MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Indiana started to send its kicking team onto the field, setting up a perfectly sensible field goal attempt with a three-point lead and 9:27 to play in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
Kicker Nico Radicic had been almost automatic from inside 40 yards. A conversion would likely force Miami to drive the length of the field to take its first lead. Indiana could take the points, move on, play defense.
Coach Curt Cignetti was having none of it.
"He goes, 'Get off the field! We're going for it!'" offensive tackle Carter Smith said.
The coach who had changed everything for Indiana, starting with the belief that winning was possible, that championships were possible, that anything was possible, wasn't going to play it safe on fourth-and-4.
"Let's go, coach," Smith said to himself. "Don't lie to me here."
What began as a chaotic scene -- Indiana burning its second timeout in a one-score game -- became a defining moment for a coach, a quarterback and a program that forever changed what can be done in a sport dominated by the heavyweights and the highly recruited. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner playing for a title in his hometown, ran his first draw play of the game, gained the first down and then strained into the end zone.
Mendoza's 12-yard touchdown didn't seal the win, but it gave Indiana enough breathing room to ultimately prevail 27-21 and claim its first national championship.
"A big constant that we've really had on ourselves this year is always bet on ourselves, whether it's preseason -- no one thinks we can make it -- whether it's figuring out situations like Oregon, Penn State and Iowa," Mendoza said. "Whenever Coach Cignetti, [offensive coordinator Mike] Shanahan, they called that play, we knew, 'Hey, we're going to better ourselves one more time at the biggest stage of the game."
If there was a weakness on an Indiana team that won its first 15 games, it was fourth downs. The Hoosiers had converted only 50%, 8-of-16, for the season. They didn't attempt one in their first two playoff games against Alabama and Oregon, because they were so dominant and didn't need to.
But Indiana had converted a fourth down earlier in the game, and Cignetti believed in his players to gain 4 yards.
"He's always had our back," center Pat Coogan told ESPN.
"We love to go for it on fourth down, and this is the game to do it," Smith added. "What do we have to lose?"
During the week before the title game, Indiana's coaches spent about 45 minutes discussing the play, which would be used if the Hoosiers found themselves in third- or fourth-and-medium in the red zone. Mendoza spent much of the game running away from Miami defensive ends Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor, and he had not been used for many designed runs.
Shanahan said Mendoza had the option to throw if Miami blitzed and played man coverage.
"That's a look for Fernando to keep it, made a helluva run, got great blocking," Shanahan said. "Coach has got a lot of confidence in the players, and obviously we put the ball in our best player's hands."
Mendoza cut to his right, gained the first down and then pinballed off linebacker Wesley Bissainthe into the end zone.
"Line did a great job executing, so did the back, and Fernando trucked the linebacker, broke a few tackles," Cignetti said. "Fernando, I know he's great in interviews and comes off as the All-American guy, but he has the heart of a lion when it comes to competition."
Smith had a one-on-one blocking assignment against Bain, trying to force the All-America selection outside so Mendoza could scoot by.
"He was a little bit inside of me, so I set in, expecting him to work out, and he did," Smith said. "I was able to put him out, and Fernando was able to get up-field. I saw him get stalled, and my next thought was, 'Go push that pile!' I don't even think I made it to the pile because he did it himself."
The most frustrating element for Miami was that it had prepared for the play. Defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman said the draw was Indiana's "go-to play out of that formation all year."
Hetherman wished he had called a timeout, as Miami had all three remaining. Bissainthe said the Hurricanes didn't check into the right alignment.
"We knew what play it was," Hetherman said. "It wasn't a secret."
The fourth-down call galvanized Indiana's defense, which had propelled the team to a 10-0 halftime lead but also allowed two Hurricanes touchdowns in the first 15:03 of the second half. Mendoza's touchdown restored Indiana's double-figure lead.
Miami had one final chance down six before Indiana's Jamari Sharpe intercepted quarterback Carson Beck's deep pass with 44 seconds left.
"It's Coach Cig doing what he does, it's him believing in his playmakers and letting them go out and earn a win," defensive coordinator Bryant Haines told ESPN. "Not necessarily playing safe, not playing keep-away ball, playing 'Let's go take this' type of ball. Coach Cignetti, he's always been that way."
As cigar smoke and loud music filled Indiana's locker room, the magnitude of what the team had accomplished struck the offensive linemen, who occupied one corner. Smith, who arrived in 2022 and went through two losing seasons, talked about how he had nearly transferred out of IU, only to stick it out with Cignetti.
Coogan was in the exact same locker room at Hard Rock Stadium almost a year earlier as part of a Notre Dame team that beat Penn State to advance to the national title game, only to fall to Ohio State. Hoosiers offensive tackle Zen Michalski was part of that Ohio State team, but he was injured for the CFP run before transferring to Indiana.
"A lot of my buddies, they supported me, but it was a lot of like, 'Man, you're going to Indiana, you're not used to losing games. You guys might not win a lot of games,'" Michalski said. "Well, 16-0 and national champions."
Asked what he will remember most about a magical night in a season's worth of them, Michalski said, "Probably that fourth-and-4 by Fernando."
He's not the only one.
"That will be a snapshot in my head for years to come," Smith said. "I don't think I'll forget about that until I develop dementia."