Future U.S. Senator Fernando Mendoza is speaking. Directly to you.
The Indiana quarterback is as adept at speaking into a TV camera as he is finding open receivers. Elite camera awareness, you might say. His gaze does not waver. His message is delivered like one of his slant passes, on time and on target, with corporate pitchman-caliber hand gestures for emphasis.
If you remember the Nick Saban sideline interviews during his coaching days, he would always answer into the camera. Mendoza, all of 22 years old, does the same thing.
“Eye contact is something that my mom has instilled in me from a young age and a lot of coaches have instilled in me from a young age,” Mendoza says. “People have always told me you listen with your eyes, not your ears. Looking someone in the eye not only shows importance, but it shows that you care about their time and care about being there.”
Future Senator Mendoza cares. Seemingly about everything. He is devout in faith, devoted to his family and committed to football. He describes virtually everyone in his orbit—particularly teammates, coaches and Indiana fans—in glowing terms. He is relentlessly polite and positive.
His earnestness seems to come with no off switch. It completes what could be described as the total package.
“Fernando never ceases to amaze me,” says Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, who is in his first year coaching the California transfer. “He's so deep. He's so intelligent. He's such a good and caring, giving person. He's an A-plus-plus every single interview, and he'll be a huge success in anything he decides to do one day when football ends. I mean he's just a special, unique person and it's all real.”
The American
The apple-cheeked oldest son of a family descended from Cuban immigrants, Mendoza embodies the American dream. He’s from a family of workers. His father, also named Fernando, is the pediatric emergency director at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. His mother, Elsa, a former tennis player at the University of Miami, earned two degrees from the school and serves as the family inspiration while battling multiple sclerosis.
Future Senator Mendoza’s background has motivated him—and his younger brother, Alberto, the second-string quarterback for the Hoosiers—to use his football platform for charitable causes. He organized a relief service trip in which he and his grandfather, Alberto Espino, went to Cuba to give back to their native community. To raise funds for MS treatment and research, Fernando had a “Mendoza Burrito” fundraiser campaign at a Berkeley, Calif., restaurant last year. That has evolved into a “Mendoza Bros. Cubano” burger fundraiser at BuffaLouie’s in Bloomington.
Hewing to the family’s hard-work ethos, Fernando graduated from Cal’s prestigious business school during the summer in less than three years. He paid for the final classes himself to earn the degree, because you don’t grow up in the Mendoza household without valuing education and finishing what you start.
Family togetherness helped guide Fernando through the transfer portal to Indiana. He had plenty of offers after starting 19 games at Cal, throwing for more than 4,700 yards and 30 touchdowns. He chose the Hoosiers in part because Alberto was there, after signing with Cignetti at James Madison and then following him to Indiana.
“Playing with my brother in college football is something that, when I'm 60 years old, I'm able to look on and take great fulfillment in,” Fernando says. “Alberto and I play football not for ourselves, not for fulfillment and satisfaction of ourselves—we have a lot of whys why we do it for. One of the whys is our mom. Another why is our entire family. Our entire family comes from a Cuban background. All of our grandparents were born and raised in Cuba, and that's something we always take deeply to heart.”
The alchemy at Indiana has been remarkable. Mendoza arrived as a proven performer at a place that offered immediate playing time, with a head coach who got great results out of Kurtis Rourke during a playoff run last year. But the win-win result has perhaps exceeded everyone’s expectations. The No. 2-ranked Hoosiers are 11–0 for the first time in school history, and Fernando is widely considered one of the top two candidates for the Heisman Trophy, alongside Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin. He might be the first quarterback taken in the NFL draft in the spring.
The shocking thing is that it looked for a long time like Fernando’s college career might be spent in football obscurity. Despite playing in the football hotbed of South Florida and possessing prototype quarterback size (now 6’ 5”, 225 pounds), there was no major-college market for Mendoza through his junior year at Miami Columbus High School.
He grew up idolizing Tom Brady. He knew Brady’s delayed route to stardom, being the 199th player drafted in 2000. But at least Brady’s career was launched at a power-conference program, Michigan. Fernando couldn't find a launching pad anywhere.
