‘One more chapter to write’: It comes down to Miami vs. Indiana for national title
Mario Cristobal and Curt Cignetti know what’s at stake.
As both were asked to reflect on what winning the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday night would mean for their programs — Cristobal for his No. 10 Miami Hurricanes, Cignetti for his No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers — each coach needed one sentence to convey his thoughts.
“It would mean we’re the national champion,” Cignetti said.
Cristobal nodded.
“It would mean we’re the national champions,” Cristobal said.
It’s as simple as that.
Except, is it actually all that simple?
Miami (13-2) and Indiana (15-0) have been two of college football’s top stories this season.
Cristobal has the Hurricanes back in the national picture four years into his tenure as the head coach of his alma mater. They pushed through a midseason snafu when they dropped two of three games by running through their final four regular-season games to sneak into the 12-team playoff field. Since then, they’ve made their presence known with three consecutive wins over higher-ranked opponents — Texas A&M, Ohio State and Ole Miss — as they eye their first national championship since the 2001 season.
Cignetti has Indiana on the doorstep of the school’s first-ever national football title. The Hoosiers in two years have gone from a college football laughingstock to one of the most complete teams in the country that has toppled national powers Ohio State, Alabama and Oregon on their way to the title game.
It all now comes down to Monday night. Kickoff from Hard Rock Stadium — the home field of the visiting-in-title-only Hurricanes — is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. with the game broadcast on ESPN.
“There’s one more chapter to write,” Cignetti said.
The Hurricanes enter the game as an eight-point underdog to the undefeated Hoosiers, but the Hurricanes’ focus remains internal.
Plus, they’re 3-0 as underdogs this season, winning against Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Ohio State in that role.
“Our guys always want to prove themselves,” Cristobal said. “The confidence and the trust in each other was something that just continued to build momentum throughout the course of the season. It was a matter of, finally, just looking at each other, looking in the mirror and making a commitment.”
The commitment has been on full display ever since Miami’s season nearly went to the wayside with losses to Louisville and SMU. The Hurricanes’ chances of making the playoff dipped to about 5% at that point. They needed everything to go right from that point on just to have a chance. They had to fix all their mistakes and go on a run.
They did.
Wins over Syracuse, NC State, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh by a combined 151-41 score to end the regular season were enough to elevate the Hurricanes to No. 10 and get into the field.
That was followed by a gutsy 10-3 win at Texas A&M, a 24-10 win over defending national champion Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl and a back-and-forth 31-27 win over the Ole Miss Rebels in the Fiesta Bowl to earn a spot in the title game.
“We’re in this position,” star Hurricanes edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. said. “We have this opportunity. We have to seize it.”
But to seize it, the Hurricanes have to defeat the only team that hasn’t been defeated yet in the Hoosiers, who are a fantastic story in their own right.
The Hoosiers were college football’s losingest program before Cignetti arrived ahead of the 2024 season after a stellar five-season run as head coach at James Madison.
In Year 1, he got Indiana into the College Football Playoff as the No. 8 seed. They lost to eventual national runner-up Notre Dame in the first round to finish 11-2.
This year, they’ve gotten even better. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza, an alumnus of Christopher Columbus High in Westchester, won the Heisman Trophy while the Hoosiers’ defense is ranked top 10 nationally in points allowed per game (11.1, second), yards allowed per game (260.9, fourth), yards allowed per play (4.62, tied for ninth), tackles for loss per game (8.53, second), sacks per game (3.00, tied for sixth).
Indiana also leads the country with a plus-21 turnover margin.
“They’re a complete team,” Cristobal said. “They are smart, physical, tough, fast, relentless.”
Those characteristics, though, can easily be said about Cristobal’s Miami team as well. That’s how he built the team over the past four years.
It’s now on display at the highest level and will have to be at its best against the top team in the country.
A national championship is on the line.
“I don’t see us getting caught up in any nostalgic moments or whatnot,” Cristobal said. “I just really sense that our team was really focused, that they were really intent on carrying out the rest of the day’s processes, knowing the tremendous opportunity that we have.”
Added Cignetti: “It’s time to sharpen the saw now, throw those warm fuzzies out the door, that sentimentalism. It’s time to go play a game against a great opponent. We’ve got to have a sharp edge going into this game. You don’t go to war with warm milk and cookies.”
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