With just under a week to go, the Indiana Hoosiers are set to play for their first-ever national championship against the Miami Hurricanes on enemy territory at Hard Rock Stadium. Heading into the game, one off-field storyline had quietly taken over the conversation lately. The curious connection of the Mendozas and Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal.

Mario Cristobal and Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza’s dad, Fernando Mendoza Sr., have a cool shared history that goes way back to their high school days in Miami. They were actually teammates on the same high school football team in the 1980s. They both played on the offensive line for Christopher Columbus High School and even won a district championship together. It’s a classic case of a small world!

After high school, their paths diverged a bit. Mario Cristobal stayed in Miami and became a star offensive lineman for the University of Miami, winning two national championships before becoming a successful coach. Fernando Mendoza Sr. went to Brown University, became an accomplished rower, and then pursued a career in medicine, eventually becoming a medical director in pediatric emergency medicine back in Miami.

The connection came roaring back into their lives through their families. Fernando’s mother also went to the University of Miami as a tennis player, and the family lives very close to the campus.

Growing up with these ties, Fernando was actually a huge Hurricanes fan. He even had his heart set on playing for the University of Miami, hoping to continue the legacy that his father and Cristobal started years ago.

However, he was reportedly only offered a walk-on spot by the Hurricanes during his recruitment, which led him to accept a full scholarship offer from the University of California, Berkeley (Cal), before eventually transferring to Indiana and made a name for Mendoza family. Mario Cristobal didn’t fail to show love to the Mendozas when the Miami Hurricanes played the California Golden Bears back in 2024.

“There’s obviously a backstory there,” Cristobal told the reporter at that time. “I’ve known the Mendoza family. I played with the dad as high school teammates.”

Now, just only 14 months, the football world would bring them back together in what most folks would call a ‘full-circle’ moment. After all these years, Mario Cristobal remembers his high-school memories with Fernando Mendoza Sr.

Mario Cristobal shares high-school tales

The Miami head coach shared a few personal stories from his playing days. He talked about lining up with Mendoza’s father in Dade County, and how those memories quickly came back to him. He didn’t pause to think for one bit. Instead, he walked through the moments as if they had just happened before his eyes.

He first talked about a season where their team finished 6–4 but still won the district championship. The title came down to an unusual three-way tiebreaker, where the ball was placed on the 10-yard line and a coin flip decided who kicked. Cristobal remembered the moment clearly, mentioning the locations and how kicker Carlos Huerta made the winning kick.

Cristobal then described their biggest win of that season, a state championship game against Southridge, the top team in Florida at the time:

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“They had a couple Hurricanes on there, Robert Bailey and Herbert James. We punted. Robert Bailey fumbled the punt. He’ll deny it, but he did. We recovered. Huerta kicked the field goal, and we beat the number one team in the state.”

Cristobal soaked in the good old days for a bit. When asked about whether he kept tabs on the Mendoza family.

“I mean not really,” he said. “But when you go to Columbus, that brotherhood is extremely strong. We have crossed paths before. Certainly, he was an excellent football player and has become such a prominent member of the community down here in the medical field. And certainly all the respect in the world for him and his family.”

Come January 19, Mario Cristobal will once again share the stage with the Mendozas at home, in the most expensive national championship of all time. Even the football gods couldn’t write this any better.