Mendoza, a fourth-down call for the ages and Indiana's historic win - ESPN

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Indiana started to send its kicking team onto the field, setting up a perfectly sensible field goal attempt with a three-point lead and 9:27 to play in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

Kicker Nico Radicic had been almost automatic from inside 40 yards. A conversion would likely force Miami to drive the length of the field to take its first lead. Indiana could take the points, move on, play defense.

Coach Curt Cignetti was having none of it.

«He goes, 'Get off the field! We're going for it!'» offensive tackle Carter Smith said.

The coach who had changed everything for Indiana, starting with the belief that winning was possible, that championships were possible, that anything was possible, wasn't going to play it safe on fourth-and-4.

«Let's go, coach,» Smith said to himself. «Don't lie to me here.»

What began as a chaotic scene — Indiana burning its second timeout in a one-score game — became a defining moment for a coach, a quarterback and a program that forever changed what can be done in a sport dominated by the heavyweights and the highly recruited. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner playing for a title in his hometown, ran his first draw play of the game, gained the first down and then strained into the end zone.

Mendoza's 12-yard touchdown didn't seal the win, but it gave Indiana enough breathing room to ultimately prevail 27-21 and claim its first national championship.

«A big constant that we've really had on ourselves this year is always bet on ourselves, whether it's preseason — no one thinks we can make it — whether it's figuring out situations like Oregon, Penn State and Iowa,» Mendoza said. «Whenever Coach Cignetti, [offensive coordinator