Category: Sport

The NFL offseason has begun, and Yahoo Sports is previewing the coming months for all 32 teams, from free agency through the draft and more.

AFC East: Bills | Dolphins | Patriots | Jets
AFC North: Ravens | Bengals | Browns | Steelers
AFC South: Texans | Colts | Jaguars | Titans
AFC West: Broncos | Chiefs | Raiders | Chargers
NFC East: Cowboys | Giants | Eagles | Commanders
NFC North: Bears | Lions | Packers | Vikings
NFC South: Falcons | Panthers | Saints | Buccaneers
NFC West: Cardinals | Rams | 49ers | Seahawks

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2025 season record: 3-14 (u 5.5 wins), fourth in AFC South, missed playoffs, 29th in DVOA

Overview

The Titans had hope after drafting QB Cam Ward with the first overall draft pick in 2025, but things never completely came together. Ward flashed, but a lack of talent, especially at receiver, kept Tennessee’s offense from finding its stride. Head coach Brian Callahan was fired after Week 6 with a 1-5 record, 3-14 overall in two seasons with the Titans.

Heading into the season, there was some thought that a solid offensive line could help insulate Ward from some of the pitfalls seen by some previous first overall picks at quarterback. That theory never turned into reality. Ward had the 10th-highest pressure rate and ranked 36th among 37 qualified quarterbacks in EPA per dropback under pressure. Ward also faced the most difficult schedule of defenses by DVOA and no quarterback had more dropbacks against defenses in the top 10 of defensive DVOA on the season.

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[Get more Titans news: Tennessee team feed]

The Titans made their first big move of the offseason by hiring Robert Saleh as head coach. Now we’ll see how he and the franchise build up a roster that has a young offense while featuring one of the oldest defenses in the league by snap-weighted age.

Cap/cuts outlook

The Titans are projected to have more than $93 million in salary cap space, the most in the league as of Feb. 10, according to Over The Cap. Tennessee could save almost $14 million by moving on from Calvin Ridley and $12 million from cutting L’Jarius Sneed, two big swings from the previous regime, which could give the team the most cap space in the league. This could be about as blank a slate as the Titans would like under general manager Mike Borgonzi and a new head coach.

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If both Ridley and Sneed are released, it would leave just Jeffery Simmons, Lloyd Cushenberry III (another potential cut), Dan Moore Jr., Amani Hooker and Cam Ward as players with a 2026 cap hit of $10 million or more.

Key pending free agents

OG Kevin Zeitler
LB Arden Key
DT Sebastian Joseph-Day
WR Van Jefferson
TE Chig Okonkwo
LB Jihad Ward
CB Jalyn Armour-Davis

Part of why the Titans have so much potential cap space is that they have several 2025 contributors heading into free agency. While they played bigger roles for the Titans, that does not necessarily mean they will be impossible to replace, especially on defense, where it’s easier to find starting-caliber players in free agency. The one to watch will be Okonkwo, if he’s seen as the type of tight end who could work in a new offense, since he has failed to reach the promise shown in bits during his rookie season.

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Positional needs

Wide receiver
Offensive line
Cornerback

Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor showed potential to fill important roles as rookies, but neither should be a lead target in a functional offense. Ridley was expected to be the lead receiver, but that vision was never fully realized due to injuries and inconsistency.

The only offensive lineman the Titans should feel good about heading into 2026 is Peter Skoronski, who played at an All-Pro level at guard. Dan Moore Jr. and JC Latham had two of the highest blown block rates among tackles, according to Sports Info Solutions. However, Tennessee proved how expensive trying to upgrade an offensive line in free agency can be with Moore’s four-year, $82 million signing. Money does not guarantee results.

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No team gave up more EPA per dropback to players lined up out wide than the Titans. With Sneed likely cut and Jalyn Armour-Davis a pending free agent, Tennessee’s top two outside corners appear headed out the door.

2026 NFL Draft picks

1st round, pick No. 4
2nd round, pick No. 35
3rd round, pick No. 66
4th round
5th round
5th round (NYJ)
6th round
7th round (LAC)

Good draft fit

Jordyn Tyson, WR, Arizona State

The Titans need a potential No. 1 wide receiver for promising QB Cam Ward. Tyson was a star for Arizona State the past two years and has the physical traits to be a big-play machine in the NFL. His receiving numbers were down this past sesaon, but that’s only because of injuries and poor play at quarterback. With Calvin Ridley possibly getting cut, the Titans desperately need to add a big-time playmaker here.

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What could move the fantasy needle in 2026?

