All In The Span Of Three Days

  Well, the college football playoffs are over. To very few, the winner was no surprise. At least to the 60-65% wearing Crimson and Cream in the University of Miami’s stadium, seemingly dwarfing those clad in Orange, Green and White. 

The Indian Hoosiers prevailed by a score of 27-21. Closer than the two previous games IU won. Miami was absolutely no pushover. 

A number of top tier NFL players on the U’s squad showed up to play. They were a formidable opponent and those who bellyached that the Hurricanes didn’t belong in the playoffs got that wrong. Ditto those who bad-mouthed the Atlantic Coast Conference for fielding inferior teams. Miami’s two loses were to ACC schools—Louisville by 3 points and at SMU by 6. Defeating Texas A&M, Ohio State with their roster full of pros and Mississippi wasn’t exactly chump change here.  Kudos to the Miami team and Head Coach and Miami alumnus Mario Cristobal for energizing his rabid fan base. 

This was a physical game. Fernando Mendoza, Indiana’s  star quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner took plenty of shots from the Hurricanes’ pass rush, some of them questionable in their legality. One led to a bloody lip for the kid who grew up 2.2 miles from the Miami campus, played on it and whose mother played tennis there while attending the school. His parents still live there and his father is a valued member of the medical staff at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital adjacent to campus. 

Mendoza and his mates didn’t have an awesome night offensively. Miami played somewhat better. As actually alluded to, this was smash-mouth football. Physicality was the name of the game. 

What separated the teams were two mistakes by Miami and one gutsy play by Mendoza. Miami punted near its end zone and sloppy protection allowed the kick to be blocked and for IU to fall on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. And in the final drive with IU clinging to its lead, heralded QB Carson Beck, who transferred in from Georgia, where he backed up Stetson Bennett on a championship team and who has NFL aspirations, threw an ill-advised pass which was intercepted. Game over after two keel downs by Mendoza. 

As for the gutsy call, IU head man Curt Cignetti related after the game that the play in which Mendoza scored the deciding points to put IU out of reach, was a quarterback draw installed this week. It worked almost to perfection as Mendoza bumped and cut his way into the end zone. 

Cignetti is a force. He is a football lifer with a pedigree from a College Football Hall of Fame father as his mentor and from Nick Saban, whose staff he was on at Alabama. As Cignetti famously says, look it up—I am a winner!

To many, this Indiana team was a team of destiny. Some say it is the greatest team ever. I don’t know how to measure others before it, so that is for those who believe what they want to believe. That they went 16-0, tying a Yale team from 1894 which played a looser schedule,  is an accomplishment. Indiana’s schedule was not as easy as others think—even Kennesaw State was a conference champ and played in a bowl game.Only three of the 15 opponents (they played Oregon twice) had losing records. And three of the five road games were closer scores than any other games until the championship game. 

Mendoza is a determined kid. Smart, affable and unafraid. I don’t know if he will succeed in the NFL at a mercurial stop like Las Vegas, where Tom Brady is part owner but Mark Davis can be a bit crazed in his decision-making. It will be dependent on how the draft goes, trades and signings progress and who the next head coach and offensive coordinator will be. Patience will be needed in stop where anything but patience is welcome. 

Indiana’s rise from basketball school and football doormat has been marvelous. They used the N-I-L and transfer portal magically. Mendoza and the kids who followed Cignetti from James Madison are proof. Talent neglected on the way up and who had a chip on their shoulder while raising their games under coaches who recognized the talent was always there. 

Look at Mendoza, Offered only to walk on at Miami and considered to be locked in at Yale, when California swooped in. He led the Bears to bowl games in his two seasons there. Cal is not exactly a football powerhouse. Indiana spotted him, recruited him to their stellar business school for grad school (he finished Cal as a redshirt sophomore). The rest is history. 

Another Miami kid, D’Angelo Ponds was a lockdown corner back. All 5’9” and 173 pounds of him denying pass after pass to taller receivers. This guy will play in the NFL. A JMU guy loyal to Cignetti, who believed in him. 

That’s what IU was made of. Guys who were overlooked. Discarded. Whose fire burned hotter than almost anybody recognized. The coaches found them and molded these unsung players into a team ready to compete harder than anybody else.

