MIAMI — Classes at Christopher Columbus High School have been canceled next Tuesday.
There wouldn’t be much learning going on that day. No matter what happens Monday night in the College Football Playoff final between No. 1 Indiana (14-0) and No. 10 Miami (13-2) at Hard Rock Stadium in nearby Miami Gardens, the staff and students at Columbus will be busily celebrating the sight of alumni hoisting the national championship trophy.
The only question: Will it be Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who this season became the first Heisman Trophy winner in program history for the Hoosiers, or Hurricanes fourth-year head coach Mario Cristobal?
“The kids here, that’s all they’re talking about this week,” said Herb Baker, the school’s longtime athletic trainer known simply as “Brother Herb” to many in South Florida.
Columbus, a Catholic all-boys school that sits about five miles from the University of Miami campus in Coral Gables and about 25 miles from Hard Rock Stadium — where both the Hurricanes and the NFL’s Miami Dolphins play their home games — is a house divided right now.
There are Miami fans. There are Mendoza fans.
The optimist would say the school can’t lose. The pessimist would say the school can’t win.
“It’s a no-lose situation,” said Columbus football coach Dave Dunn — who immediately started wondering when the College Football Playoff’s 12-team bracket came out a month ago if the stars would align for an Indiana-Miami final. “You’re really kind of celebrating the success of all of our alums. And to do it on this type of stage is just amazing.”
The list of Columbus grads in this game is seven deep. Indiana has the Heisman winner at quarterback and his brother, Alberto Mendoza, as the backup. Miami has Cristobal, associate head coach Alex Mirabal, defensive back Bryce Fitzgerald, offensive lineman Ryan Rodriguez and backup quarterback Vinny Gonzalez.
The kids, the families, they all know each other.
Fernando Mendoza, then at California, played against Miami last year in an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup that turned into a wild comeback win for the Hurricanes. Alberto Mendoza quarterbacked Columbus to a state title in 2023; the final touchdown pass he threw in that game was to Fitzgerald. Fernando and Alberto Mendoza’s father, also named Fernando, was a teammate of Cristobal and Mirabal at Columbus in the late 1980s.
If all that wasn’t enough, the Mendoza family home is also less than a mile from the Miami campus — and Elsa Mendoza, the mother of the Indiana quarterbacks, played tennis for the Hurricanes in her college years.
Ties that bind, indeed.
“It’s always special when you get to play with or against guys that you know or knew growing up, competed against, played on the same teams with,” said Cristobal, whose sons attend Columbus and whose nephew is on the football coaching staff for the Explorers.
“At the end of the day, your preparation doesn’t change. Your intensity is always driven up the closer and closer you get to game time and as you go deeper into the season. We all know the brand of football played down here in South Florida is special.”
Columbus sits in the area of Miami known as Westchester, and the heavily Cuban-American suburb clearly has divided loyalties right now.
Along the fence that separates the school from SW 87th Avenue is a long blue banner, reading “Fernando Mendoza Class of 2022 He15man Winner” — the “15” replacing two letters in “Heisman” is a nod to his Indiana jersey number, and yes, the digits are in Hoosiers crimson.
“I think playing a national championship would get anybody fired up and definitely stir up some emotions,” Fernando Mendoza said. “However for myself, I believe it’s going to be a great game. The Hurricanes are a fantastic team, led by a great coach in Coach Cristobal.”
Around the corner from the high school: a famous hot dog restaurant called Arbetter’s. There are some photos inside of former Hurricanes star linebacker Ray Lewis and former university president Donna Shalala, among others. There’s also a “Mendoza Dog” for sale in a nod to the Heisman winner, a quarter-pound grilled sausage with sauerkraut, spicy brown mustard and potato sticks.
Whichever way the title game goes, some at Columbus are certain to be thrilled.
“I’m going through it myself,” Baker said. “I like Mendoza, but you know, I’m a diehard Miami fan. So I’m conflicted, but I made up my mind. I’m going to root for Miami. The conflict was there, but I resolved that I’m a local guy, so I’ve got to root for my team.”