Support for Cam Ward

Cam Ward ranked 35th out of 35 qualifying quarterbacks in EPA per dropback and success rate this season. However, we can all use our brains and apply some context to the situation and realize he wasn’t set up for any level of success with a lame-duck, play-calling head coach who was fired early in the season, and no quality experienced pass-catchers for most of the year. The Titans’ front office needs to hope Robert Saleh is the right coaching hire to facilitate growth for the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft. The rest of the roster needs refreshing on offense, too. I wouldn’t write in anyone as a starter in 2026 who played a role at running back, wide receiver or tight end from 2025. If those guys compete in camp and win jobs, great. Just aim for more depth with upside overall. — Matt Harmon

Betting nugget

After a historically bad 2-15 mark against the spread in 2024, Cam Ward at least helped Tennessee go a more respectable 7-9-1 ATS this season. The Titans were also tied with several teams as the second-best team (11-6) to the over this season. — Ben Fawkes

Miami defensive back Jakobe Thomas escaped a targeting penalty in the first quarter of the national championship game.

Thomas hit Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza in the chin with the crown of his helmet after Mendoza had handed the ball off on Indiana’s second drive of the game. Mendoza’s lip was bloodied after the collision.

No penalty was called on the play, much to the chagrin of Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, who immediately clamored for a flag to be thrown. Cignetti had a case. It was a textbook definition of the targeting rule in college football.

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“There’s three personal fouls on the quarterback not called in one drive that need to be called because they’re obvious personal fouls,” Cignetti said in his halftime interview with ESPN. “I’m all for letting them play. But when you cross the line, you’ve got to call it. They were black and white calls. “

Had Thomas been flagged for targeting, Indiana would have gotten an automatic first down and moved half the distance to the goal line. Instead, the Hoosiers ultimately had to settle for a field goal and an early 3-0 lead.

A targeting penalty would also have meant an automatic ejection, and Miami was already playing the first half without one of their key players in the secondary. Xavier Lucas was ejected in the second half of the Hurricanes’ Fiesta Bowl win over Ole Miss for targeting and had to serve a first-half suspension because of the penalty.

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Ultimately, it wouldn’t matter. Despite a valiant effort by Miami’s defense, Fernando Mendoza broke through for a late touchdown run and the Hoosiers held on for their first national championship in a 27-21 game after a Carson Beck pass was intercepted late in the game.

Finally, Curt Cignetti smiled.

The Indiana football coach, who rarely looks anything other than slightly angry on the sidelines, broke out into a massive smile right as time expired on Monday night at Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida. The Hoosiers, a program he completely turned around from just about the bottom of the college football world, had won the national championship.

While he looked a bit angry that some of his players dumped the Gatorade jug onto him as he made his way to midfield following the Hoosiers’ 27-21 win over Miami, that passed.

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Cignetti was hired to take over for Tom Allen at Indiana ahead of the 2024 campaign, and he has now gone 27-2 over the past two seasons. Before his arrival, Indiana had never won double-digit games in a single season. They had only two winning seasons this century. Before the Hoosiers’ blowout win at the Rose Bowl, their last win at a bowl game was all the way back during the 1991 season.

“Let me tell you — we won the national championship at Indiana University!” Cignetti exclaimed on ESPN. “It can be done.”

And, as he typically does, Cignetti stuck to his classic answer with how he’s going to celebrate the win. His smile, though, was bigger than ever.

Fernando Mendoza takes shot at Miami after win

Fernando Mendoza was also incredibly emotional during his initial interview with ESPN, too, but he made sure to throw in a not-so-subtle shot at Miami for not recruiting him.

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Mendoza has plenty of South Florida connections. The Heisman Trophy winner went to Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, grew up less than a mile from the university, and dreamed of playing for the Hurricanes “in the worst way,” his high school coach said before the game, via The Athletic.

But Cal was Mendoza’s only power-conference offer, and he took it. He wasn’t even offered a walk-on spot at Miami when Manny Diaz was running the show. While Miami was interested in him when he entered the transfer portal, Fernando Mendoza opted to go to Indiana to join his younger brother, Alberto, who is a redshirt freshman quarterback for the Hoosiers.

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But after getting Indiana to the championship game, Mendoza went 16 of 27 for 186 yards on Monday night and he ran in a wild touchdown late in the fourth quarter to help push the Hoosiers to the win. Clearly, it all worked out.

“I was a two-star recruit coming out of high school. I got declined to walk-on at the University of Miami,” Mendoza said on ESPN. “Full-circle moment playing here in Miami in front of friends and family.”

It wasn’t exactly what he wanted growing up, but Mendoza got to end his college career with a championship in Hard Rock Stadium after all.

We are living in a world where Indiana is the champion of the College Football Playoff.

The Hoosiers capped a 16-0 season with a 27-21 win over Miami in the national championship game on Monday night. It’s simply one of the most improbable stories in modern sports history. Indiana was recently the program with the most losses in college football history. Now the Hoosiers are on top of the world.

