Aussie Dylan Joyce's punt blocked for a touchdown as Indiana down Miami in college football title game

On a night Indiana University completed their fairytale with a 27-21 victory over Miami in the college football national championship game, it was a nightmare for the Hurricanes Australian punter Dylan Joyce.

The Victorian's attempted punt in the third quarter was blocked by Indiana's Mikail Kamara and recovered by Isaiah Jones in the end zone for a touchdown that gave the Hoosiers a 17-7 lead.

Joyce was not solely at fault for the play, with tight end Alex Bauman missing his block on Kamara.

A graduate of the ProKick Australia program, which has sent a host of former AFL players to America as punters, Joyce hails from Kyabram in country Victoria and has punted for the Hurricanes for the past three seasons.

It was a better night for fellow Australian Mitch McCarthy, a former Collingwood VFL player who punts for Indiana.

McCarthy follows in the footsteps of Jesse Williams (Alabama, 2012, 2013), Cameron Johnston (Florida State, 2014), Brett Thorson (Georgia, 2022) and Joe McGuire (Ohio State, 2025) as an Australian national title holder.

Miami fought back to trail by just three shortly after the beginning of the fourth quarter, only for Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza to bulldoze his way into the end zone for a late touchdown that led his team into the history books.

The Heisman Trophy winner finished with 186 yards passing, but it was his tackle-breaking, sprawled-out 12-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-4 with 9:18 left that defined this game — and the Hoosiers' season.

"I had to go airborne," Mendoza said. "I would die for my team."

Mendoza's TD gave turnaround artist Curt Cignetti's team a 10-point lead — barely enough breathing room to hold off a frenzied charge by the hard-hitting Hurricanes, who bloodied Mendoza's lip early, then came to life late behind 112 yards and two scores from Mark Fletcher, but never took the lead.

The College Football Playoff trophy now heads to the most unlikely of places: Bloomington, Indiana — a campus that endured a nation-leading 713 losses over 130-plus years of football before Cignetti arrived two years ago to embark on a revival for the ages.

"Took some chances, found a way. Let me tell you: We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done," Cignetti said.

Indiana finished 16-0 — using the extra games afforded by the expanded 12-team playoff to match a perfect-season win total last compiled by Yale in 1894.

In a fitting bit of symmetry, this undefeated title comes 50 years after Bob Knight's basketball team went 32-0 to win it all in that state's favourite sport.

That has not happened since, and there is already some thought that college football — in its evolving, money soaked era — might not see a team like this again, either.

Players like Mendoza — a transfer from Cal who grew up just a few miles away from Miami's campus, "The U" — certainly do not come around often.

Two fourth-down gambles by Cignetti in the fourth quarter, after Fletcher's second touchdown carved the Hurricanes' deficit to three, put Mendoza in position to shine.

The first was a 19-yard-completion to Charlie Becker on a back-shoulder fade those guys have been perfecting all season. Four plays later came a decision and play that wins championships.

Cignetti sent his kicker out on fourth-and-4 from the 12, but quickly called his second timeout. The team huddled on the field and the coach drew up a quarterback draw, hoping the Hurricanes would be in a defense they had shown before.

"We rolled the dice and said, 'They're going to be in it again and they were,'" Cignetti said. "We blocked it well, he broke a tackle or two and got in the end zone."

Not known as a run-first guy, Mendoza slipped one tackle, then took a hit and spun around. He kept his feet, then left them, going horizontal and stretching the ball out — a ready-made poster pic for a title run straight from the movies.

Maybe they will call it "Hoosiers."

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