College Football Live - CFB Live - National Championship Reaction

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

On today's episode of CFB Live, Zubin Mehenti, Sam Acho, and Tom Luginbill break down the National Championship game, the improbability of Indiana winning, and what is next for Miami. All this and more on CFB Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ritz's story. Crystal Championship and without question, the biggest night of Indiana football's long history. And if you would have said that to Tom Fisher, that at any point over the last 50-plus years on the call, he would say that these fans would ever see that. You would have been living in Fantasyland. But for the Indiana Hoosiers and college football in 2026, it's a complete reality because that logo and that trophy and those words are on the same screen to. something previously thought unfathomable.

And with that, we welcome you inside our final edition this season of college football live with Sam Acho, Tom Luggenville. Guys, it's been an incredible ride. Let's enjoy this next hour. And if you're an Indiana fan, you are going to enjoy seeing this, the highlight of last night's game, the fourth quarter they'll be talking about in Bloomington forever. So let's pick it up in the third quarter. Remember, it was 10-0 at the half.

Miami had yet to complete a third down. It's now 10-7. They're trying to get back into this game. Dylan Joyce's punt is blocked by Mikhail Kamara. Isaiah Jones recovers for the touchdown. Camara, one of those guys. That was a zero-star recruit. Nobody cared.

Nobody listened. Nobody gave them the time of day more on their journey in just a little bit. Carson Beck and Malachi Tony trying to take advantage. A lot of the coaches were saying last night. Where were the touches for Tony? Mark Fletcher, Jr., has been the bell cow the entire playoff. Miami's back in the game.

It's 17, 14. Back comes Indiana. Big fourth and five. Mendoza, look at this. Throw an adjustment back shoulder by Charlie Becker on fourth and five to keep the drive alive. How gutsy is this team? How aggressive are they? Here comes Signetti out of the timeout.

This is the second fourth and five of the drive. And this is one of the most iconic moments in CFP history. diving, Mendoza. Wow. You can have your Heisman moment. That's your post-heisman moment. Memorialized forever. Mom and Dad, loving it.

Sig, loving it. Miami, though, showing no signs of quitting. Beck, Tony, their first really big play of the game stretches for 41, and Miami's on the move in Miami Gardens looking for their sixth national title in their backyard. Tony, on the flip. You bet. A reminder, this kid's 18 and reclassified. Now he's on college football's biggest age and cuts it to a three-point game. Next time, Indiana has it.

Mendoza, another gutsy call here on 3rd and 7 to Becker with another amazing adjustment in mid-air. Our guys have been saying all year, 50-50 balls for Indiana are like 80, 20 balls. They'd kick a field goal. Ray Lewis out of eligibility, but he's got some advice for Carson Beck. who's going to get bailed out here over the middle. A roughing the passer call on Mario Landino pretty clear, gives

new life to the canes. And then Beck is going to find C.J. Daniels who started the season on this field with that miracle catch against Notre Dame trying to keep it going. Last chance here for Miami with a clock ticking under a minute to go. Here comes Beck.

Up top, Jammari Sharp, another no-name zero star picks off the four-star back and Indiana completes the greatest turnaround in college football history to win the championship in one of the greatest endings to any season and program you'll ever see making this statement all the more true. We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done.

And I'm so happy for our fans. I can't, words can't describe it. Finally, how are you going to celebrate, Coach? I'm going to have fear. There's no better group of guys I want to deal with. It's the most special one of my life. There's such a great group of guys. I love you guys.

Great job. Let's go! You dropped a curse word there at the end, something you don't do very often. Yeah, I would say, overwhelmed by emotion and it's the pinnacle peak. It's like all season when we've, you know, sometimes I've had these cookie cutter responses. is immediate training response to it.

It's been like, oh, on to the next game, onto the next play. And now we did it. We did it. So at that point, I think it was only fitting to kind of, you know, open the floodgates per se. Probably break my stereotype. He's been around Coach Sig too long. That's an X-rated mouth. I doubt.

The real Mendoza comes to life. Great stuff. Superlatives, what more can you say? Your first, first-time champion since Florida, 1996. And if you recall, that started a spate of championship. championships for the Gators. We'll see what lies ahead for Indiana. Second team in major college football history to go 16 and 0. Yale did it in 1894. It only stands to reason that Mendoza won the Walter Camp Award, camp largely and mostly associated with Yale.