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Here are the five plays that defined Indiana’s championship in the order they happened.

Mikail Kamara’s blocked punt

The Hoosiers led 10-0 at halftime but Miami snuck back into the game early in the third quarter on RB Mark Fletcher’s 57-yard TD run. The Hoosiers punted twice after Fletcher’s score, but Miami didn’t come close to taking the lead.

And then the game officially got wild. Kamara easily got around his blocker to get his hand on Dylan Joyce’s kick. The ball bounded into the end zone, where it was recovered by Isaiah Jones for a TD.

It was the second straight playoff game with a blocked punt for the Hoosiers. In the Peach Bowl, Daniel Ndukwe blocked a punt in the fourth quarter as Indiana was blowing out Oregon.

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Kamara and Jones are two of Indiana’s key players on defense. But Indiana coach Curt Cignetti isn’t afraid to use his starters on special teams. And that decision paid off handsomely Monday night.

Fernando Mendoza’s TD run

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Mendoza’s touchdown run in Indiana football history. It’s the biggest play ever for Indiana and it’s not even close.

Ahead of the title game, the defining moment of Indiana’s season and Mendoza’s Heisman Trophy was his game-winning TD pass to Omar Cooper Jr. against Penn State. Now, Cooper’s toe tap in the back of the end zone has been surpassed by the image of Mendoza diving headlong into the end zone.

It’s an individual effort that stands out in its own right. But the context adds even more greatness. Mendoza’s run came on a designed QB draw on fourth down after Indiana called timeout for the second time in the second half.

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With 4 yards needed for the first down, you couldn’t have blamed Cignetti for kicking the field goal for a likely six-point lead. A fourth-down failure could have been a big jolt for Miami. Undeterred by that possibility, Cignetti left his offense out on the field after using the timeout and Mendoza broke multiple tackles before stretching the ball out across the goal line for a 24-14 lead.

Malachi Toney keeps Miami in it

Mendoza’s TD could have been a backbreaker for Miami. It put the Hoosiers up 24-14 with less than 10 minutes to go.

Instead, Miami cut Indiana’s lead to three. Again.

Malachi Toney accounted for 71 yards of a 91-yard drive for the Hurricanes. The eighth and final play of that drive came when Toney took a short pass from Carson Beck and ran 22 yards for a touchdown.

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It was the third time Miami had cut Indiana’s lead to three in the second half. It was also the final time. The Hurricanes never led at any point during the game.

Toney, meanwhile, finished with 10 catches for 122 yards to cap off a stellar freshman season. A player who could still be in high school, Toney reclassified to enroll early at Miami and was the team’s leading receiver as a true freshman in 2025.

Charlie Becker’s back shoulder catches

Sophomore receiver Charlie Becker emerged as a reliable target for Mendoza over the second half of the season. And he continued to make clutch catches on Monday night.

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Just look at this fourth-down grab just plays before Mendoza’s touchdown run.

Becker then made a similar catch over eight minutes later that nearly clinched the game for the Hoosiers.

Becker caught a 19-yard pass on third-and-7 with 2:30 to go to put Indiana at the Miami 33-yard line. Had the pass fallen incomplete, Indiana would have been punting from midfield and Miami would have had all three of its timeouts while trailing 24-21.

Instead, Indiana kicked a field goal to go up 27-21. And by the time that Miami got the ball back with 1:42 to go, the Hurricanes had used all three of their timeouts.

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Jamari Sharpe’s game-sealing interception

Miami nearly made it incredibly interesting though.

Thanks to a roughing the passer call on the second play of the drive, Miami got across midfield with just over 50 seconds to go and a short completion to CJ Daniels put the Hurricanes at the Indiana 41-yard line.

But with the clock running after a first down, Carson Beck tried to go deep to Keelan Marion with a safety closing in from the middle of the field. The ball was underthrown and Sharpe, the corner trailing Marion on the play, was able to easily make the interception.

After kneeling down inside the 10-yard line, Sharpe was penalized for taking his helmet off in celebrating. But after two quick plays to run out the clock, the field position didn’t matter. Indiana had won its first national title.

Indiana is a college football national champion for the first time.

Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza’s incredible touchdown run in the fourth quarter provided the game-winning points for the No. 1 Hoosiers in their 27-21 win over No. 10 Miami in Monday night’s College Football Playoff national championship game.

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Indiana is the first team to go 16-0 at the top level of college football in over 125 years. The sport barely existed when Yale went 16-0 in 1894.

Mendoza’s daring run came on a fourth-down quarterback draw after Indiana coach Curt Cignetti used the team’s second timeout to eschew a field goal that would’ve put the Hoosiers up six with less than 10 minutes to go.

