How IU Beat Everybody & you shouldn’t cry about it.
One of the most amazing, heartwarming feats in American college football history just happened; A two-star quarterback (who is so sweet that it doesn’t seem that he can even be real) that was turned away from multiple colleges joins the worst college football team in America under a brand-new coaching staff. The head coach, one of the most serious men to grace the sidelines of football, took that unknown quarterback and an entire band of misfits no one wanted and molds them into an unstoppable machine; a machine that goes 16-0 and wins the first national championship the college ever had. It doesn’t seem real, does it? Coming to a theater near you… most likely.
All of that? It is all based on a true story that I and so many others have been waiting on for SO many years. Welcome to Indiana University football, folks.
I’m one of those women that you don’t really know what to do with; I am loud, opinionated, short tempered, but can throw together a mean lasagna. I love few things; baseball, arguing, cussing, tequila and dogs being a few, but one of the things I love the most is all that is the Indiana University Hoosiers.
From the moment I was born into this world (a long time ago…) I was told many times by my father that IU was what we loved no matter what. I believe my blood may run cream and crimson; I am not entirely sure. I lived through some of the Bobby Knight years and I lived through the years of where IU lost its spark in about everything. Unfortunately, I attended IU during a time of limited success in their sports, even though that did not stop me from rooting for them (no bandwagon here… I have that special blood type, remember?) I have continued to devotedly follow them through the years, through several terrible coaching decisions (for all sports at IU, there were many desolate years for us Hoosiers) but now… what do we have? Curt Cignetti and his powerhouse team who have turned into an absolute force that cannot be reckoned with in the football world. All of us diehard IU fans are ecstatic; It’s finally OUR TIME!
We’ve got Fernando Mendoza, who comes off as a quirky, sugar sweet genius, out there throwing homing missiles to the endzone where either Charlie Becker, Elijah Sarratt or Omar Cooper, Jr are almost guaranteed to catch it. This O-line, who Mendoza refers to as his “Hoggies” – (honestly, I love it… I absolutely bought the T-Shirt) are literally some of the best in the US- it’s been proven at this point. Pat Coogan, who has had over 400 offensive yards that he’s ripped down the field for, was named MVP of Rose Bowl- which is almost unheard of. This team is insane, and I don’t CARE who you root for- you must admit they work together better than most NFL teams. That O-line is INSANE. The Defensive line is INSANE. Mendoza = INSANE. The whole thing? Sending us diehards off the ledge with excitement. I am already the one screaming at the TV… but now I am acting like I am at the game and possibly drunk.
They made it to the Rose Bowl with a completely untarnished record of 13-0 (and making them the Big Ten Champions) to play Alabama. Historically an unstoppable powerhouse that churns out championship after championship, Alabama was thought to win the whole thing by a blowout by the College Gameday pregame show, which now has Coach Saben, Alabama’s previous coach on the panel (insert eyeroll here… Saben on the panel for the team he used to coach and was thought to win the entire thing? Really?). Well, how did that work out for you, College Gameday? Ya’ll suck, except you Pat MacAfee, you know what’s up I see you. Did I worry before the game started? Yes. Yes, I did. This was a whole level up for my IU boys, I wasn’t sure how we were going to do. Did everyone shit their pants the first 5-10 minutes of the game? Yes. But wouldn’t you? These are kids playing in the damn Rose Bowl; I would have thrown up multiple times prior to walking on the field. Maybe during, I don’t know. But you could literally visibly watch them settle down and lock in. I didn’t move from my chair until half time, because I am a superstitious asshole and if its working, I am not changing anything. But they didn’t need my bullshit, they had it all on their own. They made Alabama look like a 5A high school team. Alabama took their loss so very noble; they never quit, they kept rolling out everything they had in the book, they just could not stop those boys in the crimson jerseys. (Those jerseys looked 10,000 times better than Alabama’s, by the way. What is up with that? Alabama needs to buy those boys some matching helmets and jerseys!)
One of my favorite things that happened during that game was naming an offensive lineman as an MVP. That never happens- but it should. Your QB isn’t doing shit without a solid O-line, and no one ever stops and remembers those boys who take the brunt of the beatings so the QB can score. As a mama to a boy who was once an O-line man, it melted my mean ice queen heart a bit.
Then the boys headed to the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl for a rematch against Oregon. It was everything you wanted in a game. IU beating Oregon in the Chick-fil-A Bowl was the kind of chaos that makes college football beautiful: Indiana rolled in like they were just happy to be invited, then promptly punched the Ducks in the mouth and told them to sit down and shut the hell up. Oregon showed up all flashy and fast, and IU said, “That’s cute,” before grinding the game into a beautiful Midwestern slog full of busted coverages, our boy Charlie Becker out here catching insane passes, and both fan bases slowly realizing, oh shit, this is actually happening. By the fourth quarter, Oregon looked confused, IU looked untouchable, and the universe made sense as the Hoosiers closed it out and walked off with the win like absolute legends who weren’t supposed to do that- but did it anyway.
Let me tell you about the absolute INSANITY that win created. Blah Blah, IU shouldn’t have won that, they don’t deserve to be at this point, blah blah cry cry. Two middle fingers up the haters. Fuck a duck, honestly. Especially one of the Oregon variety.
And then… There was one. One game left. The Natty. The National Championship game against Miami. The kicker of this whole fiasco? Fernando Mendoza grew up in Miami. Literally blocks from that football field. He tried to walk on at Miami multiple times and was turned away. We had to win it for IU, but we also had to win it for Fernando. It was his turn to show his hometown that he had everything that you could ever want in a QB… and lemme tell you, we showed them what was up. It was UGLY. There were ZERO calls made on Miami- including an after-the-throw play that was absolutely, without a doubt, targeting Mendoza. Holding, facemasks, it was free for all. You could tell that those officials were all about Miami winning. However, the Hoosiers muddled through. Even ol’ Cignetti had a few words while walking into the locker room during halftime, which included all the calls these idiots in the stripes missed.
We kept muddling. We kept getting 5 yard runs by those little dudes, Black and Hamby, who just literally bulldoze through piles of 350 pound men and are having a great time doing it… and we finally got to the 4th quarter… 4th and 5 to be exact. The score was IU- 17 and Miami- 14. Cig looked as if he was about to have a field goal kicked, even sent special teams onto the field; but immediately called a time out and brought everyone back in. Mendoza went back on the field, just 12 yards from a much-needed IU touchdown. Mendoza receives the snap, slightly hesitates, and then just runs. When he runs, it looks as if a baby deer has just recently started running and could fall over at any minute; but it works. He was dipping and diving, every single massive lineman coming at him at every angle… and then he literally became airborne, a real-life superman soar over the line to make a touchdown. It. Was. Magnificent.
There will never be anything that I will see that equates that level of magic the rest of my natural born life. I am putting in my top life events right under having my boys or getting married. There are even talks about making the Heisman trophy into that man’s Superman dive. That photo will be on ever Hoosier’s basement wall for the next 100 years.
Honestly, I sort of lost my shit after that play. Was I high? Drunk? Did someone sprinkle PCP through my heating vents? I don’t know. Still don’t know to this day. I was standing on my couch screaming. Not sure if it was Fernando’s flight into touchdown land or my loud ass mouth, but this re-energized the boys in the red jerseys. All you need to know… Ol’ Carson Beck tried to launch a pass down the field …. that was intercepted by Jamari Sharpe and ended the game with the final score to 27-21, making Indiana University the 2026 National Champions, their first Natty EVER. I cried. Everyone on the TV cried. Fernando cried. And Curt Cignetti smiled.
After all the confetti flew, the entire stadium sang Queen’s “We are the Champions” and I cried some more…. Cig told us why he stopped the field goal kick that was to happen before Fernando’s touchdown. “It just didn’t feel right”. BRO. It didn’t feel right? You are on some Rain Man type shit, my friend. ABSOLUTELY 100% the BEST damn college coach in collegiate football and you’ve now shown the world what you are about, going back to the basics to make a winning team. You took the worst college football team in the US and made them champions without losing one game. I think I can speak for us Hoosiers; we are still gushing and will be until next football season.
Like probably most of the other IU Alumni, I am looking for season tickets… but so are every single Hoosier fan and everything in between. No matter what, I will be watching to see what happens next with IU, because we are back on the map, baby! And with that….
One.
Two.
You Know what to do… Indiana, our Indiana
Indiana, we’re all for you!
We will fight for the cream and crimson
For the glory of old IU
Never daunted, we cannot falter
In the battle, we’re tried and true
Indiana, our Indiana,
Indiana we’re all for you!