\n Several players with Ohio State ties played key roles in Indiana\u2019s national championship game win over Miami on Monday night. <\/p>\n
\n\tTwo of the biggest plays in Indiana\u2019s 27-21 victory<\/a>\u00a0were made by players whose fathers once wore the scarlet and gray.\n<\/p>\n \n\tIsaiah Jones, who recovered a punt block for a touchdown in the Hoosiers\u2019 national championship win over the Hurricanes, is the son of former Ohio State tight end DJ Jones, who played for the Buckeyes from 1992-96.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tINDIANA BLOCKS THE PUNT AND FALLS ON IT FOR SIX pic.twitter.com\/N1BSrFr4hh<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 ESPN (@espn) January 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tJones, a linebacker who also made two tackles and a pass breakup in Indiana\u2019s win, grew up just a half-hour away from Columbus in London, Ohio. A three-star linebacker<\/a> in the 2022 recruiting class, Jones grew up rooting for the Buckeyes but signed with the Hoosiers when he didn\u2018t receive an offer from Ohio State.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou grow up in their backyard, you grow up watching them, obviously it\u2019s everyone\u2019s dream to play for their favorite school, and sometimes that doesn\u2019t work out,\u201d Jones said of Ohio State on a December episode of Big Ten Network\u2019s The Journey.\u00a0\u201cThen it\u2019s, \u2018I want to go beat them.\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tIsaiah Jones dreamed of playing at Ohio State.<\/p>\n Life had other plans, and now the @IndianaFootball<\/a> LB will face the Buckeyes in the #B1GFCG<\/a><\/p>\n The Journey shares his story pic.twitter.com\/QD1NSKm5iW<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) December 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tAnother son of a former Buckeye made a crucial play in the fourth quarter.\u00a0Charlie Becker, who had four total catches for 65 yards in the national championship game, caught a back-shoulder fade from Fernando Mendoza for a 19-yard gain to convert a\u00a04th-and-5, setting up Mendoza\u2019s fourth-down touchdown run four plays later.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tcharlie becker catch; miami vs indiana pic.twitter.com\/yFWVYL0u3K<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 (@F0RGIAT0) January 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tBecker\u2019s father, Dave, was a linebacker at Ohio State for one season in 1995. But the younger Becker, who grew up in Nashville, showed no love for his father\u2019s alma mater after Indiana\u2019s Big Ten Championship Game win over Ohio State, greeting the crowd with an \u201cO-H F-U\u201d celebration during the postgame ceremony.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tCharlie Becker let Ohio State fans hear it after the game pic.twitter.com\/mCdsUIBgfq<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) December 7, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tIndiana\u2019s game-sealing interception, meanwhile, was made by the nephew of a player who\u2019s famous to Ohio State fans for another reason. Indiana cornerback Jamari Sharpe, who secured the Hoosiers\u2019 national championship by picking off Miami quarterback Carson Beck with less than a minute to play, is the nephew of former Miami cornerback Glenn Sharpe, who committed the infamous fourth-down pass interference penalty<\/a> in the first overtime of Ohio State\u2019s eventual double-overtime win over the Hurricanes in the 2003 BCS National Championship Game.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tINDIANA PICKS IT, THE HOOSIERS ARE ON THE VERGE OF A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP pic.twitter.com\/YFTgZUVC4x<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n \t\u2014 ESPN (@espn) January 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tAn actual former Buckeye also contributed to Indiana\u2019s national championship win. Former Ohio State offensive tackle Zen Michalski, who played 16 snaps off the bench as a sixth offensive lineman, won a second straight national championship to cap off his college football career.\n<\/p>\n \n\tIndiana\u2019s starting offensive line was led by left tackle Carter Smith, a native of Powell, Ohio \u2013 just north of Columbus \u2013 who said after the Big Ten championship game that beating Ohio State, who didn\u2019t offer him as a three-star prospect<\/a> out of Olentangy Liberty, \u201cmeant the world\u201c to him.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere’s only one thing I’ve ever wanted, and it was to come here and beat Ohio State, man to man,\u201d Smith said after the Big Ten Championship Game.\n<\/p>\n