“The coverage before — they were in the coverage where that play would work,” Cignetti told ESPN after the game. “We put it in for this game. It’s quarterback draw but it was blocked differently. And we rolled the dice and said they’re going to be in it again and they were and we blocked it well and he broke a tackle or two and got in the end zone.”

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It turned out to be the right decision. Miami responded with an eight-play, 91-yard drive capped off by a 22-yard catch-and-run by star freshman receiver Malachi Toney to cut Indiana’s lead back to three.

Toney scored with 6:37 to go. And Indiana came oh-so-close to preventing Miami from not getting the ball back. A false start on second-and-1 with less than two minutes to go gave Miami the opportunity to get the ball back with 1:42 remaining and no timeouts while trailing by six.

But the Hurricanes’ chances of a miracle win were short-lived. Just after Miami got to midfield, Jamari Sharpe intercepted Carson Beck on a deep throw to seal the win and a third straight national championship for the Big Ten after Michigan’s win in January of 2024 and Ohio State’s a season ago.

Beck’s interception was the first turnover of the game for either team.

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Indiana’s blocked punt was massive

The Hoosiers blocked a punt for the second straight playoff game on Monday night. And it put them up 10 in the third quarter.

Edge rusher Mikail Kamara got his arm out to block Dylan Jones’ kick and Isaiah Jones recovered the ball in the end zone. The TD gave Indiana a 17-7 lead after Miami running back Mark Fletcher Jr. had broken a 57-yard TD run earlier in the third quarter to get the Hurricanes on the board.

However, Miami didn’t disappear. A punt on the next possession could have been devastating for the Hurricanes. Instead, Miami marched 81 yards in 10 plays as Fletcher scored his second TD of the game to cut the lead back to three points.

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But that was the theme of the game for Miami. The Hurricanes were always chasing. Despite averaging over two yards a play more than Indiana did, Miami had more penalties and was worse on third down (3-of-11 compared to Indiana’s 6-of-15) along with the special teams blunder.

Mendoza’s relatively pedestrian stat line

Mendoza finished the game 16-of-27 passing for 186 yards and failed to throw a touchdown pass. It was just the second time all season he didn’t throw a TD pass. The first came in his first game at Indiana, when he was 18-of-31 passing for 193 yards in a Week 1 win over Old Dominion.

He had a rushing TD in that game, though. And his run for the touchdown on Monday night is immediately the biggest play in Indiana football history.

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The likely No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft had an incredible season in Bloomington. He finishes with 41 TD passes, 48 total touchdowns and just six interceptions while completing over 70% of his throws.

In Indiana’s first two playoff games, Mendoza had thrown eight touchdowns with just five incompletions.

Mendoza hasn’t officially declared for the draft, but that’s likely a formality as Indiana has already signed former TCU QB Josh Hoover in the the transfer portal. With Oregon’s Dante Moore coming back to school in 2026, the odds are overwhelming that Mendoza will be the Las Vegas Raiders’ choice to begin the draft in April.

Carson Beck gets Miami so close to a national championship

Beck’s move from Georgia to Miami was the highest-profile transfer of the 2025 offseason even as the QB recovered from the elbow injury he sustained at the end of the first half of the SEC title game.

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Despite being unable to throw in Miami’s spring practices, Beck hit the ground running with the Hurricanes as Miami knocked off Notre Dame in Week 1 — a win that ultimately snuck the Hurricanes into the CFP field.

On Monday night, Beck’s arm helped keep Miami in the game in the second half until the interception. He was 19-of-32 passing for 232 yards and a TD as the Hurricanes averaged over 12 yards a completion.

See how it all played out below:

Live coverage is over73 updates

• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 4:30 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 10:03 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  We end the night with a quick look at our first shot at the 2026 college football Top 25 because it’s NEVER TOO EARLY!

  Here’s who Yahoo’s Nick Bromberg has as No. 1: Way too early Top 25

  

• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 9:43 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  Fans gathered at Assembly Hall in Bloomington to watch the national title game. Here’s what it looked like when they secured the win:
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 9:33 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  Fernando Mendoza said the team liked running a QB draw against Miami’s coverage, though it wasn’t a perfect look.
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 9:25 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  Mark Fletcher was see throwing a punch at an Indiana player after the game. He also seen embracing Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza postgame, so it’s not clear when or what set him off.
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 9:18 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 9:10 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 8:44 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  https://twitter.com/YahooSports/status/2013467766427128214

• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 8:40 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  Ed Reed, one of many famous Miami alums in attendance, was seen comforting Miami players after a painful loss.
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 8:38 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  The Indiana QB took a subtle shot at Miami for once declining his walk-on tryout.
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 8:30 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 8:26 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 8:25 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 8:15 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  THIS GAME IS OVER!!!

