Fernando Mendoza won the 2025 Heisman Trophy on Saturday night ahead of Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia, Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love and Ohio State’s Julian Sayin.
Mendoza has led Indiana to a 13-0 record, the school’s first Big Ten title since 1967 and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. Here are five of the plays that made him the school’s first Heisman winner.
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13-yard TD to Omar Cooper Jr. against Indiana State
Look, we know that games against FCS teams are generally viewed as stat-padding opportunities for players at top schools. But what Mendoza did against Indiana State over the first and second quarters in Week 3 was incredibly impressive
This 13-yard throw to Omar Cooper Jr. was one of four touchdown passes Cooper caught in the 73-0 win over the Sycamores.
While Cooper was open all day — he had 10 catches for 207 yards and four touchdowns — Mendoza threw five times as many touchdowns as he did incompletions. Mendoza was 19-of-20 passing for 270 yards and five scores in the first half.
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The game was so out of hand at halftime that Mendoza sat out the entire second half. His younger brother Alberto took over and threw a 58-yard score to Cooper as the Mendozas combined to throw seven touchdown passes in the rout.
11-yard TD pass to EJ Williams in blowout win over Illinois
It was hard to pick just one play from the Hoosiers’ dominant win over Illinois in Week 4. We went with a second-quarter toss to E.J. Williams, but you can pick any score from the highlight clip below.
Just like he did against Indiana State the week before, Mendoza again threw more touchdowns than incompletions. Indiana beat Illinois 63-10 despite being ranked No. 19 at the time of the game while the Illini was No. 9. Mendoza was 21-of-23 passing for 267 yards and five touchdowns.
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Go-ahead TD pass against Iowa
The Hoosiers didn’t play in many close games during the 2025 season. But when they did, Mendoza came up big. With Indiana’s Week 5 game against Iowa tied 13-13 with less than two minutes to go, Mendoza hit Elijah Sarratt for a 49-yard TD that put the Hoosiers up by seven.
The game wouldn’t be remembered for that play, however. After Iowa turned the ball over on downs with 16 seconds to go, Indiana still needed to run out the clock as the Hawkeyes had timeouts left. With just seconds remaining when the ball was snapped on fourth down, Mendoza sprinted toward his own end zone for a game-ending safety to ensure that Indiana would win 20-15. After the game, Mendoza apologized for the safety affecting the point spread, but the Hoosiers closed as 8.5-point favorites.
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Game-winning TD pass to Omar Cooper Jr. vs. Penn State
The drive Mendoza led to beat Penn State and keep Indiana’s undefeated season alive made him the frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy.
As Indiana trailed 24-20 with less than two minutes to go, the Hoosiers got the ball back at their own 20-yard line. On the first play of the drive, Mendoza took a sack for a 7-yard loss.
He immediately recovered. He found Omar Cooper Jr. for a 22-yard gain and a first down and the Hoosiers were soon inside the Penn State 30-yard line after a 29-yard catch by Riley Nowakowski. On the very next play, Charlie Becker made a fantastic catch for 17 more yards.
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Three plays later, Mendoza found Cooper in the back of the end zone for one of the plays of the year. Mendoza put the ball where only Cooper could catch it and the wide receiver made an incredible catch while also getting his foot down in bounds with 36 seconds to go.
Fourth-quarter pass to Charlie Becker vs. Ohio State
Mendoza’s stat line from the Hoosiers’ Big Ten title game win over Ohio State wasn’t close to being one of his best of the season. But he consistently made big throws when he needed to after a first-quarter interception. And few were bigger than when he found Charlie Becker late in the fourth quarter.
On third down with 2:36 to go, Mendoza had Becker in single coverage and placed the ball perfectly for a 33-yard gain and a first down. An incomplete pass in that situation would have given the Buckeyes the ball back with plenty of time for a game-tying field goal or even a go-ahead touchdown. Instead, with Ohio State down to just one timeout, the completion ran the clock down to the two-minute warning. By the time Ohio State got the ball back, there were just 18 seconds left as Indiana easily held on for a 13-10 victory.
