Cote: In Canes vs. Mendoza, Miami — city and team — will win it all | Opinion
Two things are true about Monday night’s Miami Hurricanes-Indiana Hoosiers game for the national championship of college football. The first is irrefutable; the second, far from that.
The first is an absolute: This is the most-Miami sporting event — a double shot of Cafecito, the most Cuban-flavored, the one best mirroring this city — of any we have ever had. It is a celebration of our history and heritage, in and out of sports. And no matter the result, in at least one very real way, Miami will have won.
The second posit is more opinion than truth, although those opposites can feel like one and the same when belief is strong enough: The Hurricanes, heavy underdogs, will win this game. UM will shock the betting odds, and some might say defy logic, to win its sixth national championship and first since ever-distant 2001.
I’ll say why in a little bit. For now, before sports does what it does and with one game make one team with so much to feel proud of feel an abject failure instead, let’s cherish how this one dream matchup has electrified South Florida — from hungry, longtime Canes fans to abuelas who fled Cuba for freedom and now adopt and embrace Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza as a beacon, an instant family heirloom.
Miami, city and people, cannot lose.
Here come the Hurricanes, playing for a national title after a near quarter-century drought, and led by Miami-born Cuban-American Mario Cristobal, UM through and through, an offensive tackle on the 1989 and ‘91 championship teams. Cristobal returned to his alma mater four years ago hell-bent to create new glory days, something he says he has “invested every waking moment of my life into.” Now he’s one game away.
There aren’t many better stories in college football, perhaps in all of sports. Except maybe this one...
Here comes Indiana, the basketball school seldom good at football in its history, now undefeated-great, ranked No. 1 and led and lifted there by Mendoza, a Miami kid raised here, the pride of Columbus High, the first player of Cuban heritage ever to win the Heisman Trophy. Columbus is where Cristobal also went, and played football there with Mendoza’s father. Cristobal’s two sons go there now.
Mendoza accepted the Heisman in two languages and Miami swooned. He seems so perfect, on and off the field. This week I asked his Miami Columbus High coach Dave Dunn to name a single flaw. Brief pause.
“He’s nerdy,” said Dunn with a smile.
This culminates the College Football Playoff but, Monday night will be a party! The matchup would only be more Miami if the halftime show were dominoes. This is less a game than a showcase, the buildup to it pushing to the background the Dolphins‘ ongoing search for a new head coach.
If what we had at Hard Rock Stadium was Indiana vs. anybody but Miami, the Hoosiers and Mendoza would be cheered like the home team. Even as is, the combination of visiting fans in red and pro-Mendoza Miamians may be enough to diminish UM’s home-field advantage — the one that has helped Miami win three of its five national titles via the Orange Bowl Game.
A major South Florida team has won its sport’s championship at home nine times. The Hurricanes have three of those, the Heat and Panthers two each, and the Marlins and Inter Miami one apiece. It would be strange to call it a rare occasion when three of those nine championships have been won just since the summer of 2024. But it is a rarity from a broad, historic vantage, considering those nine at-home championships have been spread across 197 combined seasons played. The full list:
CHAMPIONSHIPS WON IN SOUTH FLORIDA BY LOCAL HOME TEAM
▪ 1983 Hurricanes: Won first football national title, 31-30 over Nebraska, on Jan. 2, 1984 in Orange Bowl.
▪ 1987 Hurricanes: Won second football national title, 20-14 over Oklahoma, on January 1, 1988 in Orange Bowl.
▪ 1991 Hurricanes: Won fourth football national title, 22-0 over Nebraska, on January 1, 1992 in Orange Bowl.
▪ 1997 Marlins: On October 26 won first World Series in Game 7 over Cleveland, 3-2 in 11 innings at then-Pro Player Stadium.
▪ 2012 Heat: On June 21 clinched second NBA Finals title in Game 5 over Oklahoma City, 121-106, in Miami.
▪ 2013 Heat: On June 20 clinched third NBA Finals title in Game 7 over San Antonio, 95-88, in Miami.
▪ 2024 Panthers: On June 24 won first Stanley Cup in Game 7 over Edmonton, 2-1, in Sunrise.
▪ 2025 Panthers: On June 17 won second Stanley Cup in Game 6 over Edmonton, 5-1, in Sunrise.
▪ 2025 Inter Miami: On December 6 won first MLS Cup title, 3-1, over Vancouver, in Fort Lauderdale.
[Notes: None of the Dolphins’ Super Bowl wins (or five appearances) was played in Miami. The Marlins’ second World Series was won at Yankee Stadium. The Heat’s first NBA Finals was won in Dallas. And the Canes’ third and fifth football national titles were won in the Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl.]
