“He really wanted to be the best”: From Yale commit with no Power-4 offers, Mendoza blazed an unconventional path to Heisman finalist
- Josh Pos
- 1h ago
On a cold January day in 2021, Fernando Mendoza and his family toured Yale’s football facilities, taking in a jam-packed slate of activities arranged for the five Mendoza visitors.
Amid the pageantry sat college football’s most coveted prize: the Heisman Trophy. Eighty-four years had passed since Clint Frank won the award in 1937, but Mendoza was awestruck, pausing to pose for a photo beside the bronze stiff-arm.
Little did anyone in the room know it wouldn’t be the last time he stood next to the trophy. The former Yale commit will have an opportunity to recreate the photo on Saturday – this time, in New York City, as a finalist for the Heisman.
“They used it as a marketing prop, but I took it, and it was kind of like more of a funny thing,” Mendoza said. “Like, wow, look how cool it is. I get to hold the Heisman.”
Long before Mendoza became a household name, Yale’s staff got its first impression during that winter visit.
Yale director of recruiting Jake Pelletier remembers when Fernando and the rest of the Mendoza family finally arrived in New Haven. The Mendozas missed the flight Pelletier booked for them and had to take the next flight out of Miami International Airport.
In meetings with the Bulldogs’ coaching staff, Mendoza displayed a maturity that stood out even by Yale’s standards.
“We knew exactly what you were getting with him in terms of his arm talent and stuff,” Pelletier said in an interview with Inside the Hall. “But the way he conducted himself while he was there, it was just like, ‘yeah, we have our home run ball.'”
Fernando committed to Yale in August, but after he received an offer from his first Power-4 school, Cal, Pelletier began to sense what was coming.
“He really wanted to be the best,” he said. “And I think when Cal came along, I think we realized, ‘yeah, there’s a really good chance that we lose this kid.'”
Mendoza signed with Cal two days after parting ways with Yale, but did so the only way he knew how: with class.
At Cal, Mendoza’s trajectory only accelerated. Even in the larger spotlight at the Power 4 level, he earned the trust of teammates and coaches the same way he did on his visits at Yale – with humility and an unshakable belief that his better can get best.
Mendoza’s success at Cal made him one of the most sought-after quarterbacks in the transfer portal and Indiana quickly emerged as the ideal next step.
At Indiana, Mendoza’s talent and leadership aligned perfectly with Curt Cignetti, whose track record of developing quarterbacks made Bloomington the ideal landing spot.
Before the season began, Mendoza scrolled online through a list of the top 10 Heisman contenders. The list didn’t include his name, but it only motivated him.
“I was like, wow, I want to make a goal for myself, and it’d be so special,” Mendoza recalled. “And I prayed about, imagine if I could just make the ceremony, how cool would that be? I’d be able to take that for the rest of my life.”
Mendoza quickly began turning his Heisman dream into reality on the field.
He burst onto the scene in Indiana’s Week 4 63-10 win against then-No. 9 Illinois, but it was his game-winning drive at Iowa the following week that put him on Heisman watchlists.
That drive was the first of three signature Heisman moments, including two late touchdown drives that gave Indiana late leads on the road at No. 2 Oregon and at Penn State.
Mendoza delivered when the Big Ten title was on the line against No. 1 Ohio State, practically sealing the Heisman just two days before voters cast their ballots.
Cignetti called the Heisman vote “a no-brainer” both after the Big Ten championship game and in his virtual Rose Bowl press conference on Zoom the day after.
Each of Indiana’s four captains, who echoed their head coach’s message on Monday, advocated for Mendoza.
“[Fernando Mendoza] is absolutely the best quarterback in the country,” center Pat Coogan said. “He is our rock and the reason we have so much success on Saturdays.
“He’s absolutely the Heisman. I’ll campaign for him myself.”
Mendoza’s emotional postgame interview with FOX’s Jenny Taft perfectly encapsulated who he is: a down-to-earth person who cares more about his team’s success than his own.
“We were never supposed to be in this position, but by the glory to God, the great coaches, the great teammates, we were able to pull this off,” he said with his voice cracking. “Who would have thought the Hoosiers would be here, but now the Hoosiers are flippin’ champs!”
The Hoosiers wouldn’t be the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff and playing in the Rose Bowl if it weren’t for Mendoza. Yet, he believes the opposite.
“I’m shining now, but only because there are so many stars around me,” he said. “Whether it’s my teammates, my coaches, my family, the support staff, I’m able to shine now in this light.”
Though still relatively new to the community, Mendoza recognizes how vital his appearance in New York is to Indiana University and Bloomington.
“It means so much to so many people,” he said. “I think it’s such a great kind of pat on the back for everybody over here in the city of Bloomington with all the support that they’ve given myself.”
Through text messages and reflections with other staff members on what might have been at Yale, Pelletier isn’t surprised that, all these years later, Mendoza has become the favorite to win the Heisman.
“Because it was Yale, no,” Pelletier said. “But seeing it now, it doesn’t surprise me at all. He was such a hardworking kid and an awesome teammate in high school.”
When the Mendoza family gathered at Miami International Airport on Thursday to head to New York to support Fernando, there were no missed flights — just a tight-knit family ready to see its eldest child etch his name into college football immortality.
Except this time, the Heisman Trophy would be his own.
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