- Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor ruined the College Football Playoff: The two have combined for 40 presses Miami”s postseason run and offer a rare advantage over a loaded Indiana team.
- A potential weakness at right tackle for Indiana: Right tackle Khalil Benson has a PFF pass-blocking grade of 49.2 against Power Four defenses – the lowest of any Hoosier.
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
The Indiana Hoosiers have not traveled to the College Football National Championship Game with either Oregon nor Alabama come within 30 points of Curt Cignetti’s team on neutral ground. Their offense, led by Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, has only gotten better since the potential first overall draft pick received college football’s most prestigious individual award a month ago.
While critics like to point out the age profile of IndianaOn their roster, which relies heavily on players in their fourth, fifth and even sixth seasons of college football, the Hoosiers are a beacon of consistency. That level of discipline and ruthlessness is something coaches across the country will look to replicate in the coming years.
With a roster devoid of five-star high school recruits and composed of many players whose collegiate careers did not begin in a Power Four conference, IndianaThe club’s meteoric rise has obviously become one of the great stories in modern college football. It just feels like destiny for this team to reach the mountaintop on Monday night, with Cignetti’s legacy becoming one of the best coaches in recent memory.
But as always, there is another team playing. If you told me Hurricanes in Miami Before the season they would play on their home turf in the National Championship game, they could not have imagined that they would take a backseat to their opponents in the media build-up.
In every title match with true blue blood Alabama, Georgia or State of Ohiothe Hurricanes would be the team everyone is talking about as a new face on the scene. Instead of, Miami will play second fiddle to the traveling Hoosiers, both in the media and (quite significantly) in the betting markets.
As 8.5-point underdogs, the Hurricanes will need a lot to overcome Indiana brings to the table. While Carson Beck and the Miami offense has plenty on its plate Indiana’S steadfast defense, I want to focus on the other side of the ball, where Miami undoubtedly has one important advantage in this game. MiamiThe band’s undeniable trump card is the sharp duo Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor.
Bain predicts a slam dunk top-10 selection in the 2026 NFL draft, with PFF’s Max Chadwick projecting Bain at fourth overall in his latest mock draft. Mesidor has also gained some traction in the first round thanks to his recent play, and the vast majority of mock drafts have Mesidor coming off the board in the top 50. Bain and Mesidor’s overall PFF grades of 93.1 and 92.1 rank second and sixth, respectively, among edge defenders at the collegiate level.
Bain has been particularly hot during this play-off run, with 21 pressures in his last three games. Bain may not have the ideal height of a can’t-miss NFL draft prospect, but his twitchy stride and bend around the edge more than makes up for his lack of size. On a handful of plays each game, it feels like Bain is just sliding into the backfield – and when he isn’t, his non-stop motor makes every play a ticking clock for opposing quarterbacks.
Let’s not forget Mesidor either. Just when you think you have Bain under control, Mesidor comes from the other side. He may not be able to entice the NFL evaluators with the same raw upside as Bain, but Mesidor actually has two more sacks than his teammate this season. He has also forced four fumbles on the year.
Unlike Bain, Mesidor also offers coverage versatility, dropping back to defend the pass 64 times this season, including a career-high 12 times last week in the team’s Fiesta Bowl victory over Ole ma’am. As an experienced super-senior, Mesidor has seen just about everything college offense has to offer in his more than 2,500 career snaps.
This pair is no stranger to a heavy workload. Bain has played the most snaps of any player on the Hurricanes defense, while Mesidor ranks third. No defensive lineman has experienced more footage of FBS football this year than Bain, who has racked up more than 200 more reps than Indiana’s most recommended pass rusher, Mikail Kamara.
Miami aligns its edge rushers based on the hash the ball is on (i.e., field side and boundary side). As a result, opposing offensive linemen must prepare for the different skills of both players.
Whenever these players enter NFL schemes, where edge rushers are often almost exclusively on one side, Bain was able to really showcase his dominance against right tackles. His 18.8% pressure rate when aligned over the right side of the line is the highest of any player involved in the College Football Playoff.
Against one Indiana A team that doesn’t have many weaknesses at all, one of those areas the Hurricanes could exploit is Khalil Benson’s right tackle. Benson has a PFF pass blocking grade of 49.2 against Power Four defenses – the lowest of any Hoosier. In these games, Benson has allowed more than twice as much pressure as any other player Indiana’s offense.
Of the four forms of pressure specified by Indiana’s offensive line against Oregon last week, Benson was responsible for all four. Keep in mind, this was only Benson’s fifth lowest-rated game of the season in pass protection. He’s had several rough outings, most notably when he allowed six pressure counters Penn State – when Daan Durant ran over it with his feet Indiana in a late thriller.
During the regular season, Mendoza’s time to throw (2.63 seconds) was among the top 20 fastest quarterbacks in the Power Four. While Mendoza seemingly hasn’t missed a beat in the playoffs, his time throwing has Elongated to 3.05 seconds in three games against defensive coordinators determined to muddy Mendoza’s results. The difference may be less than half a second, but over the course of the 2025 season, this would put Mendoza among the top football players in college football.
Indiana fans could rightfully argue that at least this extra time with ball in hand is working for Mendoza. It’s hard to argue with a playoff passer rating of 140.9 and an overall PFF grade of 93.4! But all the while, the weak links in Mendoza’s offensive line are coming under increasing pressure, and I promise you they have yet to face an offensive force of the caliber of both edge defenders the Hurricanes boast.
While this all sounds very intriguing to Miami’s chances, we have to take into account the coach standing on the other sideline. Cignetti is a master of details and always seems to have a plan. Senior transfer tight ends Riley Nowakowski and Holden Staes are well-versed in pass protection, and Cignetti could deploy one or both players on each pass to soften Bain and Mesidor’s offense.
Cignetti will try to find chinks in the armor of his former colleague Corey Hetherman. The Miami defensive coordinator coached under Cignetti in the same role during his first three seasons at James Madison.
While Cignetti’s Hoosiers look a lot scarier than this one James Madison squads, not much has changed in his overall philosophy from that time in the Colonial Athletic Association. Will Hetherman be able to anticipate which weaknesses his former boss wants to exploit?
While MiamiBeck’s overwhelming success, Beck’s ability to limit turnover and Indiana’s slot getting prowess against a potential first-rounder in Keionte Scott are many ways the outcome of this game will be affected, the real turning point of this matchup remains how Indiana deals with the cruelty of Bain and Mesidor.
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