The Indiana Hoosiers are the last undefeated team in college football, and will have the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff thanks to their 13-10 win over Ohio State in last night's Big Ten Championship Game. Anyone waiting for Indiana's dream season to end will have to wait a little longer.
Winning a conference title may not mean as much as it used to in the pre-playoff era, but try telling that to anyone associated with this team, which has only two conference titles in its entire history, the most recent coming in 1967. And 13-10 may not be the scoreline anyone wants to see in a matchup between the top two teams in the country, but try telling that to Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who won the game with the throw of the season and then gave an all-time great postgame interview.
After Ohio State missed a short game-tying field goal with 2:48 left to play, the Hoosiers needed just one first down to all but guarantee themselves the Big Ten title. Two straight running plays forced Ohio State to spend its final two timeouts, at which point Indiana was faced with a third-and-6 with 2:41 left to play. So what did the Hoosiers cook up? Screen pass? Draw play? Yeah right! They put the ball in their Heisman candidate quarterback's hands and let him sling it.
Mendoza threw a perfect ball to Charlie Becker down the sideline, gaining 33 yards and virtually ending the game. Two more runs and a punt later, and all that was left was for Ohio State to throw a few feeble deep balls from their own 10-yard line. It wasn't until the game was over that we got the real highlight of the night: Mendoza's postgame interview.
It's not often we get to see a football season culminate in a quarterback being possessed by the spirit of Matt Foley. I can't wait to see if he crashes through a coffee table at the Heisman ceremony.