So it's a full circle moment there. They had 100 to one odds. If you take a look at some of the teams that have ended up winning the championship with long odds. I mean, Indiana out distancing Cam and Auburn. playoff champion Ohio State and of course LSU way back in the day in 2003 nobody came from further back in the pack than the Hoosiers to do it we could talk about this storyline the entire show but there's plenty to get to but we've got to lead with it Tom to you simply put we've been playing this great game for over 150 years and I don't think it's hyperbolic in any way to say what we saw last night was the most unlikely finish to any of those seasons that

we've been watching and loving college football. Yeah, Zub, and I don't even think it's the most unlikely finish. I think it's the most unlikely journey we have ever seen. The entire process from the moment Kurt Signetti was hired, this is the biggest accomplishment we've seen, at least in our lifetimes, in college football. And if you go back, and I don't know if you guys have seen it, if you go back and you look at the home opener for Indiana

and you're one of Kurt Signetti, you could literally count how many people were in the stadium for a home game. for Indiana, literally count them. And so I just, this is such a magical run. And I think it's, it's so reflective of this new world order that we're in now in college football. You know, it used to be you took over a job. It was a bad job. You had to get five years of your recruiting classes in, build the foundation, establish it.

You couldn't wave a magic wand. Now you can. And they hit on every single mark you needed to hit on to put themselves in position to be in this moment and have an action. championship. But the main mark they hit on, Louves, is the coach. It's not like they had this complete, huge rebuild and influx of all this talent. There are zero five-star recruits on this team. And so what Indiana showed me is that the combination of confidence, culture, and coaching

actually matters. Miami is a team that has a ton of four-star players, five-star players, want to be physical, ground and pound. Yet in the game last night where we were both at watching, Miami was unable to physically impose their will on Indiana. Indiana's defense dominated specifically in the first half. I think Miami did not convert a third down in that first half. Miami fought back, but this is the story of the season of Indiana team that will not go away.

I understand that early in the playoffs, they were dominant, but there were some games with Penn State where they had to come back or games like Oregon, where Mendoza threw an interception. So this Indiana team plays with a ton of confidence and the coach, Kurt Signetti, has built a culture that's not about the stars or not about the big names. mainly it's about production. It's a great point, Sam, because as we have all been noting, this is a year-to-year sport, but it feels like this could just be the start of something because of the culture that has been created,

another anomaly that Indiana has that a lot of other schools don't. Tom, I want to go to you last night. We were sitting in the ESPNU film room, and this is only slightly exaggerated. Anytime Indiana made a mistake, like a roughing the passer or just a mental error, the coaches that were almost like a gas. Like, they don't do things like that. And you've been telling us this the whole season. They're as clean as they come.

And that's largely part of the reason they're celebrating their first championship. Well, and that kind of goes to what, you know, Sam was just saying when you're trying to counterbalance maybe a talent differential, which you would argue Miami has probably more top to bottom talent. But if you out execute that talent, at the end of the day, Indiana still made fewer errors than Miami did throughout the course of the four quarters of the game. They're like a bad penny, man. And they just keep turning up, right? Every time something happens, they figure out a way to get out of it. And it's just, it's an impressive orchestra of belief, confidence, preparation, taking advantage of opportunity, and really just not beating yourself.

It's hard to beat a team that doesn't beat themselves. Miami made more errors than Indiana did. No doubt. And great call, getting the penny cliche out there, because as you know, they're now discontinuing the penny. so just to get that in before it officially happens. All good. Sam to you, we mentioned it in the highlight. Special teams played a huge role,

huge role in the outcome of this game. Yeah, it reminds me of, I think it was Toyota. They did that Six Sigma, right? Continuous Improvement, finding little ways to get better. Well, that showed up. That Six Sigma continuous improvement showed up last week. And also yesterday, a punt block, but that started with a punt that wasn't blocked.

McCall Kamara earlier in the game, he kind of got off, so off the ball. He realized, oh, wow, no one's going to block me. He kind of puts his arm out there. He doesn't get the block, but he was very, very close. You're going to see him kind of close. So the next time, later in the third quarter of five minutes left, he says, maybe the coach says, hey, get off the ball even faster.

You have an opportunity. Watch the get off, watch him get by the line of scrimmage and stick that left arm out and now block that pun. It was a 10-7 game. Miami had just scored, and Miami was getting the momentum. It was a huge run by Mark Fletcher. All of a sudden, Kamara, who won defensive MVP of the game, and of the national championship blocks the punt now with 177 and all that momentum

that we have with significant. There's continuous improvements that Indiana continues to do is what stands out to me the most. They win in the little margins. It's great stuff. One thing before we get to Miami and I just want to mention with both of you here because I know how much of a role your fathers have both played, whether it was coaching or in your development, that when they came off the field and the clock was ticking down, Signetti put his hands up in the air, almost to mention his father, Frank Signetti,

who meant so much to him. really poignant moment, and I know it stands up for both of you guys whose dad's meant so much to you. On the other side, Miami, right? They didn't get the W, but they got the two Vs, vindication and validation. There is no doubt that Keynes deserved to be playing last night. Even such, a tough loss, but Mario Cristobald, after the game on what his guys proved to the world. That's a really resilient, tough, just really special group of human beings. They've been elite competitors. They've been the best thing that's happened to the University of Miami and the community in 25 years.

