Overlooked and underrated for a very long time, Fernando Mendoza has now silenced all the critics. After a sensational year, Mendoza has helped the Indiana Hoosiers hoist their first College Football Playoff National Championship in school history. After the game, the star quarterback delivered a clear message for the Miami Hurricanes, the team he grew up rooting for.
Mendoza and the Hoosiers faced their biggest competition of the year against the Hurricanes in the National Championship Game. Nobody said it would be easy, and Indiana wouldnāt have wanted it any other way. At the end of the day, the Hoosiers are the best program in the NCAA, and Mendoza could only reminisce about the journey he went through to get here.
āShoutout to Miami defense. It was going to be a physical game, we had to play physical, and we did. We elevated it. This victory is so sweet for everybody, for the entire Hoosiers nation, but itās also super sweet for myself,ā Mendoza said after the game. āI was a two-star coming out of high school, I got declined a walk-on offer to the University of Miami. Full circle moment here, playing in Miami.ā
Mendozaās stats
In the biggest game of the year, Mendoza didnāt put up the outstanding numbers he had previously yielded in the Rose Bowl and Peach Bowl against Alabama and Oregon, respectively.
Fernando Mendoza at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Still, Mendoza did everything Curt Cignetti and his team askedāand more. As the game to a close, Mendoza finished the night 16/27 for 186 passing yards, and a rushing touchdown on a fourth-down play that proved the difference.
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As a result, Mendoza put the cherry on top on a college football season for the ages. The California transfer is now on track to join a select group of players to be Heisman trophy winners, national champions, and become the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.
Perfect ending for Mendoza and Indiana
They say reality often outperforms fiction, and Indiana is a testament to that. Who wouldāve guessed the Cinderella story in Bloomington would lead to a national title in less than two years? An overlooked kid out of Miami, FL took the school that once registered the most losses in college football history and placed it at the top of the hill.
As if it wasnāt a perfect enough ending, Mendoza did it in front of his family and friends, alongside his younger brother, in the city that saw him growāand against the school that once shut the door in his face. Now, Mendoza and the Hoosiers are hoisting the most coveted trophy in the Hurricanesā backyard.
