Mendoza’s Key Play Illuminates National Championship Victory

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00:00What's crazy to me, Tyrone, and as I'm surfing, as the kids say, on social media today,

00:07all the negativity, all the negativity towards Mendoza.

00:13Mendoza had the key play in that game.

00:16He did.

00:16Sure, you could say the pun block is a key play in the game.

00:18It was.

00:19It was.

00:19But the signature play of last night's game is the John Elway-esque diving sideways into

00:29the end zone.

00:30There's a picture of it right there.

00:31To effectively win the national championship, that dude's a baller.

00:36He absolutely is.

00:37That was fourth and five, by the way, on that play.

00:40Fourth and five.

00:41Miami's defense really picked it up in the second half.

00:43They were good all game, but really picked it up in that second half.

00:45Second half, the press coverage, man coverage.

00:47I thought, actually, dog lover, Kirk Herbstreit did a great job pointing that out in the second

00:52half.

00:53He did.

00:53So, two things on that play.

00:55Let's start with Mendoza.

00:56If you look at Mendoza's stats and did not watch the game, it's very easy to wake up

01:01today and go, that's the number one pick?

01:03I get it.

01:04Not everybody watched the game.

01:06Right.

01:06If you watched the game and you saw the multiple back shoulder throws to Becker, right?

01:13They're talented.

01:14Kind of like a tight end slash wide receiver.

01:16If you watched the game and you saw on fourth and five that he runs it to the end zone and

01:22scores a touchdown, which at the time put them up 10, you would say, that dude is an

01:28NFL quarterback.

01:30He's my number one.

01:31Absolutely.

01:31That's the first part.

01:32Go ahead.

01:32And with the way Ruben Bain and guys started to get to him, he showed a lot of toughness

01:36in the game.

01:37And that matters, especially in those big spots.

01:39You see it in the playoffs.

01:40He got hit up under the chin.

01:42Bloody mouth in the first quarter.

01:43Yeah.

01:43Illegal hit, but yeah.

01:44It wasn't illegal hit, for sure.

01:46But he just kept on firing.

01:47The kid just stands in there.

01:48The dude's a gamer.

01:49He's a player.

01:50And he's kind of like, look, I know there's a lot of really good kids on every team in

01:55football.

01:56Yeah.

01:56But because he won the Heisman Trophy, because he's going to be the number one pick in the

01:59draft, because he just won a national championship, there's an aspect of him that's almost too

02:06innocent to buy.

02:07Yes.

02:07Right?

02:08Because we're all so jaded, right?

02:09Uh-huh.

02:09Look, he made millions of dollars playing football this year.

02:12He graduated from Cal.

02:13He shouldn't be in college anymore.

02:15Guilty, guilty, guilty.

02:17Makes him no better than Carson Beck.

02:19Makes him no better than a lot of guys that do the same thing.

02:22And they're playing by the rules.

02:23It's all good.

02:24Yeah.

02:25But there's a thing about him that it's almost like Tim Tebow, where you're kind of like,

02:31come on, come on, come on.

02:34I'm going to turn the camera off.

02:36Be normal now.

02:36And I think it's truly who he is and what he is.

02:40And there's an aspect of it that's actually refreshing.

02:43He's different.

02:44He's a different kind of guy.

02:45Yeah.

02:45When he transferred, he said he had a detailed spreadsheet and notes.

02:49And that's how he picked Indiana.

02:50Because remember, this is his second year there.

02:53Yeah.

02:53So it wasn't just a highest bidder.

02:56It was his first year there.

02:57But he went through a whole thing where he picked it not just based on money.

03:01Apparently, he had better offers for more money.

03:04But he didn't think he could win.

03:05He actually got offered after the fact the chance of the polter to go to Miami.

03:09He did.

03:10Where he grew up.

03:10And the reason he said no to that because he's a family of principal, I suppose.

03:14And I respect that is you didn't recruit him out of high school.

03:17There it is.

03:17And he held a grudge about it.

03:18Yep.

03:18I'm all about grudges.

03:20I like that.

03:20You are.

03:20So that's the first thing.

03:21The second part of that play is the manner in which the play got called.

03:26It looks like they're going to kick.

03:28You know, the field goal go up six.

03:29Okay, great.

03:30That means that you need a touchdown to beat you defensively.

03:33They really stymied Miami outside of two drives in the game yesterday.

03:38They call a timeout.

03:40We're all looking around like, oh, he called a timeout.

03:43Just get the field goal unit on the field.

03:45It ain't that difficult.

03:45And then he does what Ben Johnson did not do.

03:49And we talked about it yesterday.

03:51Kurt Signetti was true to what and who he is.

03:55Fourth and five.

03:56Up by three.

03:58All right, play it out.

03:59I kick the easy field goal.

04:01I'm up six.

04:02Fluke play.

04:03I lose the national championship.

04:05A lot of time.

04:06So I'd rather.

04:07Right.

04:08We're there about the eight-yard line, give or take, right?

04:09Yeah.

04:10Inside the 10, right?

04:11So he says, if I don't get it, well, at least they got to go about 65 yards to have a shot

04:17to kick a field goal to tie the game.

04:20Right.

04:20Either way, a touchdown beats me.

04:23Aggressive.

04:25Calculated.

04:26Coach of the year.

04:26I thought it was great.

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