A lot of credit to them in their defense. They played really, really well tonight. Again, obviously in the moment, you react and that's what happened. You've made a really good play on it. You can sit back and think of every if, and. or but situation after. But, you know, that's what happened. It sucks, but, you know, it's kind of staying for a while.

That it is. But Carson Beck, much like Indiana in a way, he kind of had his own redemption arc this season. Throw a 15 plus yards down the field against Indiana. Tell you what, he did what he could. But in the CFP, it was tough sledding all the way going down the field. And they just couldn't make it happen when he needed that one last drive down the field last night.

Tom, let's start with you here. It's going to be bitter. That's the word Carson Beck used to describe. But the bottom line is if you're a Miami fan, frankly, this is the moment you've been waiting for. I talk to a lot of ACC coaches that say it's not a matter of making sure they got here. What took so long to get back here and the future looks blindingly bright. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. Listen, you know, Mario Crystal Ball and this staff have built this thing relatively slowly when you look at the standard of college football right now by integrating through.

high school recruiting efforts and developing and retaining those players and then complimenting those players with the right portal additions. They had a great hire in Corey Heatherman on the defense side of the football. I know that Mario Cristobal has often criticized for late game management. They cleaned that up. And just look at the narrative and the tone of the program right now in terms of how they're viewed. Those three counties in South Florida, as Samuel knows, you know, it used to be you put a fence around that. Those kids were not leaving. They were going to Miami.

Well, guess what? There's going to be a bunch of them wanting to go to Miami now. So they've got this thing up and running. The foundation is set. The pillars are there. If they can hit on a quarterback for the third time in a row, if you look at the young players that are already in play, this thing's not going away anytime soon.

Luges, I was on the sideline, Miami's sideline yesterday, watching the game, out of front row seat. I was standing next to guys like On the side. Andre Johnson and Ed Reed and Ray Lewis and Clayus Campbell. And as I was standing behind the giants who have gone before, I was standing behind some giants who are in front of me. Guys like number 12, Marquis Lightfoot, right a huge part early in the game, a young player.

There are some receivers who Andre Johnson pointed out and said, hey, man, that guy's a stud. He's a freshman. That guy's a stud. He's a freshman. Hey, that guy's next in line. So I understand that Miami did lose this game. But what made me most excited about Miami is not just the future, but what we saw yesterday.

They struggled in the first half yet they fought back. Ray Lewis, that conversation I got a chance to have with him before the game. He said that Indiana is about to face a storm, a storm that they've never seen. This is before the game. And he said, if Indiana can overcome that storm, then they should be the rightful champions. Well, Miami stormed back in the second half. They had three sacks in the first two series in the third quarter. Did that huge run by Mark Flesher.

They had play after, play after play, yet Indiana was able to overcome. So I understand that Indiana won the game, but the country. Confidence that man be played with, the youth that's returning, guys like Fletcher, Malachi Tony, who was a true freshman 18 years old, it gives you a lot of excitement for Miami's future. Well said, one quick note on Miami. This is just life in the portal and life after you lose a game like this. Their quarterback, Emery Williams, is in the portal. No huge surprise.

He was a three-year player there. He's expected to land at East Carolina. But as Tom said, with fortifications coming, which we'll have more about a little bit later in the show. Miami might be pretty set at the quarterback position. On the way, nobody was trending last night on social media like Fernando Mendoza, but it's not like he knew about it. Fernando is a very funny person. He's logged out of all social media except for LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a, it's a positive site, and I'll post through it throughout the season, whenever, you know, something big comes up like a career update. If an award happens or we have a huge win. I knew he wasn't on too much social media, but just to be on LinkedIn, I was done.

That's pretty crazy. Like, I made a LinkedIn account at GMU, and I probably haven't touched it since then. So there's a lot of other impulsions of LinkedIn that's not only post, you know, good things about their business. They also put good things about their life. I don't think it has the same detriment of scrolling through an Instagram or Twitter, but you know,

I do love, I might lie to you. Like, I do still need my scrolling, which is a bad habit. I need to get rid of it. We're back on college football live. And back to the epic drive for NIN. Mendoza completing two fourths and five on the same drive. This one to Becker to move the chains and what an adjustment from Charlie for Indiana. And then Mendoza's magical moment.

