Mendoza, Hoosiers cap perfect season, win first national title - ESPN

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — As No. 1 Indiana entered Hard Rock Stadium on Monday night to compete for the school's first national title on No. 10 Miami's home turf, the Hoosiers carried with them the confidence of their head coach, Curt Cignetti — and the baggage of the program's heavy history as one of the worst in college football.

To understand just how improbable Indiana's 16-0 season was, punctuated by its gritty 27-21 win against Miami in front of a crowd of 67,227 — the majority clad in cream and crimson — a history lesson is required. Indiana football had lost 715 games — the second most in FBS history, just one behind Northwestern.

But with one thrilling win in the College Football Playoff National Championship — a seesaw game that went down to the wire — the Hoosiers left Miami as the best team in the country, completing one of the most remarkable two-year turnarounds in history. Though there are sure to be debates about where this Indiana team ranks among college football's greatest teams — including the 2001 Miami Hurricanes — the simple fact is nothing like this has been done before with a roster filled with unheralded recruits.

«Are there eight first-round draft choices on this team? Probably not, no, there aren't,» Cignetti said after the win. «But this team, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.»

That includes the Hoosiers' Heisman Trophy winner, Fernando Mendoza, who willed himself 12 yards into the end zone on fourth-and-4 with 9:18 left to give the Hoosiers a 24-14 lead.

«At that point I took the drop,» said Mendoza, who completed 16 of 27 attempts for 186 yards but no passing touchdowns. «It wasn't the perfect coverage for it, but I trust my linemen, and everybody in that entire offense, that