MIAMI GARDENS — Indiana football leaned on a Miami native to close out a 27-21 win over Miami in the CFP title game on Monday night.
Not that one.
Oh, not that other one either.
This was Jamari Sharpe’s moment to shine during a week where his teammates Fernando Mendoza and D’Angelo Ponds received the lion’s share of attention with them coming back home to face off against the No. 10 Hurricanes (13-3).
Sharpe was among that group as well as a Northwestern High School alum, who played his prep career 10 minutes south of Hard Rock Stadium and was actually teammates with Ponds at Lake Stevens Middle School.
The redshirt junior made history by picking off Miami quarterback Carson Beck with less than a minute to go on a deep pass inside IU’s 15-yard line intended for Keelan Marion. Sharpe’s interception — his first of the season and second of his career — kicked off a raucous celebration with at least half of the 67,227 fans in attendance wearing crimson and cream.
He was mobbed by much of the team after running towards the sideline while welcoming the applause with his arms extended out to his side.
“They didn’t recruit me at all,” Sharpe said with a smile. “I showed them tonight why they should have recruited me. I still love my hometown, but it’s an amazing feeling.”
Indiana football’s Jamari Sharpe rewarded with ring
Indiana had nine holdovers from the Tom Allen-era start in the CFP title game. Seven of them stayed all the way through without ever hitting the portal.
Sharpe was part of the later group.
He signed with the school to play for Allen as a former three-star corner out of the Sunshine State in the 2022 signing class, but put his faith in coach Curt Cignetti to develop him into the player he is today. Rod Ojong, who Cignetti hired to be his cornerbacks coach from UNC at Charlotte, immediately saw Sharpe’s potential.
“It’s just a blessing to see how far that kid has come,” Ojong said in the locker room after the game. “When we got here, we knew he had all the ability in the world. We knew we had to work with him, and it was going to process. The kid stuck with it and instead of going the easy way and jumping in the portal, he believed in our plan.”
That plan involved having Sharpe back up Ponds and former IU cornerback Jamier Johnson for much of the 2024 season. He started the team’s final two games with Johnson banged up but only played double-digit snaps in six games.
Indiana signed a pair of starting corners (Ryland Gandy and Amariyun Knighten) out of the transfer portal, but Sharpe still held his ground.
“I know my first couple of years here we weren’t all that, but we got a new coach, he turned everything around,” Sharpe said. “I believed in him, I trusted him and stayed.”
Under Ojong’s tutelage, he blossomed into a full-time starter for an Indiana secondary that allowed less than 200 yards per game this season and helped force the third-most turnovers in the FBS.
“We the best tandem in the nation, as you can see,” Sharpe said of Ponds. “We both came out here and made plays. Been my guy since middle school, we work hard every day. It showed tonight.”
Jamari Sharpe came through when Indiana football needed him the most in CFP title game
There’s a running joke on Indiana’s defense this season about the number of passes Sharpe drops in practice. His teammate Amare Ferrell thought back to those moments as Beck launched his final pass attempt with the game hanging in the balance.
“We always get on Sharpe (about his drops),” Ferrell said.
Despite Sharpe’s less than stellar track record in practice, there wasn’t any doubt on IU’s sideline about who would come up with the ball.
“Jamari doesn’t have the best hands, but he has good hands when you need him to,” Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines said.
The interception was exactly what Haines envisioned when he quickly formulated a strategy for Miami’s final two-minute drive.
“I wanted to make him earn it,” Haines said of Beck. “I didn’t want to be aggressive; I didn’t want to give him a one-on-one throw. I was going to make him earn his way down the field.”
Haines even stuck to the plan after Mario Landino was called for a questionable roughing the passer call that helped Miami quickly get to midfield.
“They didn’t call any of the penalties throughout the entire game,” Haines said as an aside. “I don’t know why they chose to call that one. If you are going to let them tackle us, then let us hit the f***ing quarterback. They called that one, give them a brand new set of downs. They still weren’t going to score, play good coverage at some point, No. 11 is going to make a mistake.”
That mistake came with Sharpe playing back deep in a Cover 2 look. His job was to funnel Marion inside, but he made a play at the top of the route with Ferrell back deep.
“Really good technique by Jamari Sharpe, jam, funnel, carry, sink,” Haines said. “I thought it was a poor decision, poor throw.”
Sharpe was just a little better, but that wasn’t new information for IU’s defensive mastermind.
“Like he holds himself to a high standard, you can coach him hard,” Haines said. “He keeps improving, he’s improving every single week all the way until Week 16 when he closed the game for us.”
Ojong paused when asked about his reaction to Sharpe coming up with the interception that brought a national title home to Bloomington.
“Of all people” Ojong said. “That was the one, I had a few tears fall out of my eye.”
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana football’s forgotten Miami native crushes Hurricanes’ title dreams
Reporting by Michael Niziolek, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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