Again a fourth and five. What do they call? This is out of a timeout. Signetti says, take it yourself. And that's a moment. This dive that'll live in Indiana football history for all to see and for all to hear. He takes off running on a design quarterback's off. He has the first down.

He spins into the end zone. What a play by Mendoza. And what a play. He runs it. No, he runs it. And he ties. Die for my team. Whatever they need me to do, they need to take, you know, shots from the front and the back,

whatever it is, I'm going to die from my team out there. And I know they're going to do the same for me. That's what makes us so close. That's what makes this national championship so special. You can see the intensity in his voice. And I do love the fact that he stares. right into the camera. He doesn't look at the interview. He stares right into the camera when he's talking to you, letting America know what he's all about. A rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter

of the biggest game in college football. Look at this list. Jalen Hertz, the legend Tim Tebow, Vince Young, Marcus Outton at the turn of the century. He was a really good quarterback back in the day at Florida State. Mendoza joins the list. Tom, I want to start with you here. I was talking to some of your ACC network brethren last night who said, listen, I coached against Fernando Mendoza in the ACC when he was at Cal. And coaches are loath to admit they didn't see something coming, but they were saying, I did not see

this coming. How would you accentuate or explain his rise that kind of mirrors the team he leads? If you go back, and those ACC coaches would be talking about his time at Cal, of course, but if you go back and you watch his tenure at Cal, they were so

poor up front in the offensive line. And all you did was see this guy keep getting back up off the mat, standing in the face of the rush, under duress, making throws when he doesn't have a clean pocket. He'd get knocked to the ground. He'd get right back up, come right back out the next series, and do the exact same thing. And so you saw some mental toughness, some competitive temperament there, and he's got the physical attributes. I mean, he's 6'5, 225 pounds. And as we saw last night, and if you watched him at all throughout his career, he is a deceptively good runner and athlete.

but this is a guy that when you put him in the right place and the pieces in front of him and around him allowed for him to really flourish. He didn't necessarily have much of that when he was at Cal. And we talked and Sam and I have gone back and forth on this. I feel like we talked about it at nauseam. The uncommon accuracy on the back shoulder throw that this quarterback has displayed throughout his entire career is anything I've ever seen before. Well, and we might be getting used to seeing it because I got a chance to be at the game yesterday and I bump shoulders, rough shoulders with Tom Brady.

And I was like, oh, nice. I played against Tom Brady, but it's also Tom Brady, but it would get a picture. Then I thought about it. I was like, Tom Brady is part owner of the Raiders. Raiders have the number one overall pick. Tom Brady may be just going there to see Fernando Mendoza. And it's not just to see him as a player. You can watch that on film, but to see him as a leader, to see even his family,

got a chance to talk with Mendoza's dad, even meet his grandparents. It's like there's a level of steadiness and sturdiness where you could tell where that foundation comes from. And so for me, the most impressive part isn't just the back shoulder phage or the accuracy, but it's all the stuff that's hidden. It's the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. It's the time that he takes with his teammates to work on some of that back shoulder fade like he did with Charlie Becker or maybe Elijah Surrad or maybe even Omar Cooper. It's that uncommon thread of having all the guys show up for him when he won the highest trophy and then asking him an understanding about his why, which is his mom. those are the things that make me most excited about Mendoza's in his future. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but there's a high likelihood he's going to be the number

and overall pig. Yeah, I'm so glad you mentioned his mom. They showed him there obviously embracing after the game and you may have heard all the health struggles that she's going through, the why to play for his mom. Why is a good question? Duke fans are asking, why can't we just keep Darian Menson? Now, this is a big story developing today. Duke is now going to be suing Menta, their quarterback, to prevent him from transfer

Last Friday on the final day of the portal, he said he was going to get in the portal despite having a signed deal with Duke, rumor destination Miami. This is going to get very ugly. On the way here on college football live. He did it. He won the whole thing. He told you. All he does is win.

So how about a swan song last night? If I was smart, I'd probably retire. Then I'd really be a story. But we need the money. What would I do? What would I? I describe coaches facial expressions during a game as just not a lot of joy or happiness when he's on the sideline. It's all business.

Sometimes he has that blank little deaf stare and you don't know if you want to go up to him. He's intense on game day. He's intense all the time. He was like this on the sideline trying to inspect something and it's a lot of means going around. The best one is from his last game with his eyebrow up. The eyebrow raised, I can't really raise my eyebrow. Just a blank stare when we're up, 340, and he's still staring at you.

