MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Indiana football often has a television tuned into ESPN’s sports talk shows in its training room inside Memorial Stadium.
But around a week before the College Football Playoff National Championship game, Riley Nowakowski found the remote and turned those TVs off. The No. 1 Hoosiers’ upcoming matchup with the No. 10 University of Miami at 7:30 p.m. Monday was the talk the sixth-year senior tight end didn’t want to hear.
“Everybody can say whatever they want about us,” Nowakowski said during a press conference Jan. 13. “It's not going to help us win a game. We have to tune that stuff out, and I think the whole team is in on that.”
With much of the Hoosiers' preparation for the Hurricanes behind them, players and coaches fielded questions from reporters for an hour at Media Day on Saturday inside the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida.
Saturday marked the second time Indiana has gone through such an event in the CFP — it previously did so Dec. 30 in Los Angeles two days before facing the No. 9 University of Alabama in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.
Although the Granddaddy of Them All was once the Hoosiers’ most significant contest of the season, the Hoosiers thrashed the Crimson Tide by 35 points. The Peach Bowl followed. So did another dominant victory — by 34 points over No. 5 Oregon.
Now, the Hoosiers are playing for their first national championship. Despite Nowakowski making a concerted effort to keep any talk outside the program, it hasn’t been all that difficult. Instead, he said it’s been “a little bit easier” than one would think.
“A lot of these guys come from humble beginnings, so they have that mindset of outside noise doesn't really matter,” Nowakowski said. “A lot of it throughout their life has been negative or positive, so I think we're just kind of used to blocking out whatever is on the outside and focusing on ourselves and our belief that we have internally."
While Nowakowski has turned off TVs and stayed off social media to avoid any distractions, others — like redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza and senior receiver Elijah Sarratt — have deleted the apps off their phones.
When the Hoosiers win, the outside views them as the “best team ever,” Sarratt said. But if the Cream and Crimson squeak by a team with a close victory, they’re “overrated or didn’t play anyone.”
“I don't care what people say,” Sarratt said. “Win, lose or draw, everyone's always going to say something. I'm happy with the guys we have in the locker room, and I like how we keep everything inside the locker room, and we're not too worried about the outside noise.”
Such external chatter hasn’t appeared to impact Mendoza, as he’s compiled numerous Heisman-winning performances throughout his first season at Indiana. Not only have the high-level showings made national headlines, but so have his social media tendencies. He previously explained LinkedIn and YouTube are the only social media apps downloaded on his phone.
Throughout the early portion of the season, Mendoza aimed to remain focused on the task at hand each week to be the best version of himself for his teammates. The Heisman followed, and so too has NFL draft buzz.
But the future isn’t at the forefront of his mind, just like the Heisman wasn’t throughout the season.
“However, I'm trying to focus on the National Championship Game right now,” Mendoza said, “and really give it my all for my teammates.”
Not only has Mendoza given his all, but collectively, the Hoosiers appear to have matched their star quarterback. Such a mentality has led to Indiana winning 15 games this season — four more than the previous school record of 11 set last season.
The Hoosiers earned historic victories inside hostile road environments such as Iowa, Oregon and Penn State. They also defeated Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game before blowout wins over Alabama and Oregon.
But the only one that matters now is the national championship.
“We know we've done some good things in the past, but that doesn't help at all this next game,” Nowakowski said. “None of those wins before are going to help us any bit once that whistle blows. We all recognize that, and we're really brought into earning everything that we want.”
Although the magnitude of Indiana’s games has increased throughout the CFP run, head coach Curt Cignetti has stressed not placing more importance on Monday’s contest.
When a team makes a game bigger than it is, that’s when they are unfocused and zone in on the wrong ideas, Nowakowski said.
“Don't make this game bigger than it is,” Nowakowski said. “It's the same game we been playing our whole lives since we were 5, 6 years old. I think that's the biggest thing is just we're focused, and we know this is a big opportunity, but it's the same opportunity we have gotten the past few Saturdays.”
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