In a couple of years we will see the pros littered with players from both teams. Some will star and some will filter through and out of the league. But what will be most memorable is that they competed against each other for the national championship. 

Which proved to be a coronation for the Indiana Hoosiers, two years out from playing crappy football. Every sport has its Cinderella story. Will the glass slipper still fit next year? Or in another year?

The NFL has set its Final Four. New England plays at Denver for the AFC title and Los Angeles travels to Seattle in the NFC. In games which cold and snow affected some while at least in Denver the lucky bad breaks went in favor of the Broncos. That obviously refers to Denver QB Bo Nix suffering a fractured ankle on the last play of the game-winning drive after Buffalo QB Josh Allen, the reigning M.V.P., was picked off on a questionable non-call in OT. 

Houston could not handle the cold, Drake Maye or the Patriots defense. I have continually thought Mike Vrable is the coach of the year for completely turning around the franchise of his playing days into a Super Bowl contender with a win over Denver, which is forced to start a back up QB on Sunday who hardly has played. 

The Rams survived a great throw by Bears QB Caleb Williams which tied the game with seconds remaining and put the Cardiac Bears in position once more to pull magic out of a hat. Except that on the supposed game-winning drive, Williams ended the Bears season with a poorly thrown ball which was intercepted. From miracle work to dunce. 

LAR went down the field and the ‘Thicker Kicker’, a rookie out of Missouri, banged through the winning field goal. The Rams now face Seattle for the third time, on its home turf, primed and ready to vanquish a second NFC West opponent in two weeks. 

Seattle QB Sam Darnold was healthy enough despite nursing an oblique injury to take down San Francisco. The defense looked awfully good, too,

Let’s see if the magic is there for Matthew Stafford, a possible M.V.P., as he invades very hostile territory in the Pacific Northwest. Or was it sheer luck that LAR advanced to this title game?

And will the other M.V.P. hopeful, Maye, overcome a very stingy Denver defense which must prevail given the offensive uncertainty at QB? Nick Foles, on his birthday, reminded us (and Philly fans) about the ability of a backup to defeat the Patriots in championship-level games. 

The NFL coaching carousel grew to 10 when Buffalo fired its head coach, Sean Mc Dermott. That makes two William & Mary guys out of a job, as he joins former Steelers head man Mike Tomlin, who abruptly resigned after Houston ended the Steelers’ season. 

Like John Harbaugh, who seems energized in New York, his and Mc Dermott’s successes weren’t enough when not getting to the Super Bowl with M.V.P, quarterbacks. It’s going to be interesting to see who replaces these stellar coaches, with Harbaugh already hired and Mc Dermott sure to be. 

Owners have the right to be pissed when the ultimate prize is not attained and big money is spent pursuing it, with little reward. Buffalo moves into a new stadium. They wanted to be champions leaving the old one. Except recent history tells us that in Buffalo, championships don’t happen with the Bills of Allen and Jim Kelly, two Hall of Fame quarterbacks, nor with the Sabres hockey team.

By the way, I wish former Jets head coach Robert Saleh good luck in Tennessee. At east he doesn’t have an Aaron Rodgers injury to mar his chances at winning there. 

Speaking of hockey, goalies for San Jose and Florida ended up brawling on Monday night. Thankfully nobody was hurt. Don’t see that much. Must have been the rarified South Florida air. 

Lastly, on Monday night, the resurgent Golden State Warriors saw their season come crashing down when star Jimmy Butler landed awkwardly contesting a rebound and tore his ACL. Steph Curry and mates may have won the game over Miami, but this is not sustainable for the rest of the season in a tightly-contested Western Conference where no playoff or play-in position is really set. 

Unless there is a trade, the 37 year old Curry, once more a starter for the Western Conference in the upcoming All-Star Game, may never smell a winning team again. Barring some transaction of significant magnitude, including his own. So sad. 

Don’t look now Knicks fans. Your team is in free fall, Ever since owner James Dolan claimed this was a championship team, Injuries haven’t helped. The team needs help. 

Miami. Indiana. A CFP champion is anointed. NFL playoffs are paired down and another coach is axed. Hockey goalie fights. The Warriors lost Jimmy Butler. The Knicks continue to lose. All in the span of three days.