The 2025 college football season concluded with a thriller at Hard Rock Stadium, with a home game for one team and a homecoming for the quarterback of the other.

We wrap up what went down in one of the most memorable National Championship games in recent memory:

Indiana 27-21 Miami
National Championship Game
History made and a perfect season concluded.

Indiana are the ‘losingest’ school in college football. having amassed 713 losses over the years. None of those losses came this season.

“Let me tell you: We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done,” said coach Curt Cignetti after completing his phenomenal turnaround of the Hoosiers programme and entering them into the debate of whether they may be the greatest college football team ever. “I know nobody thought it was possible. It probably is one of the greatest sports stories of all time.”

Miami was the Hoosiers’ biggest test. Having steamrolled previous opponents, Indiana found the going much tougher against the Hurricanes’ much-lauded pass-rush. All-star edge, and first round draft prospect, Rueben Bain kept the pressure on Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza all night and combined with fellow defensive terror Akheem Mesidor for three sacks.

Heisman winner Mendoza was unable to be the super accurate version of himself that he needed to be, completing just over half of his pass attempts and totalling a scant 186 yards. As a result, Indiana could only muster a field goal in the first quarter, before a Riley Nowakowski one-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter gave the Hoosiers a 10-0 lead going into the half.

Miami, too, were struggling to break the seal on their side. A missed field goal attempt by Carter Davis in the second quarter meant that they remained scoreless until a breakout 56-yard touchdown from Mark Fletcher put them back in contention shortly after the interval. This score kept things tight between the teams until Indiana pulled away thanks to a special teams stunner.

With Miami backed up on their own goal-line on fourth down, Mikail Kamara penetrated the white wall and blocked Dylan Joyce’s punt, which was subsequently recovered in the endzone by Isaiah Jones for the touchdown, giving the Hoosiers some breathing room.

Entering the fourth quarter, Carson Beck led the Hurricanes back down the field on the subsequent 10-play drive, capped off by Fletcher punching it in to the endzone on a short run to again pull Miami within three points. It looked as though the team that overhauled Ole Miss at the buzzer of their semi-final may yet be able to catch the team that had pummelled opponents all season, and Cignetti knew he had to be decisive and aggressive in his calls to ensure that his Hoosiers stayed in front.

Those calls included two attempts on fourth down that will live forever in Indiana folklore. The first, to keep the drive alive on fourth-and-five, Mendoza hit Charlie Becker with a back shoulder pass on the sideline for 19 yards, the breakout receiver hauling it in as he fell backwards out of bounds.

The Hoosiers then found themselves at the Miami 12-yard line on fourth-and-four, and with Mendoza bruised and battered, bleeding from the mouth after taking a defender’s helmet to the chin. Cignetti initially sent out the kicking team, but decided to go for the kill instead, calling a timeout and sending the offense back out. In what will be remembered as the most iconic play of his collegiate career, Mendoza read zone coverage and kept hold of the ball, before taking off and running straight ahead like his life depended on it. He eluded one defender before dropping his shoulder into another at the goal line, bouncing off and pirouetting before leaping with the ball in arms outstretched just enough to cross the line.

“I had to go airborne,” said Mendoza of the play. “I would die for my team.”

Cignetti reflected on his decision to go for it on fourth after the game, admitting that Indiana had ‘rolled the dice’.

“They’re going to be in it again and they were,” he said of Miami. “We blocked it well, he broke a tackle or two and got in the end zone.”

Known more as a deadly accurate passer than a running threat, Mendoza acknowledge how unusual the play was for him.

“Everyone on the team, including my coach, makes fun of my running style,” the quarterback said. “But it’s fourth down, so you’ve got to put it all on the line. Every player, if they had that opportunity, they’d put their body on the line, too.”

Beck responded with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Malachi Toney to keep Miami in touch before a field goal padded Indiana’s lead. Beck then had one last chance to put the ‘Canes in front and snatch the title away, needing a last-gasp touchdown with the score at 27-21. The summer transfer saw an opportunity and took a shot deep — only to see his pass intercepted by Jamari Sharpe. The Indiana bench erupted before settling back so that the offense could enjoy victory formation before the confetti rained down.

Despite the loss, Miami coach Mario Cristobal spoke proudly of his team. Which had been a controversial inclusion in the 12-team playoff field before defying expectation and going all the way to the final.

“They’re the best thing that happened to the University of Miami in 25 years,” he claimed.

Miami certainly seems like a school that has brought itself back to national relevance and will certainly be in the mix again next year. Until then, America will bask in the glow of a once irrelevant school’s rise to greatness and one of the most spectacular stories in college football history.