Fernando Mendoza was ranked the No. 3 quarterback in the trainer portal and was being looked at by big-name teams like Georgia, Miami, and Missouri. However, after having their best season in program history, Indiana was the place the young quarterback wanted to be.
Coming off a season in which he threw for 3,004 yards, 16 touchdowns, and two interceptions, Mendoza was looking for a place that would get him to his ultimate goal at the end of his college football career, the NFL.
So, while Mendoza could have gone to a flashier school like Georgia or Miami, which have a longer history of success than Indiana does, instead he chose someplace that was going to help develop him into an NFL-caliber quarterback.
"I still believe I have a ton of things to get better at,” Mendoza said in an interview with the IndyStar. “Indiana was the best place for me to make that jump developmentally.”
It makes sense that Mendoza's end goal to the NFL, what college football player's end goal, isn't that the third-year sophomore has a legitimate chance to make it to the pros one day. Knowing himself and his development, though, Mendoza knew that holding off on heading to the NFL and working on the things he knows need improvement would only benefit him.
Going to the right place, though, is important, and Mendoza knew staying at Cal wasn't going to do that for him, so he entered the transfer portal. When looking for a new program to join, the Miami, FL native wanted to work with. the coaching staff that was going to help improve the things that needed to be worked on, and after watching Indiana's turnaround this season under Curt Cignetti, he knew Bloomington was going to be the best fit for him.
In 2024, Mendoza played his first full season as the starter for Cal and put up the numbers above, which was what made him such a desirable quarterback in the transfer portal. However, he showed greatness even before this season when he played the final eight games of his redshirt freshman season and threw for 1,708 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions.
The jump from 2023 to 2024 is noticeable just by looking at Mendoza's numbers. Cignetti was able to bring in Kurtis Rourke from the transfer portal last season and turn him into a Heisman candidate who finished ninth in voting, and a big reason for that was his injury during the season.
There is a lot for Indiana fans to be excited about after this season and getting ready for the 2025 season, even though it is quite a ways away, and a lot of that starts with Mendoza.