For the Indiana Hoosiers, the road to the National Championship last month was full of firsts: their first Heisman Trophy winner, first undefeated season, and, most importantly, first national championship.
This season, the Hoosiers’ quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, was awarded the 91st Heisman Trophy, recognizing him as the best collegiate football player of the 2025-2026 season. Mendoza transferred to Indiana University after playing two seasons at the University of California, seeking more consistent offensive coaching, as he had three different offensive coordinators during his time at California. Mendoza was the spark that Indiana needed to play an undefeated season (16-0) that culminated in a Big Ten Conference Championship.
To gauge how just impressive and historic the Hoosiers’ accomplishment is, we must look into their past record: Indiana has 715 all-time losses, the second most in college football history! (If you’re curious, Northwestern has the worst record with 718.) For the most part, the Hoosiers won this season’s games by a large margin–usually 30 points. The two exceptions were matches against the University of Iowa and Penn State.
Indiana played Iowa early in the season and won by just 5 points. The Hoosiers started strong, leading 7-3 in the first quarter, but Iowa was able to come back and tie the game at halftime. In the second half, Indiana barely scraped by, adding a touchdown with about a minute and a half to go in the game, and not allowing Iowa to score. In the end, it was Indiana with 20 to Iowa’s 15.
Later in the season, the Hoosiers traveled to Penn State, where they had their closest score of the year, winning by only 3 points. The Hoosiers led the whole game, and it wasn’t looking good for the Nittany Lions, as they were trailing the Hoosiers by a 10-point margin for the majority of the game. Entering the fourth quarter, Penn State was losing 10-20, but after scoring two touchdowns, they were winning for the first time with a score of 20-24. With just 36 seconds left in the game, Mendoza threw a touchdown to bring the Hoosiers to victory, making the final score 27-24. 
Despite Indiana’s perfect record, it was still considered an upset when they defeated No. 1 Ohio State (last season’s national champions) in the Big 10 Conference Championship in December. Indiana was the first to score a field goal, but then Ohio State responded with a touchdown and an extra point. In fact, Indiana trailed for the majority of the game until the third quarter when Mendoza threw a touchdown to put the Hoosiers ahead 13-10, allowing Indiana to defeat the Buckeyes for their first Big 10 Championship title since 1945.
After upsetting Ohio State in the Big Ten championship, the Hoosiers entered the playoffs with a first-round bye as the number-one seed with a perfect 14-0 record. Their first playoff game was in the Rose Bowl against Alabama–a football powerhouse with 16 national championships and consistent top-10 rankings since 2010. However, Alabama was no match for Indiana’s defense, with the Hoosiers keeping them from
scoring a single touchdown the whole game! Even though Alabama is ranked in the top three of programs with the most wins in college football history (985), and Indiana’s program is second in losses in college football history, the Hoosiers walked away with the victory, defeating Alabama 38-3 and moving on to face Oregon in the Peach Bowl.
The Peach Bowl was not the first time the Indiana Hoosiers played the Oregon Ducks in the 2025 season; they first played each other in October, and it was neck-and-neck in the first half, with Indiana pulling ahead later to win 20-30. Since the score was pretty close the first time they played, the Peach Bowl was expected to also be a close game, but it was anything but. The first quarter was pretty close, ending with the Hoosiers leading 14-7, but Indiana then scored three touchdowns in the second quarter to bring the score to 35-7. The Ducks were unable to come back in the second half, and Indiana ended up winning 56-22 to move on to the national championship.
A week and a half later, the Hoosiers traveled to Florida to play in their first national championship, facing the University of Miami. The outcome of this game was anyone’s guess: the Hurricanes had a record of 1-1 against the Hoosiers, so things could have gone either way despite Miami having such a good (13-2) record. 
It was a slow start with Indiana up 3-0 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Hoosiers’ defense was still holding strong, keeping the Hurricanes at 0 points, while Indiana added 7 more points to their score. The start of the third quarter began with a 57-yard touchdown by Miami, bringing the Hurricanes within three points. Indiana didn’t let the score stay close for long, though, scoring another touchdown to bring the score to 17-7. The odds were looking good for Indiana going into the fourth quarter, as they had held the lead the whole game, and this pattern continued as the clock ran down. Miami attempted to come back, scoring two touchdowns, but Indiana sealed the win with a touchdown and a field goal in the last quarter, winning 27-21.
This past football season, the Indiana Hoosiers accomplished what no one thought they could– their first Heisman Trophy winner, first undefeated season, and most importantly, their first National Championship–but with their star quarterback declaring for the draft, next season might not be as successful. That said, Josh Hoover, who is transferring from TCU, might be able to fill Mendoza’s shoes and lead Indiana to more success.