Like you haven't caught a single pass in a single game. Fall start. Offense, number 62. I'm guessing Kurt Signetti will give us the face. There it is. Right on cue. How do we feel about this? I know that guy.

Is that somebody you'd like to play for? I don't know. I'd have to see how he is the other hour of the day. Though I will tell you, that's the facial expression. he really wants. You know, when Kurt Signetti was coaching the IUP Crimson Hawks, nobody heard of him. When he was coaching at wide receiver

for Nick Sabin for the Alabama Crimson Tide, nobody'd heard of him. Now, after what he's done, everyone's heard of him. You saw her Jen Ladder there a moment ago. She asked Signetti right before the title game what he would say to the skeptics of Indiana's success. He said, get used to it. And on Tuesday, after winning the title,

he gave more of the same to Arise Davis. When you think back over the course of the game, what are the moments that stand out to you as being the most indicative of what this team's about? What a gut check game. Miami played really hard. It was a fierce, fiercely competitive game defensively, really kind of shut them down the first half. We blocked the punt, some big fourth down conversions. And then at the end of the day, they're knocking on the door again. And, you know, we found a way it was not easy. What went into the decision to go ahead and try to go for it? I learned a long time ago, you got to play to win. You got to have confidence in your players.

You cannot play not to lose. And I wanted to put it in 15, 13, 1, 37, those guys' hands. Give them that opportunity. And, you know, that fourth and eight to Becker, third and eight to Becker. you know, the sprint out the Cooper, and a lot of those were just adjustments because of what we couldn't protect and what they were done. When you and I were on the podium at the Rose Bowl, I asked you to put it in context and you said you'd make a hell of a movie. Yeah. What makes you confident that this is not a standalone blockbuster, but the first of a franchise with sequels to come with continued success?

Well, you know, I don't think anybody can really predict the future. The only thing is certain about the future is it's uncertain. And you've got to take control of the things you have control of on a daily basis, which we'll do the best we can to put ourselves in the best position. What is it that drives you to keep going, come back, keep doing it? I've always been really competitive. I hate losing. Winning as a coach means a lot to me.

I'm carrying, sort of carrying the flag for the family's name. And, you know, I wake up every morning ready to go. But now you're a national championship head coach. Have you thought about how your place in the game changes because you now have this trophy? I really don't think that way. You know, we had a lot of success year one. There were a lot of opportunities. Would you do this commercial?

Would you speak at this retreat? and a lot of money involved and declined them all. Because, you know, I get paid to do a certain job and I know what my strengths are. And I like what I do and I like winning. I don't plan on changing very much. I don't have a problem saying no. I'm honored to be in this class.

When I envisioned myself being a coach at a very young age, I wanted to be like a Bear Bryant kind of guy. And this doesn't put me anywhere near there. But our story certainly is a great story. And we are the national champs. Well, Bear certainly had a sustained run of success. You heard Reese kind of invoke. Is that what you're interested in doing?

Signetti is 64 years old. And in a sport that seems to be getting younger and younger and younger, it's not that he's 64 and older. It's that he appreciates everything he has because he's worked so hard to get to this point. And you can obviously tell how cathartic it is. Sam, let's just start with you. You played for a national championship winning head coach.

You know what it's like to be influenced by someone like that. What do you see when you look at Signetti from the viewpoint of a player that's played for one of the era's best? I see a coach who's authentic to himself. Everyone talks about betting on yourself. And I see a coach who bet on himself. Kurt Signetti was an assistant at Alabama. He could have stayed an assistant, but he bet on himself. And he took what some would consider, maybe all would consider a lower level job.

Yet he excelled as a head coach. He went to go be a head coach because he believed in himself. As a player, you don't know what the future holds, but you believe that you could accomplish something that hasn't been done before. And now that you have a coach that has not only done it, but he has lived it and he believes in you, that's what stands out to me the most. And so some of the similarities that I had in Mac Brown,

who won a national championship. I played a national championship under Mac Brown. It's this level of authenticity and respect. Yes, on the outside, he looks one way, but when you get a chance to know him, you would lay it all on the line for him. You know, Sam, I think the interesting thing is we can say everything about the facial expressions and whether or not he smiles enough.

But I think when he made the statement, I win, Google me. And then it started to happen. How do you not want to play for that guy? Because now everything he's telling you obviously has some substance. There's proof in the pudding. He had a blueprint. He had a plan how to execute that blueprint. He's obviously an incredible evaluator of,

talent, not just the best player, but the right player for who they want to be and what the program is all about. And so if I'm looking at Kurt Cignetti and I'm a player, if I want to win, if I want to have a plan on how

to become a champion, I want to play for that guy. And you just hope younger players have the forethought and the wisdom to think that way. But I've just been incredibly impressed with the execution of the entire program.

