Miami will be the visitors in every meaning of the word when it faces Indiana in Monday night’s College Football Playoff national title game.
The top-seeded Hoosiers are 8.5-point favorites over the No. 10 Hurricanes despite the game being played in Miami’s home stadium at Miami Gardens, Fla., and the Hurricanes will be placed on the visiting sideline and wearing white uniforms.
In other words, not the usual “home” environment at the stadium in which Miami is 13-1 over the past two seasons.
“I’m sure some guys might get confused and start running to the other sideline mid-game,” Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck said, laughing. “But at the end of the day, once you step on the lines, between the field, it’s the same size end zone, same 100 yards, and it’s going to come down to the execution.”
Hurricanes star running back Mark Fletcher Jr. can feel the oddness of standing on the opposite sideline.
“I know that’s probably going to feel a little weird,” Fletcher said. “But just spot the ball. We play on that grass.”
As for being home underdogs, standout defensive end Akheem Mesidor says to bring it on.
“I’ve been an underdog my whole life, so being an underdog in this last game — being an underdog in every game we played in the playoffs — really doesn’t mean anything to me,” Mesidor said. “It might fuel me a little bit, but at the end of the day, I just want to play football and show that we are the best team in the nation.”
Star defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. said the general sentiment that Miami faces long odds is providing big-time fuel.
“Motivated by being an underdog is a lot,” said Bain, the Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year. “I feel like that’s been our whole journey, the whole story of the whole playoffs. We like it. We don’t want nobody to believe in us. The people that believe in us is just the program, and that’s all we need.
“Everybody in that room putting on pads is helping us try to get to our better goal and that’s all we need. It’s going to be a little different not having the same sideline and things like that, but no matter where we at, we going to get the job done.”
Miami reached the final with wins over No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 6 Ole Miss. The Hurricanes are seeking their sixth national crown, last won in the 2001 season.
Indiana, which received a first-round bye, has walloped No. 9 Alabama and No. 5 Oregon by a combined 94-25 in its first two playoff games. The Hoosiers are looking for their first national title.
–Field Level Media
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