I’m thrilled to have been at all nine of those locally won championships and to be there Monday night as well. Ticket demand has been insane, with after-market prices $2,855 and up for the worst seats and up to $14,479 for the best. And parking costs are such it might be cheaper to rent a helicopter to drop you off.
Magnifying the crazy scene Monday night will be, President Trump reportedly will attend the game.
One of Cristobal’s priorities this week has been walling off his team from distractions, outside noise “from people who’ve never been a part of the journey; you can’t let them become a part of it now. You’ve just got to shut out the outside world and go to work.“ The Canes have been at a hotel, just like on a road trip.
Just like they were when their defense dominated Texas A&M 10-3 in the first round in College Station, Texas. Just like they were when they upset reigning champion Ohio State 24-14 in the CFP quarterfinals in the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Tex. And just like they were when they beat Ole Miss 31-27 in the semifinals in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona.
“The routine doesn’t change at all,” said Cristobal. “At the end of the day your preparation doesn’t change, your intensity is always driven up the closer and closer you get to game time and as you go deeper into the season. We all know the brand of football played down here in South Florida is special. It shows up year in, year out at every level, college and pro, certainly at the high school level. It’s certainly an exciting time at South Florida.”
I’ve put off explaining why I predict the Canes will win even as big 8 1/2-point underdogs. It’s time.
Some of it is gut feeling based the maniacal want Cristobal has steeled in his players. Not since Jimmy Johnson led the Canes have I been eyewitness to a coach so absolutely driven.
He refers to UM’s record as “1-0,” meaning the last game was won, and all that matters is the next one. See him palpably shut down if asked any question about whether The U is “back.” You don’t comment on art when the artists are still at work.
Understand what drives Cristobal by fathoming that Miami’s glory-days cluster of five national championships happened in less time — 1983 to 2001 — than how long it has been since the last one ended that magical run.
You have to have been to the mountaintop to appreciate the climb. You have to have been at the bottom, too.
Like the Hurricanes and their fans.
Until Cristobal returned to his alma mater a coaching parade of Randy Shannon, Al Golden, Mark Richt, Manny Diaz plus a few interim guys all failed to get The U as close to “back” as Cristobal has it today.
Before Carson Beck arrived to take snaps, the succession of starting quarterbacks who fell short included Brock Berlin, Kyle Wright, Robert Marve, Jacory Harris, Stephen Morris, Brad Kaaya, Malik Rosier, N’Kosi Perry, D’Eriq King, Tyler Van Dyke and even record-setting Cam Ward last year.
By contrast, Indiana cannot understand or be driven by the history of accomplishment and drought after it that drives Miami.
So don’t call Hoosiers football fans “long-suffering” just because they have never won a national title. You have to care to suffer. You have to be interested, at least.
Before Mendoza came along, the most famous Hoosiers football star was one Pete Pihos, a two-way player in the mid-1940s. [Editor’s note: Anything that happened before even Greg Cote was born may or may not have actually occurred.]
Indiana has always first been a basketball school, a basketball state. But the Hoosiers can’t even claim Larry Bird; he went to Indiana State. Heck, the famed movie “Hoosiers” wasn’t even about the Hoosiers; it was about a local high school team.
Basketball at Indiana hasn’t mattered much nationally since coach Bobby Knight was throwing metal chairs across courts in the mid-‘80s. Nothing in sports at that school has amounted to much anyone paid attention to until Mendoza changed everything about a minute and a half ago.
But intangibles such as that won’t win for Miami. This might:
Cristobal has built this team from the ground up, offensive and defensive lines. His O-line is Brobdingnagian, will physically control the line and free up running back Mark Fletcher Jr. I believe Miami’s defense also is the best Mendoza has faced.
If it comes back down to intangibles, though, more than just the home field will give the Canes that edge.
Only one team in this game is the big underdog dogged by doubts at every turn. No college football national champion has had two losses since LSU in 2007. Since UM fell to 6-2, counted out of any hope for the CFP, the Hurricanes have won seven must-win games in a row: Four by a combined 151-41 score to end the regular season, then three straight in the playoff.
Yet the doubts followed Miami into CFP selection day, when many thought UM should be left out in favor of Notre Dame, the team it had beaten in the season opener. Turns out the selection committee made the right call, as the Canes have used a machete to cut through all the doubt and rise from two losses and a No. 10-seed ... to Monday night.
Mario Cristobal and Fernando Mendoza already have won the season, earned the feeling of triumph.
One will own it forever when the night is done.
This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 11:34 AM.