  Indiana’s Jamari Sharpe took advantage of an underthrown ball by Carson Beck and sealed the national championship for the Hoosiers!
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 8:12 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  The Canes got a roughing-the-passer penalty on one of the first plays of the ensuing drive and they’re now out past midfield after another first down with less than a minute left.

• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 8:08 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  The Hoosiers got inside the red zone and were facing a second-and-1 before suffering a devastating false-start penalty and they ultimately had to settle for a field goal to keep the door open for the Hurricanes.

  Indiana 27, Miami 21

• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 7:59 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  The Hoosiers were facing a third-and-7 and Fernando Mendoza went to Charlie Becker on yet another back-shoulder throw and the receiver makes yet another clutch catch.

  Indiana is now in scoring range as the national championship game hits the two-minute warning.
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 7:50 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  The Hurricanes get that TD right back on a quick-hitting drive capped off by a 22-yard backfield pitch-and-run from Carson Beck to Malachi Toney.

  We have a good one down the stretch!

  Indiana 24, Miami 21 | 6:37 left
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 7:49 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  The Hurricanes aren’t going away just yet.

  They just had a couple long catch and runs by Alex Bauman (22 yards) and Malachi Toney (41) and Miami is back in scoring range just like that.

• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 7:39 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  The Hoosiers were facing another fourth-and-5 and Fernando Mendoza scrambled for a 13-yard TD!

  What a call by Curt Cignetti and what a run by Mendoza!

  Indiana 24, Miami 14
• Mon, January 19, 2026 at 7:35 PM PST

  Yahoo Sports Staff

  The Hoosiers are over midfield and in the red zone after Fernando Mendoza found Charlie Becker for a 19-yard gain on fourth-and-5.

  What a call and conversion by Indiana.

Fernando Mendoza admitted that he was a little confused about the coverage Miami presented on his incredible fourth-down touchdown run.

The Heisman Trophy winner put the Hoosiers up 24-14 with less than 10 minutes to go in Indiana’s 27-21 national championship game win when he dove into the end zone on what immediately became an iconic play.

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As Indiana faced a fourth-and-4, Mendoza took off up the middle and broke multiple tackles before leaping across the goal line.

“The coverage before — they were in the coverage where that play would work,” Indiana coach Curt Cignetti told ESPN after the game. “We put it in for this game. It’s quarterback draw but it was blocked differently. And we rolled the dice and said they’re going to be in it again and they were and we blocked it well and he broke a tackle or two and got in the end zone.”

Mendoza said it wasn’t that straightforward. When asked about the play on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” after the game, Mendoza said that the play had an option component to it. If Mendoza saw a different type of coverage than what Indiana was anticipating, he could have thrown the ball.

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“We called the quarterback draw and we were hoping they’d do a [cover] 2 Tampa drop eight where they basically kind of like defend in front of the line, it being fourth-and-5 and us likely to throw the ball in the red zone,” Mendoza said. “We were anticipating them, ‘Hey let’s drop back, let’s make Mendoza throw in a tight window to one of his stud receivers’ which, you know, is a good thought. However they didn’t come out in that.

“They came out in something that was a little bit of that, a little bit not and … play clock rolling down, I’m like ‘Screw it here we go.’ I see half the field going zone, half the field going man I’m like ‘Wow, if it’s man I’m supposed to throw it, if it’s zone I’m supposed to run it so I’m like, ‘you know what, screw it, I’m gonna run it myself, I’m going to die on that field’ and we got in.”

In fact, Mendoza said that the run-pass option was the same play that Indiana had used in a critical moment once before when the Heisman winner had thrown a pass.

“Nearly a throw. Nearly a throw,” he said when asked if he really did have the option to pass on the play. “It was a very similar play — it was basically the same exact play we won when we came back at Autzen Stadium in Oregon.”

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Indiana beat Oregon 30-20 in October after Mendoza found Elijah Sarratt in man coverage for the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter.

Miami defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman told reporters after the game that he and his staff knew before the snap that Mendoza could take off with the ball like he did. However, the coaches couldn’t communicate that to the players in time.

Miami quickly cut Indiana’s lead back to three points again at 24-21 following Mendoza’s touchdown run, but the Hurricanes’ chances of a win ended with less than a minute to go when Jamari Sharpe picked off Carson Beck. It was the first turnover of the game for either team. And since Miami had no timeouts remaining when Sharpe intercepted the ball, Indiana just needed to run two snaps to end the game.

Carson Beck will have plenty of fond memories to look back on from his college football career.

But it ended Monday in heartbreak.

