Miami's magical run came up short, but Hurricanes belonged on college football's biggest stage

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Mario Cristobal stood alone, his eyes scanning for Miami players, heads down and feet dragging toward the locker room as a shower of red-and-white confetti littered the night sky and settled onto the field.

He hugged and consoled those who approached him near the 19-yard line along the Hurricanes' sideline. This was not how it was supposed to end. This was supposed to be Miami's coronation. A generation had waited for this moment. Instead, the Hurricanes watched upstart Indiana celebrate a pitch-perfect season with a 27-21 victory and a national championship on Miami's home field at Hard Rock Stadium.

It was not until Cristobal sat next to his players roughly 30 minutes later that emotion cracked his voice or softened his stern expression.

"I want to do well by them, and the fact that they leave here without the national title in hand, that -- that," Cristobal glanced down with a hard swallow, "is really hard to deal with that."

Miami (13-3) had chances to unseat college football's darling, but Indiana (16-0) kept the Hurricanes at arm's length throughout the night. Miami never led, but twice cut double-digit deficits to seize momentum. When the defense forced a late field goal and handed quarterback Carson Beck the ball with less than two minutes remaining -- the same script that carried Miami past Ole Miss weeks earlier -- the moment felt inevitable.

"I was telling them, it's another Wednesday practice," senior receiver CJ Daniels said. "We do two-minute (drills) every Wednesday. We had the same situation a couple weeks ago versus Ole Miss, so I thought we were gonna be able to go down and get the job done.

"But things happen."

Beck, who threw only two interceptions during Miami's seven-game winning streak entering the title game, made the lone mistake that defined the night. Miami aligned in trips to the boundary, with two receivers breaking open to his right. Instead, Beck turned left, hunting a bigger play with Keelan Marion streaking up the sideline. Beck wanted it all: a massive gain, maybe a game-winning touchdown.

With no threat in the flat, Indiana defensive back Jamari Sharpe drove across the field, undercut the route and intercepted the underthrown pass.

Game over.

"You can sit back and think of every if-and-or-but situation, but, you know, that's what happened and it sucks," Beck said. "It's going to sting for a while."

The play was there as a cornerback funneled Miami inside, but Beck's throw was too short and not wide enough against Indiana's Cover 2 defense. On the opposite side of the formation, freshman Malachi Toney -- Miami's go-to threat all night -- climbed the sideline and was open in a tight window. He finished with 10 catches for 112 yards and two touchdowns.

"Ultimately, I don't think it was a bad place to go with the ball," offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said. "I kinda like the way he went with the ball."

Championships often collapse into a single moment, even though they are decided long before the final snap. A stop here, a throw there, and Miami is lifting the trophy.

"The gravity of this game, if you psychoanalyze it, there probably would be 10 other reasons," Dawson said.

That was not the message afterward.

For the first time in 24 years, Miami had ignited something in this city again. Even with more than 30,000 Indiana fans flooding South Florida and outbuying the home crowd, there was still something to cling to late Monday night.

"We've set the standard, you've got to get it over the hump," Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich told CBS Sports.

The night carried uglier moments, too. Emotions boiled over. After the game, Miami running back Mark Fletcher Jr. struck Indiana defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker before staffers intervened.

Cristobal chose to focus on what had been built.

He pointed to the seniors and to future first-round pass rusher Rueben Bain Jr. as the foundation of the program he began reshaping four years ago.

"They had the guts, the faith and the trust to look at a place that was a complete mess and say, 'I'm going to be the person, I'm going to be a man of action, and I'm going to make things real, and I'm going to make the University of Miami a prominent program once again -- and we're going to win and we're going to win big and we're going to change the culture," Cristobal said. "That's not easy. A lot of people look at that, they shy away from it. These guys are legitimate big-time human beings."

A year after Miami wasted a generational offense with a defense that struggled to hold opponents under 30 points, the Hurricanes retooled through the transfer portal and hired defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman. His defenses at Minnesota and James Madison finished in the top 10 nationally each season. Miami also convinced Beck, a pro-bound quarterback, to finish his career in Coral Gables.

Beck arrived with a surgically repaired elbow and more doubt than he admitted.

"I was in just a really dark place and trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel was a really difficult thing," said Beck, who left Georgia with two national titles but never started in a championship game. "There was just a lot going on mentally, physically, emotionally and to be able to battle and fight through the roller coaster that life is, I really couldn't have done it without all these people around me."

Minutes after the biggest loss of his career, Beck called the season the best year of his life.

"This university truly saved me," he said, "and helped me rebuild into the man that I am today."

What comes next for Miami is uncertain. In college football, rosters change overnight, and even the losingest programs can morph into champions -- as Curt Cignetti has done at Indiana, now a national title winner with a 27-2 record in two seasons.

"You don't just automatically return to a game like this just because you're mad," Cristobal said. "That's the biggest misconception in sports; 'Well, they almost got there, they'll be back next year.' That's a bunch of bull. You've got to imply all the lessons learned, you got to improve from a roster standpoint, a regimen standpoint, discipline, everything, and move forward, and these guys have set the standard to help us get there."

Cristobal arrived at Miami hoping to restore a national power that dominated the 1980s, when the Hurricanes won four national titles in eight years and another in 2001. Several of his former teammates from the 1987 championship team were inside Hard Rock Stadium, some lining the sideline -- reminders of the past and, perhaps, the future.

"They're the best thing that's happened to Miami and the University of Miami in over two decades," Cristobal said of the 2025 Hurricanes.

He rejects the phrase "The U is back." He prefers something harder: a New U, built for an era where dynasties are fragile and opportunity is fleeting.

As Indiana celebrated nearby, one of Cristobal's old teammates stood close -- Hall of Famer Michael Irvin, a sideline fixture and consoler of the inconsolable. His job was simple: hug players, steady them and remind them what this meant.

"All we need to do is get back on this stage," Irvin told CBS Sports after embracing players outside the Hurricanes' locker room. "We completed the first phase of building back to the dynasty that we know and wanted to be. We got there. Now, when these top players around here start thinking about where they're going, they'll remember the excitement that lit up this city and they'll want to be a part of it.

"Next time, we'll finish."