BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football’s remarkable run to its first national championship included plays that will live forever in the memories of its fans. From Old Dominion to Miami, the Hoosiers’ journey includes freeze-frame moments destined for their history books.
Which ones were most important? Which ones helped define the course of the greatest season in program history?
Paring this list down to just a half-dozen is a near-impossible task, but we’ll take it on anyway. Here are the six most memorable snaps from IU’s 2025 season.
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D’Angelo Ponds punt block, Illinois
What: D’Angelo Ponds’ punt block, return for a touchdown
When: First quarter vs. Illinois
Result: Indiana leads, 7-0
Final: Indiana 63, Illinois 10
Special teams touchdowns bookended the meaningful minutes of Indiana’s season. This one set a tone the Hoosiers never broke.
IU spent the offseason listening to talking heads describe Illinois as “the next Indiana,” took that personally and took it out on the Illinois. The final score left Bret Bielema beside himself postgame.
It started with this play, Ponds’ speed of foot off the edge matched only by his speed of thought in tracking down the loose ball, and scooping it up for an easy score. His touchdown proved the match to the gasoline-soaked bonfire that became Indiana’s first Big Ten win of the year.
Elijah Sarratt touchdown, at Oregon
What: Elijah Sarratt’s 8-yard touchdown reception
When: Fourth quarter at Oregon
Result: Indiana leads, 27-20
Final: Indiana 30, Oregon 20
This might have been the best collective response of the season.
Leading 20-13 in the fourth quarter in Eugene, Fernando Mendoza threw a pick-six against pressure that ignited Oregon’s crowd, in addition to tying the score. It looked like the obvious moment for the Hoosiers to fold.
Instead, behind Mendoza — who would complete 5 of 7 passes on his next possession — IU drove 75 yards for what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown. The route itself was a simple out, but Mendoza’s timing and Sarratt’s excellence against man coverage would prove a successful formula many times over this season.
This play ultimately won the game that announced Indiana as a national title contender.
Omar Cooper Jr. touchdown, at Penn State
What: Omar Cooper Jr.’s 7-yard touchdown reception
When: Fourth quarter at Penn State
Result: Indiana leads, 27-24
Final: Indiana 27, Penn State 24
The moment of the season up until Miami Gardens. Almost certainly the most memorable catch in program history.
What was remarkable about all three of Mendoza’s fourth-quarter game winners (at Iowa, at Oregon, at Penn State) in the regular season was that they each came against a zero blitz. Each of those snaps, the opponent sent more pass rushers than Indiana could block, and each time, Mendoza burned them.
And what else to say about the catch? We could assemble a team of sports science and performance experts to try and explain how Cooper kept his right toe up just long enough to drag his left, and still not do it justice.
Strength coaches talk about small gains in the offseason, and the inches that separate good from great. They will for a generation or more show Cooper’s catch as an example.
Charlie Becker third-down reception, Ohio State (Big Ten championship)
What: Charlie Becker’s 33-yard, fourth-quarter reception
When: Third-and-6, 2:41 remaining fourth quarter
Result: First down Indiana, at the Ohio State 43
Final: Indiana 13, Ohio State 10
The only non-scoring play on this list, but one important in so many ways.
It was among the best throw-catch combinations in a season full of them. It marked the burgeoning chemistry between Mendoza and his roommate that would make Becker an X-factor throughout the Hoosiers’ playoff run.
And it allowed Indiana to bleed more than two additional minutes out of the game, effectively sealing the Hoosiers’ first outright Big Ten championship since 1945 with one outstanding back-shoulder throw and catch. Given the Buckeyes had just built drives of 70 and 81 yards, that last first down might have made all the difference.
D’Angelo Ponds interception, Oregon (Peach Bowl)
What: D’Angelo Ponds’ 25-yard interception return for a touchdown
When: First snap, first quarter
Result: Indiana leads, 7-0
Final: Indiana 56, Oregon 22
If the Rose Bowl set a program record for most IU football fans in one stadium at a time, Ponds’ interception — and the bedlam it unleashed on Mercedes-Benz Stadium — surely topped the list of loudest single moments in Indiana history.
The ear-splitting roar as Ponds bounced off Dante Moore and into the end zone was a kind of primal, visceral event this program had never seen before. The dome environment helped hold the sound in, but nothing would restrain the tens of thousands of IU fans who trekked down I-75 and turned Atlanta in Bloomington south.
Oregon responded with a touchdown but never stood a chance. It was 42-7 before the Ducks scored again. Mendoza finished with five touchdowns and three incompletions. But the moment fans assembled will remember forever was the first snap of the game, when D’Angelo Ponds made the world explode.
Fernando Mendoza touchdown run, Miami (CFP title game)
What: Fernando Mendoza’s 13-yard touchdown run
When: Fourth-and-5 from the Miami 13
Result: Indiana leads, 24-14
Final: Indiana 27, Miami 21
Pat Coogan called it the greatest play in Indiana football history, and he’s almost certainly right.
It was, in one sense, broken: Indiana gave Mendoza a pass element to read first. But when Miami showed something other than what he expected, Mendoza wasted no time pivoting to his second option, a quarterback draw sprung by blocks from Coogan, Drew Evans and Kaelon Black.
It was with Black’s help Mendoza laid down Wesley Bissainthe, the Miami linebacker who had knocked Mendoza out of a game the previous season when the Hurricanes played Cal. As Bissainthe sprawled to the turf, Mendoza stretched with both hands for the end zone, and immortality.
There are moments in Indiana athletics history as iconic as his, maybe, but none more so. IU fans will remember Fernando Mendoza’s touchdown run in Miami, like this season itself, for the rest of their lives.
Honorable mention: Fernando Mendoza’s third-and-15 hit at Iowa; Elijah Sarratt touchdown catch at Iowa; Charlie Becker touchdown catch vs. Alabama (Rose Bowl); Mikail Kamara’s blocked punt vs. Miami (CFP title game)
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 6 most memorable plays of Indiana football’s national championship season
Reporting by Zach Osterman, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
