Indiana defeated Big Ten rival Iowa 20-15 Saturday to remain undefeated and jump into the top ten in the national rankings in what was an overall thrilling weekend of college football. In celebrating what his coach called a “gut check” win, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza issued a tongue-in-cheek apology to bettors for how the game ended.
run backwards all the way through the end zone for a safety
Iowa advanced into Indiana territory in a final-minute drive, but fell short, turning it over on downs. All Indiana needed to do was kneel out the clock, which they did, but Iowa used all of its timeouts to delay the inevitable or hope for a long-shot mistake by its opponent. On 4th down, with three seconds left and up by seven, rather than punting it back to Iowa and risk something crazy happening, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti instructed Mendoza to just run backwards all the way through the end zone for a safety. While it would give Iowa two points, it would also run the clock out to end the game.
And Mendoza did just that. The thing was, the clock hit zero just after he crossed the 20-yard line, so he could have just slid down right there and kept the score at 20-13.
“Coach said, ‘Hey, take a safety, run out of the end zone,’” Mendoza said afterward. “When I got to the 2, I saw all zeros on the clock, but I kept going.”
Mendoza knew – at least after the game – that going from a seven-point winning margin to five points hurt some bettors. He acknowledged it, saying: “I know I really cooked people’s spreads. My apologies out to them.”
The closing line was Indiana -8.5, so the safety wouldn’t have affected anyone who had that spread, but there were likely plenty of bettors who locked in alternate lines or had teaser bets. Additionally, according to VegasInsider.com, the spread opened at Indiana -3, so between then and close, the number may have spent time in the five to seven range.
