Why national title game vs. Miami has extra meaning for Fernando Mendoza

The national championship game will also serve as a homecoming for Fernando Mendoza.

Indiana’s star quarterback grew up less than a mile away from Miami’s campus and attended games there as a child, according to ESPN.

No. 1 Indiana faces No. 10 Miami — which will be playing a home game at Hard Rock Stadium — in the national championship game on Jan. 19.

Mendoza also went to the same high school — Christopher Columbus, an all-boys Catholic school in Miami — that Miami head coach Mario Cristobal attended.

It’s also where Mendoza’s father attended, and he and Cristobal were teammates on the football team.

“We have definitely talked about it,” Alberto Mendoza, Fernando’s younger brother, told ESPN.

“We saw Miami in the playoffs, we’re like, ‘Wow, play Miami in Miami.’ We knew we were going to make it, but just knowing that we might see them, Miami at Miami, is just kind of crazy because everyone from my hometown are Miami fans. It will mean a lot.”

Mendoza did not receive a scholarship offer from Miami coming out of high school.

He started his collegiate career at Cal, playing there for two seasons before transferring to Indiana this year.

“There’s obviously a backstory there,” Cristobal said last year before Miami played the Golden Bears. “I’ve known the Mendoza family. I played with the dad as high school teammates.”

Mendoza emerged as the best quarterback in the country with Indiana, winning the Heisman Trophy.

Undefeated Indiana has steamrolled opponents on the way to the national championship game, enjoying one of college football’s most dramatic turnarounds under head coach Curt Cignetti, who is in his second season in charge.

Mendoza completed 17 of 20 passes for 177 yards and five touchdowns in Indiana’s 56-22 win over Oregon in the semifinal on Friday.

“I thought he was incredible,” Cignetti said of Mendoza. “He was great. I also thought our receivers made some great contested catches. He was on top of the game and his performance was a huge difference in this football game.”