𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

First off, let’s pull back and try to fathom that we’re mulling how Miami will beat Indiana, in football, in a National Championship Game, not … well, when would they have played each other? The Music City Bowl?

But that’s the question, and this seems to come down to three things:

1. Miami continuing to win the line of scrimmage, which it has during this Playoff run. That’s what Mario Cristobal, the Nick Saban acolyte, has built the Hurricanes around. If they’re getting pushed around early, then pretty much forget it, Indiana’s going to win and win going away.
2. The turnover battle, and not just Carson Beck being more careful with the ball, but when the ball’s on the ground — if it’s ever on the ground — Miami getting to it. An FBS assistant pointed that out to me this week, that Indiana seems to be the loose-ball team, to use a basketball term. That’s not luck. That’s about intangibles.
3. Mark Fletcher and Malachi Toney getting extra yards, whether it’s to get to the marker or for a breakaway play. That’s another Cristobal throwback way he has built this team: explosive plays via runs and YAC.

Miami, the more traditional power (though not that far back), needs to win this game by turning it into a more traditional game. If this is an old-school, slobber-knocker game, the Hurricanes have a shot.