{"id":125423,"date":"2026-01-20T21:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T21:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125423\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T21:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T21:37:13","slug":"college-gameday-provides-inside-details-on-indianas-fourth-down-call-miamis-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125423\/","title":{"rendered":"College GameDay provides inside details on Indiana\u2019s fourth-down call, Miami\u2019s reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

With 9:18 remaining in the fourth quarter of the national championship, Indiana<\/a> led Miami<\/a> 17-14. The Hoosiers were driving again, but the Hurricanes found several stops in a row, forcing Indiana into an uncomfortable position: Fourth-and-five on Miami\u2019s 12-yard line.<\/p>\n

Indiana could\u2019ve kicked the field goal and taken a six-point lead, but Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti<\/a> was there to win, not play it safe. Instead, Cignetti kept his offense on the field and called a quarterback draw for Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cignetti\u2019s veteran QB didn\u2019t let him down. Mendoza barreled through numerous Miami defenders before diving into the end zone for a game-changing touchdown. On Tuesday, ESPN\u2019s Rece Davis and Pete Thamel reflected on the bold play.<\/p>\n

\u201cRece and I were, of course, watching this, being like, \u2018This is the dumbest thing we\u2019ve ever seen for him to not take the points,’\u201d Thamel recalled.<\/a> \u201cOne interesting little nugget that I got when I went over to Miami\u2019s locker room\u2014Corey Hetherman<\/a>, the [Hurricanes\u2019] DC, said he really regretted not calling a timeout.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey knew, because of the formation they went into, what the play call was. So, they communicated the defensive call to the green dot, the linebacker. \u2026 It didn\u2019t happen in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play will live on in college football lore. Miami scored a touchdown on the following drive in just eight plays, but Indiana retaliated with a field goal. The score forced the Hurricanes to push for a touchdown on their final drive of the game.<\/p>\n

Indiana picked off Miami QB Carson Beck<\/a> to seal its first national title in program history. While Davis was initially skeptical about Cignetti\u2019s fourth-down play call, he believes the coach ultimately made the correct decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe call that Cignetti ended up making is in keeping with his personality,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThe reason I was in favor of kicking there was, I thought it was a little too far, fourth-and-5. \u2026 I was thinking ahead. If you kick the field goal, if they score a touchdown, you could still win it with a field goal. But, making it a two-possession game, especially if it works, is way better. And they ended up needing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t Cignetti\u2019s first fourth-down conversion of the game. Earlier in the same drive, Mendoza completed a 19-yard pass to Charlie Becker<\/a> on fourth down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With 9:18 remaining in the fourth quarter of the national championship, Indiana led Miami 17-14. The Hoosiers were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[53637,123,125,124],"class_list":{"0":"post-125423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-curt-cignetti","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-headlines","11":"tag-miami-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125423","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=125423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}