Indiana got contributions from everyone to finish off the greatest story in college football history
How the Hoosiers sealed their storybook ending.
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The national (and internet) conversation over the next couple weeks about Indiana winning the national championship will probably center around three topics:
1) Where they rank all-time among single-season teams. Are they better than 2019 LSU/2005 Texas/2001 Miami/Whatever Nick Saban Alabama team you want to pick?
2) What Curt Cignetti's place is among coaches all-time after what he's done in just four years at the FBS level.
3) Can they do it again?
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I'll tackle all three right off top to make it easy for everyone:
1) Indiana's the first FBS team to go 16-0 since the 1800s. They beat some of the best teams –and biggest brand names– in the sport on their way to a national title. You're lying to yourself if you think that doesn't at least put them at the same table as the other teams we view as the best throughout CFB history.
2) Cignetti has a 146-37 overall record as a coach. He's 45-6 at the FBS level. It took him two years to win a national title at INDIANA. He's already one of the best to ever do it, even if he never coaches another game.
3) Indiana went 12-2 in Cignetti's first season, then 16-0 in his second. What would possibly make you think they won't be in the mix again?
Now that we've answered those questions, we can give Indiana and Cignetti their rightful shine - without it devolving into some legacy argument.
You don't need me to repeat the full story you've heard a million times. Indiana was the worst overall team in FBS history, and now they're national champions in just two years. I've said it plenty here, but it bears repeating: What Cignetti and Indiana pulled off is something that only existed in the world of the NCAA (now CFB) video games. Whenever you or I took some random school from obscurity to the top of college football, we had to hear from anyone who'd listen about how that would never happen in real life. Well, it just did, and it's undoubtedly the greatest team story in the history of college football.
And what better way to close out that story than by getting contributions from everyone in the national championship? Winning through all phases was a staple of Indiana's season, and was the reason they beat Miami. I'm eschewing a traditional game recap here by instead focusing on three plays from the second half that epitomize why the 2025-26 Hoosiers are the kings of college football.
THE BLOCKED PUNT
Miami's 57-yard touchdown run to make it 10-7 with 11:06 left in the third completely flipped momentum on its head. What looked like a game that might spiral into a Hoosiers rout almost instantly became one destined to go the distance. The two Indiana drives that followed (seven plays, 20 yards, two punts) further opened the door for the Hurricanes to take control. That's when IU's special teams put their stamp on the game.
First, punter Mitch McCarthy ripped a 55-yard boomer that Miami's Malachi Toney (questionably) fielded at the five and only got to the seven. IU's defense deserves a ton of credit for forcing the subsequent three-and-out, but McCarthy pinning the Canes right outside their endzone deserves to be remembered. Then, senior DL Mikail Kamara made the most impactful play of the game:
Every play in this game was at a premium, and Indiana ultimately got the upper hand by kicking Miami's ass on special teams. As much as some coaches act like this phase of the game doesn't matter, Indiana just proved how it can win you a national championship.
Sidenote: I've seen a lot today about Miami's "postgame win expectancy" being 80-plus percent. Those numbers serve a purpose, and they're usually decent at telling the story of a game. I'm not rolling when it comes to this here, though. There's no world in which I expected Miami to win after giving up a blocked punt TD to fall behind two scores late in the third quarter. Call me a boomer, but this is why games aren't played on paper.
THE POST-HEISMAN HEISMAN MOMENT
Unexpected plays like the blocked punt are necessary to win a national championship. You have to get something from someone (or somewhere) out of the blue at some point along the way. When the game is on the line, though, you need the big dogs who got you there to come through. Fernando Mendoza's fourth-and-five TD run to make it 24-14 with 9:18 left will go down in the big-dog play hall of fame:
