{"id":120285,"date":"2026-01-16T07:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T07:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/120285\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T07:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T07:22:16","slug":"national-championship-miami-has-talent-edge-over-indiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/120285\/","title":{"rendered":"National Championship: Miami has talent edge over Indiana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indiana<\/a> and Miami<\/a> meet Monday night for the national championship and the rosters from a star-ranking perspective could not be more different.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a breakdown of the Hoosiers and the Hurricanes looking at how the players on their rosters were ranked in the Rivals Industry Rankings, an equally weighted formula that utilizes the three major recruiting services.<\/p>\n

Indiana Hoosiers<\/p>\n

5-stars: 0
4-stars: 6
3-stars: 53
2-stars: 0
Unranked: 19<\/p>\n

The Hoosiers have outscored opponents 42.6-11.1 en route to an undefeated season so far and they\u2019ve done it with no five-star prospects and only six four-stars on the roster led by receiver Omar Cooper Jr.<\/a>, who leads the team with 64 catches for 866 yards and 13 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Nearly everyone else who has made a significant impact in Indiana\u2019s historic run was a three-star or unranked recruit.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Fernando Mendoza<\/a>, who won the Heisman Trophy and could be the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft, was a three-star who was headed to Yale before a late offer from Cal where he played ahead of coming to Bloomington. He\u2019s thrown 41 touchdowns this season.<\/p>\n

Leading rusher Roman Hemby<\/a>, who has 1,060 rushing yards and seven scores, was a three-star out of Bel AIr (Md.) John Carroll<\/a>. So was Kaelon Black<\/a> out of Virginia Beach (Va.) Salem<\/a>, who leads the Hoosiers with 10 rushing touchdowns.<\/p>\n

In the receiving corps, Cooper, who stuck with Indiana during the lean years instead of flipping to West Virginia, is one of two impactful four-stars along with EJ Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elijah Sarratt<\/a> has 62 catches for 802 yards and a team-high 15 touchdowns; he was unranked coming out of high school. Tight ends Riley Nowakowski<\/a> and Charlie Becker<\/a> each have 30 catches as Nowakowski was unranked and Becker was a three-star.<\/p>\n

The numbers on defense are even more stunning.<\/p>\n

Linebackers Rolijah Hardy<\/a> (98) and Aiden Fisher<\/a> have combined for 191 tackles so far this season. Both were unranked coming out of high school.<\/p>\n

Defensive back Louis Moore<\/a> is third on the Hoosiers with 81 tackles and a team-high six interceptions and he was also unranked. So was defensive lineman Stephen Daley<\/a>, who leads Indiana with 19 tackles for loss including 5.5 sacks.<\/p>\n

Linebacker Isaiah Jones<\/a>, who leads the team with seven sacks, was a three-star prospect. Many top players for the Hoosiers are veterans and\/or former James Madison players who followed coach Curt Cignetti<\/a> to Bloomington.<\/p>\n

Miami Hurricanes<\/p>\n

5-stars: 5
4-stars: 32
3-stars: 34
2-stars: 0
Unranked: 19<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s recruiting rankings were far better than Indiana\u2019s but an argument could be made there were still some significant misses along the way as quarterback Carson Beck<\/a>, 1,000-yard rusher Mark Fletcher<\/a> and devastating defensive lineman Rueben Bain<\/a> were all four-stars.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Toure<\/a>, who leads the Hurricanes with 73 tackles, and Akheem Mesidor<\/a>, who has a team-high 15.5 tackles for loss including 10.5 sacks, were three-star prospects. So was undersized but super-lethal receiver Malachi Toney<\/a>, who has 99 catches for 1,089 yards and nine touchdowns so far this season.<\/p>\n

If the maxim that football games are won in the trenches is true then Miami has followed that well since all five of its five-star prospects are linemen \u2013 Francis Mauigoa<\/a> and Samson Okunlola<\/a> on offense and Justin Scott<\/a>, Marquise Lightfoot<\/a> and Armondo Blount<\/a> on the defensive side of the ball.<\/p>\n

After Toney at receiver, there is a significant drop-off in production but some players are still outplaying their ranking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kealan Marion<\/a> was unranked out of high school but is second on the Hurricanes with 56 catches for 740 yards and two touchdowns. CJ Daniels<\/a> was a three-star and is second best with seven TD receptions.<\/p>\n

Because of defensive veterans Toure, Bain and Mesidor dominating the stat line each week, the five-stars of Scott, Blount and Lightfoot have not been able to take over just yet but the latter two have especially flashed with 2.5 sacks each so far this season.<\/p>\n

As for the five-stars on Miami\u2019s roster, coach Mario Cristobal<\/a> scoured the country for them, he wasn\u2019t hand-fed guys from South Florida as Blount is the only local. Scott and Lightfoot are from the Midwest, Okunlola played in Massachusetts and while Mauigoa played a few seasons at Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy he\u2019s originally from American Samoa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana and Miami meet Monday night for the national championship and the rosters from a star-ranking perspective could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[60294,60295,60296,9472,60297,60298,53637,60299,60300,60301,60302,60303,60304,60305,60306,60307,60308,49211,39356,49212,60309,58747,123,125,124,60310,60311,60312,60313,60314,60315,60316,60317],"class_list":["post-120285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-aiden-fisher-22-riverbend","tag-akheem-mesidor-20-clearwater-academy-international","tag-armondo-blount-24-miami-central","tag-carson-beck-20-mandarin","tag-charlie-becker-24-father-ryan","tag-cj-daniels-20-parkview","tag-curt-cignetti","tag-e-j-williams-20-central","tag-elijah-sarratt-22-st-frances-academy","tag-fernando-mendoza-22-columbus","tag-francis-mauigoa-23-img-academy","tag-isaiah-jones-22-london","tag-john-carroll-school-patriot-bel-air","tag-justin-scott-24-st-ignatius","tag-kaelon-black-20-salem-hs","tag-keelan-marion-19-palmetto-prep-prep-school","tag-louis-moore-20-poteet","tag-malachi-toney-25-american-heritage","tag-mario-cristobal-88-columbus","tag-mark-fletcher-23-american-heritage","tag-marquise-lightfoot-24-kenwood-academy","tag-md","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-mohamed-toure-19-pleasantville","tag-omar-cooper-22-lawrence-north","tag-riley-nowakowski-20-marquette-university","tag-rolijah-hardy-23-naval-academy-prep","tag-roman-hemby-21-john-carroll-school","tag-rueben-bain-23-miami-central","tag-samson-okunlola-23-thayer-academy","tag-stephen-daley-22-john-handley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}