With a chance to lead Miami on a drive for its sixth national championship, Beck threw an interception that sealed Indiana’s fate. His intended target on the play, Keelan Marion, never saw the ball in the air.

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With the clock ticking under two minutes, Miami’s defense held Indiana to a field goal that gave the Hoosiers a 27-21 lead. Beck then led the offense onto the field with 1:42 remaining, in need of a touchdown that could seal a national title on Miami’s home field.

Roughing penalty helps Miami advance to IU territory

Miami overcame a delay-of-game penalty with a pair of first downs that put them over midfield. The first first down of the drive arrived courtesy of a roughing-the-passer penalty that resulted in the back of Beck’s head hitting the turf.

With the Hurricanes facing first-and-10 at the Indiana 41, Beck decided to go for it all with 51 seconds remaining. Marion ran a go route down the left sideline, facing man coverage from cornerback Jamari Sharpe and safety help over the top.

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Beck launched a deep ball that never stood a chance.

The ball was short and thrown into double coverage. Sharpe pinpointed it for an interception at the 15-yard line as Marion continued to run toward the end zone.

With Miami out of timeouts, all that was left for the Hoosiers to clinch the national championship was to run out the clock. They did just that for a 27-21 win.

Beck will finish his college career with two national championships as a backup at Georgia, but none as a starter.

Beck talks late hit, fateful interception

The turnover was the first of the night for either team on a night when Beck completed 19-of-32 passes for 232 yards with 1 touchdown and the late interception.

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Beck was asked after the game how he was feeling on the last drive after the roughing-the-passer hit.

“My ears are ringing,” Beck said, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Beck also spoke with reporters about the game-sealing interception.

“The guy made a really good play,” Beck said. “They were in cover 2 and he sunk with no flat threat, made a really good play on the ball.

“So again, a lot of credit to them and their defense. They played really, really well tonight.”

Marion, in tears, says he never saw the ball

Per Thamel, Marion was in tears in the postgame locker room with a towel over his head. He said the interception was his “mistake” and that he didn’t realize that Beck had thrown the pass.

“I didn’t even know he had threw the ball,” Marion said. … “I got to look for the ball and make that play for him. So that’s all on me.”

Here’s a look at the Marion’s route from the sideline near the end zone. Marion didn’t look back for the ball until he crossed the 20-yard line after Sharpe had made his break. By then, it was too late.

Beck’s long college career comes to an end

The interception concludes a college career for Beck that started at Georgia in 2020 and featured five seasons including a redshirt campaign with the Bulldogs before he utilized his extra COVID-19 season to transfer to Miami.

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Beck’s teams lost just six games that he started over his college career. And Monday night’s loss ended like four of those six did.

Miami didn’t win the ACC with Beck at quarterback, but was granted a controversial berth in the College Football Playoff. Beck and the Hurricanes ultimately proved the selection committee correct by winning three playoff games to advance to Monday’s championship game.

They had a chance at the end to upset a historic Indiana team that surged to the top of college football with dominant units on both sides of the ball following decades of irrelevance.

It’s a lot to be proud of. But it’s not likely to soothe the pain of how Monday’s championship game was lost at the end.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — About half an hour before Curt Cignetti stood on a stage and lifted a trophy, before Mark Cuban put on the T-shirt they hand out to the national champions, before tens of thousands of fans sang ABBA’s “Fernando” in unison as red-and-white confetti fell on the field at Hard Rock Stadium, there was a moment that defined all of it.

With 9 minutes, 27 seconds remaining on the clock, the greatest turnaround story in the history of American sports was wobbling toward the finish line. Indiana hadn’t put Miami away, and the Hurricanes were starting to claw back their momentum.

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In that moment, it felt very much like four yards could be the difference between a championship that will be remembered forever and a lifetime of second guessing.

Initially, Cignetti sent his field goal unit onto the field. Taking a six-point lead would have been the safe, by-the-book play. But it wouldn’t have been the right one. Carter Smith, Indiana’s left tackle, watched Cignetti tell his kicking team he changed his mind.

“Get off the field! We’re going for it!”

It took Indiana football 139 years to get here, and if there was a gravity to the biggest coaching decision of Cignetti’s coaching career and the biggest play of quarterback Fernando Mendoza’s life, it had already been defied by the time they exited their timeout huddle with 9 minutes, 27 seconds remaining in the College Football Playoff championship game.

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It was only one fourth down in a game with a lot of big plays left. But if you’re trying to describe how the program with the most losses in the history of college football ended up two years later as the first 16-0 national champion in the sport’s modern era, it resides somewhere in between Cignetti’s decision to pull his field-goal team off the field and Mendoza bullying through the line of scrimmage, cutting back to his right when he saw a defender closing in and stretching to the end zone for the touchdown and a 10-point lead.

“A big constant we’ve had is to bet on ourselves,” Mendoza said. “Whenever they called that play, we knew we’re going to bet on ourselves one more time in the biggest stage of the game. It wasn’t the perfect coverage for it, but I trusted my linemen and everybody had a gritty performance today. It was the least I could do for my brothers.”

As Indiana built to this, from the upset win at Oregon in October, to the last-second escape at Penn State in November, to beating Ohio State for the Big Ten title, to romping through the playoff with wins over programs that wrote the history of the sport, everybody wanted to figure out how.

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Sometimes, the only explanation is watching it happen.

All the things that weren’t supposed to happen in college football? Indiana made them happen. The Hoosiers cracked the playoff. They made blue-bloods feel blue. They won the national championship.

And at the end, as Jamari Sharpe snagged the interception that secured Indiana’s 27-21 victory, there was little doubt about what it meant: In a sport where upward mobility has forever been slow and grueling, leading often to a dead end, what Indiana pulled off in two years is the most unlikely run in the history of American sports.

“Ever. Ever,” said Cuban, who won an NBA title as the Dallas Mavericks’ owner and is now helping fund his alma mater’s roster. “I mean, the Miracle on Ice, I don’t think there’s anything compared to this. To go from the outhouse to the penthouse, to win 16 games in a row, I mean, who’d have thunk? I don’t think anybody could ever imagine in their wildest of wildest dreams.”

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Cignetti had this dream early in life. The son of College Football Hall of Fame coach Frank Cignetti, who got fired after four years at West Virginia but became a legend in D-II, spent his childhood envisioning himself as “a Bear Bryant kind of coach.” But the business never handed him those cards to play.

As he worked his way up the ladder, he too often landed on coaching staffs that lost — Rice, Temple, Pittsburgh — until Nick Saban hired him as the recruiting coordinator and receivers coach at the beginning of his Alabama dynasty.

“That tied it together for me,” Cignetti said. “I was hitting the big 5-0 and wasn’t a coordinator, wasn’t on track to get a head-coaching job and didn’t want to be a 60-year-old assistant. I saw what those lives looked like as a kid. I took an unprecedented chance in this business.”

He became the head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the same place his father coached. As far as he was concerned, the Bear Bryant dream was long gone. It turned out the journey was only beginning.

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From IUP to Elon to James Madison and then Indiana — the worst of the worst. Nobody won there, and even those who had a little success eventually got fired too because nothing was built to last there. It was a graveyard. At least maybe Cignetti could make some money.

A photograph of Indiana’s nearly-empty Memorial Stadium, taken during the first game of the Cignetti era in August 2024, began to go viral Monday on social media. It was a snapshot of what Hoosier football used to be: a program that had been dead for decades, a lost cause, a waste of time.

You couldn’t even really call Indiana’s fans long-suffering. In basketball, the sport Indiana fans used to care about above all else, they’ve suffered. But is there really any suffering if there’s no hope in the first place?

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“There wasn’t an emphasis on football, plain and simple,” Cignetti said. “Basketball school.”

And then, he just … changed it. Some of the best parts of his James Madison teams came with him. He demanded investment and attitude. He out-evaluated everyone in the transfer portal, and as Indiana’s 2024 season unfolded, leading to a first-round playoff loss at Notre Dame, it was clear he was outcoaching a lot of the game’s stalwarts, too.

Which brings us back to the fourth quarter and Cignetti debating whether to kick that field goal. They had put in a quarterback draw for Mendoza this week — not exactly the most graceful runner — because they thought they might get the right look to call it against Miami.

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In that moment, the guts, coaching and toughness that had carried Indiana to the brink of a title was worth betting on one more time.

“We had to block a little different than we normally do,” Cignetti said. “That was a 45-minute discussion in the staff room how we were going to call it and how we were going to do it. Fernando, I know he comes off as the All-American guy, but he has the heart of a lion.”

That’s what the world never saw about Indiana, not until it discarded Alabama in the quarterfinals and ran roughshod over Oregon in the semifinals. After that, everyone knew it was real.

But the beauty of college football is that you are not supposed to solve it. You’re supposed to strive and struggle, have your heart broken, come back for more. At the end of the day, the blue bloods take home the trophy.

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That’s how it’s supposed to be. That’s how it’s always been.

And in the final game between Indiana and history, it was against Miami — a five-time national champion — playing in its home stadium. It was the ultimate test. And at the end, when Indiana committed an uncharacteristic false start penalty that prevented the Hoosiers from a game-ending first down, it gave Miami a chance to rewrite the story.

Instead, it was a Miami native and son of a former Hurricane, Jamari Sharpe, who snagged the championship-clinching interception. Just one more layer to a story you couldn’t invent if you tried.