We've talked about it on the field, but think about all of the behind the scenes execution that had to take place and all of the things that had to fall into place for this moment to happen last night. That's a great point. You mentioned roster construction, so why don't we go right into that?

Because they had a lot of no-star guys that had huge contributions, including these three guys. Let's run through what they did just last night alone on the biggest stage in the sport. Indiana, 8, 4-star and 0-5-star. recruits Miami at 45. Here's Coach Sabin, who once employed Signetti, on their roster. We keep saying that Indiana doesn't have any five-star and four-star player. They're five-star players now. They're four-star player now. Yeah, coach is right about that. I can even see Tom giving

me the old handway. We'll talk about it in the second time. It's 100% true. How many times already in this show have we talked about this guy, Camara, who ended up blocking this punt, who was basically unranked. You could make an argument before, Mendoza's dive. It was the most important play of the game. And then Mendoza to Becker, who is a three-star kid. Look at that adjustment. You don't see that sometimes on Sundays coming back and grabbing the ball. And of course, the biggest snubbed three-star guy of all was the best player all season. The Hydezman Memorial Trophy winner, the guy that had this particular play that'll live in Indiana football lore. He asked if he could be a walk-on at Miami. They said no. Instead, he decided

to walk all over Miami in the national championship game. Turnabout is fair play. And Carson Beck, by the way, had a ton, a ton of stars next to his name. But Jamari Sharp only had three. And when the over talented Beck went deep, Sharp said, I'm a little sharper, picked him off, and it was those unheralded superstars with no stars next to their name that proved to be the superstars on championship night accentuating Tom's point. on basically just how it doesn't matter how many stars you have.

It matters on what you can do and production. Take a look at the gap. Pretty much, Indiana does it with the fraction of the amount of guys that everybody else has essentially done it with. Tom, you've been evaluating players for 20 years. That game has certainly changed over the two decades. It has happened. But the one thing that hasn't changed is his hit rate

seems to be about as high as anyone. How would you explain that? Player development. And that's really at the core of what, Nick Saban was saying right there is, okay, when they came out of high school, they might not have been that. Maybe they're an inch too short, haven't hit a growth spurt, 20 pounds too light. Maybe they didn't run overly well at that point, not overly strong, late bloomer type of player. Okay, now that player then maybe moves on to the SCS or the group of five level.

You redshirt him, you feed him, you develop him, you get him in the weight room, you train him, and all of a sudden he's two to three years from move to coming out of high school. and he's the guy that a lot of kids were maybe more physically advanced were coming out of high school. And what he's done is he's targeted those types of players, whether it be at the FCS level, whether it be at JMU at the Group of Five level. And he really cared about two things, production and performance. And if you go through and you look at their two deep in all three phases of the game

and look at how many starts those guys have under their belt at other institutions prior to arriving at Indiana, that's what he valued, performance, production, and experience with guys that had grown into being four and five star guys. Didn't mean they were coming out of high school. Sam, I know you want to jump in. Go ahead. Development and coach belief. I was a three-star recruit.

That's why I wanted to jump in. I was a guy who was a three-star recruit. Thanks a lot, Luke, rating me three-star. But I got a chance to ask Mack Brown not too long ago. I said, hey, coach, why did you even recruit me? right there's five stars everywhere four stars he said well first you weren't very good in high school but we believed that you had an opportunity to grow and he maybe he was joking maybe he wasn't but the point was he said we believed in you right we saw your family we saw your skill set your size and there was an

opportunity for growth and so it's not just player development but it's also coach belief you heard recurting that he said in this city out he said man i believed in 15 and 3 and 80 on fourth down with the game on the line i wanted the ball in their hands that does something as a player when your coach believes in you, it instills a sense of belief in yourself. And so the development is one piece, but the belief is a whole other animal. That's a great personal anecdote there from Sam. And we should mention the intangible of belief. You can't rate that. There's nowhere you can put that on a message board. Either you buy into it or you don't. Great stuff from you. Sam, on the way. It was a great finish. Maybe the greatest season we've ever seen in college football playoff history,

BCS history going back. When we return, we'll recap a run for the ages. How would you describe the turnaround at what you've been able to build in a short period of time? It'd be a hell of a movie. You have to appreciate the greatness of this Indiana time. Hoo, Hoo Hoosiers! A century of futility is forgotten. The Indiana Hoosiers are the Kings of College Football. We won the National Championship at Indiana University.

