Fernando Mendoza admitted he was a little confused by Miami’s coverage of his incredible fourth touchdown.
The Heisman Trophy winner became an instantly iconic hit when he sprinted into the end zone with less than 10 minutes remaining in Indiana’s 27-21 win in the national championship game, giving the Hoosiers a 24-14 lead.
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When Indiana faced a fourth-and-5, Mendoza took off at midfield and broke through multiple interceptions before leaping over the goal line.
“The coverage before that — they were in coverage that worked on that play,” Indiana coach Kurt Cignetti told ESPN after the game. “We threw this one in on this play. It was a quarterback draw, but it was blocked the same way. We rolled the dice and said they were going to get in it again, and they did, and we blocked it well and he broke a tackle or two and got in the end zone.”
Mendoza said it’s not that simple. When asked after the game about the game on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” Mendoza said the game had an options component. If Mendoza sees a different type of coverage than what Indiana expects, he may throw the ball.
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“We did a quarterback draw and hopefully they can make one [cover] 2. Tampa gave up eight points and they basically kind of defended the line on fourth and five and we might throw the ball into the red zone,” Mendoza said. “We expected them to ‘Hey, let’s back off, let’s let Mendoza throw the ball to one of his receivers,’ and you know, that’s a good idea. But they didn’t come out.
“They came out with something that was kind of, like… the game clock rolled down and I thought ‘What the hell, let’s do it.’ I saw half the guys in the zone and half the guys on the field and I thought ‘Wow, if it’s a man, I should throw it, if it’s a zone, I should run it,’ so I was like you know what, what the hell, I’m going to run it myself, I’m going to die on that pitch, and then we went in.”
In fact, Mendoza said the run-pass option is the same play Indiana has used in clutch situations before on Heisman-winner passes.
“It was almost a pass. It was almost a pass,” he said when asked if he actually had the option to give up the game. “It was a very similar game — it was basically the exact same game we won back at Otterson Stadium in Oregon.”
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In October, Indiana beat Oregon State 30-20 when Mendoza found Elijah Sarratt in the fourth quarter for a go-ahead lead.
Miami defensive coordinator Corey Heatherman told reporters after the game that he and his staff knew before the snap that Mendoza could take off with the ball as well as he does. However, the coach failed to convey this information to the players in time.
Miami quickly cut Indiana’s lead to three points again at 24-21 after Mendoza’s touchdown, but the Hurricanes’ chances of victory ended when Jamari Sharpe picked off Carson Beck with less than a minute left. This was the first mistake of the game for both teams. Since the Heat had no timeout when Sharp stole the ball, the Pacers only needed to run two gears to end the game.