“It’s an amazing feeling, man, coming from where I come from, always wanted to be in the national title, always wanted to play in the Dolphins’ stadium,” Sharpe said. “Tonight was my first night being able to do that, then making the game-winning play like that, I still can’t believe it. It might hit me in the morning.”

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It will all hit us when we wake up to a reality where Indiana — yes, Indiana — is the national champion. These days, the world of college football often feels chaotic, sometimes even dark. But this felt pure — not because it was Indiana, but because of how it happened.

The fundamentals. The self-belief. The three-star recruits who played like superstars, turning everything we knew about college football upside down.

“I know a lot of people thought it was never possible,” Cignett said. “It probably is one of the greatest sports stories of all time. But it’s because of these guys.”

Shortly after officially leading Indiana to its first-ever national championship on Monday night, Fernando Mendoza went to find his parents on the field at Hard Rock Stadium.

Once he finally did, it made for quite the moment.

Mendoza, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, led the Hoosiers past Miami 27-21 on Monday night in the national championship game. It completed Indiana’s perfect 16-0 season, marking a stunning turnaround for a program that was near the bottom of the college football world just a few years ago.

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Mendoza was 16-of-27 passing for 186 yards in the win. He scrambled for a huge touchdown in the fourth quarter, which he only managed after breaking a tackle near the goal line to help seal the win.

But throughout the game, as they often were throughout the College Football Playoff run, ESPN cameras frequently spotted the Mendoza family watching along. Mendoza’s mother, Elsa, has lived with multiple sclerosis for nearly two decades. She now uses a wheelchair. Mendoza’s father is always seen sitting next to Elsa, never on his feet, celebrating right along with her.

“I was diagnosed about 18 years ago, but of course you never knew that. You and [your brother] Alberto were so young, and I was doing fine … and mostly I didn’t want you to worry. It just felt like this impossible thing to place on you guys,” Elsa wrote in a letter to Mendoza in The Players Tribune last month. “On my sweet boys … It wasn’t until five years ago, when I got COVID, that things started to go downhill in a way where there was no more hiding it. It was during football season, and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to travel. And the thought of you wondering if I supported you any less, because suddenly I wasn’t at your games? I hated that.

“So that’s when I knew we had to sit you and your brother down … But you’ve made it so much easier. And you’ve done that in the sweetest, strongest, most Fernando way possible — by making me feel the exact opposite of embarrassed. You’ve made me feel seen.”

Naturally, Elsa was all smiles on the field after the win.

“Every hug with him, I know that sounds so cliché, but this is just so special because I know how bad he wanted it and how hard he worked to get here,” Elsa said. “That hug means the world.”

The 2025-26 bowl season is over and the Indiana Hoosiers are the national champions after a historic 16-0 run to the title. Here’s how the whole bowl season played out.

Results

Monday, Jan. 19

College Football Playoff National Championship Game

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Friday, Jan. 9

Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl (College Football Playoff semifinal)

Thursday, Jan. 8

Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (College Football Playoff semifinal)

Friday, Jan. 2

Holiday Bowl

AutoZone Liberty Bowl

Duke’s Mayo Bowl

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl

Thursday, Jan. 1

Allstate Sugar Bowl (College Football Playoff quarterfinal)

Rose Bowl presented by Prudential (College Football Playoff quarterfinal)

Capital One Orange Bowl (College Football Playoff quarterfinal)

Wednesday, Dec. 31

Goodyear Cotton Bowl (College Football Playoff quarterfinal)

SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl

Cheez-It Citrus Bowl

ReliaQuest Bowl

Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl

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Tuesday, Dec. 30

Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl

Valero Alamo Bowl

Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl

Monday, Dec. 29

JLab Birmingham Bowl

Saturday, Dec. 27

TaxSlayer Gator Bowl

Kinder’s Texas Bowl

Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl

Go Bowling Military Bowl

Wasabi Fenway Bowl

Pop-Tarts Bowl

Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl

Isleta New Mexico Bowl

Friday, Dec. 26

GameAbove Sports Bowl

Rate Bowl

ServPro First Responder Bowl

Wednesday, Dec. 24

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl

Tuesday, Dec. 23

Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans

New Orleans Bowl

Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl

Monday, Dec. 22

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

Saturday, Dec. 20

College Football Playoff first-round game

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College Football Playoff first-round game

College Football Playoff first-round game

Friday, Dec. 19

Myrtle Beach Bowl

Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl

College Football Playoff first-round game

Thursday, Dec. 18

Xbox Bowl

Wednesday, Dec. 17

StaffDNA Cure Bowl

68 Ventures Bowl

Tuesday, Dec. 16

IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl

Saturday, Dec. 13

LA Bowl