It can be done. I think it's got to be one of the greatest stories we've ever seen in college football. We all know the soundbiter. Yeah, it's pretty simple. I win. Google me. And we all know that when we all heard that two years ago, we also all rolled our eyes. In our defense, why wouldn't it?

Indiana was the losingest college football program of all time. That's not hyperbole. It was a mathematical fact. Emphasis on was. Since Kurt Signetti became head Hoosier, the basketball school in Bloomington has become the model for modern college football success. His first season brought a school record 11 wins and a first round college football playoff exit. It was fun to watch. But what we thought was just a Cinderella and high top sneakers, a one-season wonder, now feels like the origin story of a Midwestern monster.

Big plays on both sides of the ball. The escape from State College. A Heisman winner, G-Wiz, Throwback All-American, the first from IU to grab college football's most coveted individual award. Tasting your dreams are worth it, no matter how big or impossible they seem. All kept by a postseason run through the throne rooms of college football royalty. Ohio State, Alabama. Oregon and the youth. A century of cutility is forgotten. Now we get it. Signetti wasn't bragging.

He was stating truth because when we drop his name or Indiana football into that search bar, yeah, the result is pretty simple. The national champs. They do indeed win. I don't think you have to Google it. It's pretty much evident if you've watched any college football this season. Sam, I want to start with part of what I think has been under discussed is that we are in an era of college football unlike any other. In other words, there's really no roadmap to figure out how to win in this era. In the old days, Tom said it's simple. Stockpile talent, develop them, rinse, repeat. He's doing it in kind of an uncharted era of the sport. What do you make of that in light of what they've been able to do considering all the confusion that's engulfing the sport?

Kurt Signetti is in the business of people development. That's what I've seen. It's not necessarily just the stars that we've talked about, but look at the people who he's kept intact. He's kept an offensive coordinator intact. It's been with him for years, defensive coordinator, been with him for years. So much of his support staff has been with him for years. And so when new players come in, all of a sudden,

there's a set system and a set structure and a set culture that everyone understands. And also some of the new players that he brought from GMU, I believe there were 13. Not all of those 13 players were stars or the best players on the team. Some of those players were culture carriers. And so then when some of these new five stars that will come to Indiana or four stars that will come when they see the success, that success won't be uprooted by the culture. The culture will remain the same.

You know, the interesting too here, Sam, is we all know when something like this happens, expectations change, the standard changes. And now you go from being the hunter to the hunter. hunted and it will be very interesting to see how this program handles success, right? Because oftentimes that can be every bit as difficult as is handling adversity. And I think the one thing, and we talk about it a lot, but look across college football and a lot of the decisions that have been made with multiple programs across sport in the transfer portal, and how many misses there have been, how many blunders there have been. And you look at Indiana,

and it's hard to find one. The work that they put in on identifying the right guy and ensuring that they don't make a mistake, and obviously it helps to hit on the quarterback two years in a row, but it's just remarkable because it goes against every percentage that you would bet against that you could be right that often on the guys that you chose to build this program and have it turn around like this in two years.

I'd be remissive I just didn't mention there is another huge part about this. It is a great story. but they have a lot, a lot of Big Ten money. The old days, the only guy making $3 million that is their basketball coach. Their defensive coordinator. Brian Haynes makes $3 million. Tom, to you, let's spin this thing forward. You mentioned a couple times they've got Hoover coming in next year from TCU.

We know it's a year to your business. What do you see next year? Well, you mentioned rinse and repeat, right? There's a certain thing they're looking for. Value and experience, performance, and production. Josh Hooverstone for almost 10,000 yards in three years. He's been highly productive. He's a tough, gritty guys.

Kind of got some Baker-Mayfield-type traits to him. The one thing that I would say about Josh Hoover is he's got to get the turnovers down. He's had double-digit turnovers two years in a row. And I know they throw it an awful lot at DCU. But for a program, Sam, like Indiana, that prides themselves on not beating themselves. That's one area I think that they can improve that in the quarterback position with Josh Hoover. But it does look like Indiana is getting ready to try to build a powerhouse because the signetic culture isn't going anywhere. People say, okay, how do we repeat what Kurt Signetti did?

It's hard to repeat it because you're not Kurt Signetti. You're not a guy who came into Bloomington and came into the basketball stadium and said, hey, Indiana. He said Purdue sucks. He said Michigan sucks. Ohio State sucks. And people laughed at him. Everyone laughed at him, but he believed it.

He said, I win. Google me. He has a sense of confidence that I think is going to stick as long as he's there and his staff is there as well. Last thing. He's getting a lot of guys hired and he's getting a lot of guys fired because they all want the next signetti. People should realize it's just one of one.