“I was crying on my bed, like, ‘Wow, I really want to play college football,’” Mendoza recalls. “I think I'm better than a lot of these kids, but I'm getting no offers.”
Elsa Mendoza, who taught Fernando how to throw a football, was the calming voice telling him the offers would come. She was sure. He was less so.
Heading into the summer of 2021, the No. 134 nationally-ranked quarterback in the class of ’22 finally got some interest: Penn, Yale and Lehigh offered scholarships. Great schools, but not high-level football programs. More than 130 FBS programs remained unconvinced.
Mendoza attended camp at hometown Miami, where Mario Cristobal was the new coach—a high school teammate of Fernando’s dad. He attended camp at LSU. Still, no power-conference scholarship offers were forthcoming.
“I'm out here, just grateful for a D-I FCS offer,” Fernando says. Before the start of his senior season, he committed to Yale, an achievatron kid choosing an achievatron school.
But he still yearned to play at the highest level of college ball, and during the winter, Cal stepped up. Mendoza took a visit there in late January, de-committed from Yale and cast his lot with the Golden Bears in the late signing period.
“When I got in first at Cal, [Elsa] was like, ‘You're going to do great. You're going to help turn that program around,’” Fernando recalls. “I'm like, I don't even know. I'm on the sideline here. I don't even know if I can play. These guys are moving so fast.”
Mendoza never saw the field during his redshirt first season at Cal, then began forcing his way up the depth chart. He got a cameo in the 2023 season opener against North Texas, throwing one pass and running the ball once. He sat for five more games before getting his first start, and he never relinquished the starting job thereafter.
Now, on a better team, Future Senator Mendoza has become a national sensation. He’s second to Sayin in the country in pass efficiency rating at 184.83, and his 30 touchdown passes lead the nation. His command of the offense, quick reads and accuracy have led to a 73% completion rate.
But even when things break down or don’t go as planned, Mendoza has displayed the special sauce of a great quarterback. His poise and resilience have rendered a few Heisman moments.
In three close Big Ten road games, Mendoza threw a fourth-quarter interception—against Iowa, Oregon and Penn State. In each of those cases, the Hoosiers lost a lead—falling behind the Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions, and being tied by the Ducks. And in each of those cases. he bounced back to throw a touchdown pass that put the Hoosiers ahead for good.
Mendoza was at his very best in leading the memorable, 80-yard touchdown drive to beat Penn State. After being sacked on first down, he completed five passes to all parts of the field—including the last one, which looked like it might land in the stands until Omar Cooper Jr. soared for the Catch of the Year.
“We weren't getting much done on offense,” Cignetti says. “The previous few drives, he had been hit quite a bit. He got sacked on first down, second and 17, running clock—a minute 30 [left] our own 13, no timeouts, right? Wasn't looking real great at that point. And everybody responded and it always does start with the quarterback. He stuck a few balls in the seam, made some throws, our guys made some catches and it all culminated in the last play.”
It’s all culminating now in a drive toward Big Ten and national championships. Indiana only must defeat last-place Purdue Nov. 29 to play in the conference title game, which would be a first in the school’s downtrodden football history. Finishing either 13–0 or 12–1 would not only lock up a playoff bid, but assuredly a first-round bye as well.
Tucked in between the Big Ten title game and the start of the playoff is the Heisman ceremony. It’s hard to find a quarterback who has come from further off radar to win the most coveted individual trophy in sports.
Baker Mayfield, 2017 winner, was a walk-on at Texas Tech to start his college career, but he was more highly rated than Mendoza’s No. 134 status coming out of high school. Other eventual Heisman winners like Sam Bradford and Troy Smith were not blue-chip recruits, but they were highly regarded enough to start and end their careers at powerhouses Oklahoma and Ohio State, respectively.
Fernando Mendoza, Heisman winner? That would have been too great an improbability to even consider prior to this season—and certainly prior to college.
“I didn't have a young crystal ball,” Fernando says. “I wasn't this young prodigy who was a five-star coming out of high school or the next big thing. But I would say I'm just so grateful to be in the position that I am right now.”
The Senate campaign can wait. Fernando Mendoza—communicator extraordinaire, man of faith, reliable teammate, charity worker, college graduate, total package—has a lot more football left in him.
