CHARLOTTE — With an ever-changing college football landscape, coaches around the country are trying to wrap their heads around how to lead, recruit and retain talent in an era of the sport dominated by the transfer portal and NIL money.
Indiana is serving as a model with Curt Cignetti’s No. 1 Hoosiers are preparing to face the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes in the College Football Playoff national championship game in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Monday. So as coaches at the American Football Coaches Association Convention this week contemplated the changing dynamics of the sport, I polled their CFP title game predictions.
In all, I asked 25 coaches from across the country and across divisions who they think will win Monday’s national championship game, and 22 of them picked Indiana. Just three picked Miami.
“You show me a more disciplined team?” a Power 4 assistant coach told me. “What Cignetti is doing is what we all want. They’re mean. They’re disciplined. They’re robots. Can I say murder robots? They’re football murder bots.”
(Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
Cignetti filled his roster with veterans, players who not just played a lot of football but also started wherever they were prior to arriving in Bloomington. He “dropped” into the Group of 6, as well as picking up good players on losing teams the year before to help flip his roster in 2024 — and again in 2025. The resources at Indiana are now widely known, and they are considerable with the country’s largest living alumni base. With them, Cignetti’s team is one win away from winning the national championship.
But Indiana’s opponent, Miami, ain’t no rags-to-riches story. “The U” is flush with cash, and has been since Howard Schnellenberger took over Coral Gables, Florida to coach ball more than 40 years ago. And they’ve made considerable additions via the transfer portal this season — chief among them former Georgia QB Carson Beck — while also winning in high school recruiting with dynamo freshman and Hurricanes wide receiver Malachi Toney.
For some folks, the game feels like a fair fight. But as I worked my way through the crush of coaches ranging from grad assistants in their first years on the job at Division III schools like George Fox and former Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery, I asked coaches from across the country and across divisions who they thought would win the Monday’s title game.
[The Big Picture: Indiana Looks Unstoppable Ahead of CFP Title Game]
Subsequent to eight bulletin boards lined with resumes from coaches searching for the following job, one who very a lot had his “for now and want to preserve it for some time but” informed me he was going with Indiana.
One other Energy 4 assistant coach picked Miami understanding Indiana may develop into the primary staff to complete its season 16-0 since Yale achieved the feat 132 years in the past.
“As a result of I noticed that 1894 stat, and I simply don’t desire it to be Indiana,” he informed me.
(Picture by CFP/Getty Photographs)
4 coaches later admitted to me that Indiana’s 56-22 demolition of No. 5 Oregon satisfied them that the Hoosiers merely do not have a weak spot they really feel an offense or protection can exploit.
“The [Indiana] quarterback feels it after which makes the suitable determination all of the doggone time,” an FCS defensive coordinator informed me.
“Miami’s line of defense appears to be like like what everybody says they’re,” Central Missouri operating backs coach Jamal Morrow informed me, “however Carson Beck might need to play the sport of his life on offense.”
[2025 CFP Title Odds: Indiana Favored Over Miami in National Championship]
“Bro,” Shorter offensive line coach Keith Otis mentioned to me, “their O-line is as basically sound and well-coached as any I’ve seen, and Fernando Mendoza places that ball proper the place it’s presupposed to go.”
Mendoza, the Heisman winner, is the fourth-consecutive switch QB to win the stiff-armed trophy and seventh in 9 years. Given the type of reputation and optimistic impact on ticket gross sales in addition to purposes for enrollment Heisman winners and nationwide championship groups have skilled previously, I might not count on any coaches’ issues in regards to the transient nature of the game will dissipate or be regulated within the quick time period.
The perspective many have taken is just to educate and recruit by it.
RJ Young is a nationwide school soccer author and analyst for FOX Sports activities. Comply with him @RJ_Young.
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