On the way here on college football live, you know in the SEC, they say it just means more. So why does the Big Ten mean and win the games that matter more? What's going on at the top of the sport, sea change-wise? We'll discuss it next. Championship match, a very few could have foreseen. The last two teams standing in the center of the ring fight for this championship, just throw in punches and take in punches from each other.

He has determined that they're going to go for this. He's going to take off on your diving toward the end. To come out ahead in this game was a lot of guts. I give Miami a lot of credit. They played really hard. Took some chances found away. Let me tell you, we won the national championship in Indiana University. The Indiana Hoosiers are the Kings of College Football.

You know, Chris, it's actually the Big Ten that's the Kings of College football. Last three national champions, three different years. Here's three different schools, undoubtedly, at the top. Tom, look, I know in the SEC it just means more, but right now it is hard to argue that in this tug of war, moving forward between the Big Ten and the SEC, that the Big Ten is not rested control of this thing. How do you think this affects the landscape moving forward? Well, listen, I think the number one thing that it points to is you can't stockpile talent anymore. You know, that's one of the things that, you know, from the SEC's perspective, when you look at the southeast portion of the United States, that's predominantly where your great. the greatest stockpile of athletes are, particularly in the offensive and defensive line,

obviously the skill guys. Well, now all of a sudden, you can't hoard them all. So now the talent gets dispersed and it starts moving everywhere, northeast, southwest, and the Big Ten, I think, in many ways, has been the recipient of that. And so, listen, this is what college football has turned into. And it's made everybody more talented top to bottom. And if you look at the Big Ten over the last three years and you look at those three teams that have won the national championship.

They all made great decisions in the transfer portal, and they all had great high school football recruiting platforms, and as a result, they've won the national championship. And they've won beyond a shadow of a doubt. Indiana was absolutely the best team. They handled Alabama. They probably would have handled Ole Miss or any other SEC team. You can say the same thing about maybe Michigan, Ohio State the last couple years.

But I still think that the SEC is a deeper conference when it comes to more teams that can win. Now, yes, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State these last three years, We're definitely the best team. So Big Ten, you could say that's the best. When it comes to the deepest, I think there's more teams that are, you know, not just like top heavy, but more teams overall that can compete in the SEC as well. It's certainly a fair point, but I think those teams at the top are trying to win at the very top. And right now, at least for the moment, that belongs to the Big Ten.

But I certainly hear your argument, Sam, no doubt depth-wise for the SEC. We've got an impasse between the two leagues we were just talking about. They control the future of college football. The SEC wants a 16 team bracket. The Big 10 wants 24. And if they can't come to an agreement by Friday the 23rd, this will be Friday of this week. It looks like the CFP format will remain the same.

That's the big story, the rest of the week. You get ready, we're just about 50 days or so away from Selection Sunday, LSU, Florida, Vandy, Arkansas, Kansas, Colorado all tonight. We're back to put a bow on 2025. The playoff from beginning to end. ride and spin, a trip down memory lane in our last segment of the show. That's nice. We're back on college football live, proving it's never too early, apparently.

Here are your odds for next season. All right, guys, we're ramping towards week zero. We'll have a countdown clock up here. I'm kidding. This is how it looks, though, heading into the 2026 campaign. Guys, I want to just quickly on camera, bring everybody back on for our final segment of our final show. Sam, let's start with you, just kind of your final thoughts of what you've seen this season. Soup to nuts.

and then we are going to take you on a trip back in time for all 11 games of this year's playoff. It's all you. Season more than anything, seeing the Cinderella story, if you will, of Indiana, not just this year, but over the last two years, seeing Vanderville and Diego Pavi and what they were able to do, some of the ups and some of the downs. It was such a phenomenal season and such an honor to be a part of. You know, Sam, looking at that graphic right there, it's interesting because all those odds, every one of those teams has their quarterback back except for one. And that's Indiana. So it's going to be interesting to see how that thing plays out. And I'm always joking with everybody thinking forward about the spring and the summer.

How the heck are we supposed to do preview shows? There's 70 new players on every single team. Fair enough. Fair enough. I can't buy those magazines anymore. They're not worth the paper they're written on. All kidding aside, here's a look back at this season's playoff. What a year.

Enjoy. We've prepared ourselves all season for this moment. There's going to be one team. There's going to be one team excited. at the end of this, boys. Everything you want is right here. It's been so fun to put takes to take back on the map. I love these guys, and we all hate the disorder.

And the college football playoff, you have got it in this final floor. It's going to be. The biggest and brightest stage away. Mendoza. We've never seen him.