Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza is now starting to shift his mindset toward the NFL, which really was his goal when he transferred to Indiana.
Mendoza and the Hoosiers just happened to have a perfect season together that ended with an improbable national championship.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Mendoza said Monday night before receiving the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top college quarterback. “I think now it’s finally settled in, and the dust has started to settle. The national championship, and then boom, next thing you know you’re on a new chapter.”
The latest award ceremony for Mendoza, the transfer from Cal who grew up a few miles from Miami (Fla.)‘s campus, came exactly four weeks after Indiana won its first national championship 27-21 over the Hurricanes in their home stadium. It was also a week before the NFL combine, and just over two months from the opening night of the draft on April 23, when Mendoza very well could be the No. 1 overall pick by the Las Vegas Raiders and their new coach.
“I’d be blessed and honored to play for the Raiders, or I’d be blessed to play for any team,” he said. “Any NFL team that drafts me, I’d be ecstatic. I know at the draft, I’ll probably shed a tear or two just because it’s such a full-circle moment for me. … The goal of transferring to Indiana was to make the NFL. It wasn’t to be a great college player. It was to try to develop into being an NFL quarterback one day.”
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Mendoza threw for 3,535 yards and an FBS-leading 41 touchdowns while completing 273 of 379 passes (72%) with only six interceptions. He had 4,712 yards passing and 30 touchdowns in 20 games over two seasons at Cal, which gave him a late scholarship offer after he had been prepared out of high school to “put myself into student debt” to play football at Yale — since no athletic scholarships are offered in the Ivy League — because he loved the game so much.
Now the 22-year-old QB is preparing to move on to the highest level, knowing that college success won’t automatically translate to the pros.
“College is great, but that part’s behind me,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been satisfied with my college career. However, now I’m on to the NFL career. It requires a new skill set. It’s a grown man’s league.”
When Mendoza accepted the Heisman Trophy in December, his intention was to keep the trophy in Bloomington forever, where he felt it belonged.
It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later, when the Heisman Trophy was in a case on the Indiana campus, that he realized he also got one of his own to keep.
“Then I took it back home, and so it’s in my living room, which is great,” he said. “Think about that decoration.”
He even took his trophy to St. Paul Catholic Center in Bloomington, where he regularly attended Mass, to share with the church leaders around Christmas. He also hopes to take the trophy to his high school in Miami.
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The ceremony for the Davey O’Brien Award, named for the former TCU quarterback and 1938 Heisman winner, is held only a few miles from the TCU campus. That is also where the quarterback who likely will replace Mendoza was a starter the past three seasons.
Josh Hoover threw for 9,629 yards and 71 touchdowns over 36 games for the Horned Frogs before leaving in the portal for Indiana even before the national championship game.
Mendoza said he hadn’t had the opportunity to speak with Hoover, and said any advice he would have for his successor would be given in person.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
