While 99 percent of the college football world is predicting Indiana to not only win the national championship game but also cover the 8.5 point spread, I get the feeling that Miami is going to shock the world on Monday night in their home stadium. As good as the Indiana story is going from the worst program in college football history to juggernaut in just two years, it just seems like Miami is destined to have confetti dropped on them in Hard Rock Stadium.
Call me crazy, but this is a team who has been doubted all season from when they lost to Louisville and SMU to there being no way they were going to win in College Station. If you remember there were many who thought they should not even be in the playoff over the likes of Notre Dame despite beating the Irish to start the season.
For every obstacle that has gotten in front of this Miami team which seemingly should have ended any hope of them playing for a national championship has been hurdled. I am of the opinion that if Virginia had beaten Duke in the ACC Championship game, guaranteeing the ACC champion a spot in the playoff the committee would have picked the Irish.
Instead, the Blue Devils pulled off the unthinkable winning the ACC with five losses and as a result the conference was on the verge of completely being left out of the playoff. The Playoff Committee likes drama, but was not ready to leave out a Power Four conference out of the field, so that alone allowed the Hurricanes to get in.
After winning ugly in College Station there was hardlly anyone who thought they had a snowballs chance of beasting the defending national champs on New Year's Eve. As good as the Hurricanes defense is the consensus seems to have been that the were no match for four quarters against the explosive Ohio State offense. They passed that test with flying colors before beating Ole Miss in arguably the best if not second playoff game ever. As good as Ole Miss was, Miami seemed to have caught a break not playing Georgia and now find themselves at home for the first time since mid November looking for their first championship in 20 years.
As appealing as the Fernando Mendoza story is to the masses, the Carson Beck redemption story is just as good. He went from a man left out in the cold by Georgia after getting injured in the 2024 SEC Championship game but found a final opportunity to cement his legacy as a great quarterback. He has overcome his negative image that the media portrayed on him when he arrived to South Beach and he was able to overcome his own on-field mistakes to lead his team within one game of a sixth title for the Hurricanes.
Miraculously the historically bad defense that kept Cam Ward out of the playoff a season ago has rebounded like no defense has in such a short time under first year Defensive Coordinator Corey Hetherman.
This seems like the first defense that Indiana has faced who can realistically not get embarrassed by Mendoza and the quick scoring offense that embarrassed Alabama and Oregon. While it seems like there is no way that the Curt Cignetti's team can lose at this point, I just get the feeling we are on the verge of seeing the most shocking win since the college football playoff started in 2014. It is going to be a classic game as the Hoosiers do not make the type of mistakes to allow for a blowout, but I just get the feeling that Mario Cristobal, Beck, and the proud Hurricanes program is going to find a way to do the improbable
This is a program that has been walking around aimlessly in the desert for the past two decades is about to emerge out of there as the most unlikely National Champions in a long time. We have seen so many shockers during the regular season, during conference championship game week, and of course during the playoff so it is fitting that it ends with the Hurricanes celebrating Monday night.