach Cignetti, Coach Shanahan, they called that play, we knew, ‘Hey, we’re going to bet on ourselves one more time at the biggest stage of the game,'” Mendoza said. “At that point I took the drop. It wasn’t the perfect coverage for it, but I trust my linemen, and everybody in that entire offense, that entire team had a gritty performance today. And we were all putting our bodies on the line, so it was the least I could do for my brothers.”
The play didn’t seal the game for IU, as Miami scored on its next possession, and Indiana’s defense (Jamari Sharpe) needed to make a play at the end of the game to finish it off.
But Mendoza’s heroic dive across the goal line has become the lasting image of Indiana’s victory in the national championship. It’s certainly the best play of IU’s season, and it would be hard to exclude the play from any list of the biggest plays in all of college football over the last decade.
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