MIAMI — Fernando Mendoza’s ascension to Heisman Trophy winner and likely No. 1 pick in the draft had a few speed bumps along the way.
He didn’t simply arrive at Indiana last spring as this elite signal-caller.
“I’ll be honest, the spring wasn’t pretty at times,” Hoosiers quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer told The Post ahead of Monday night’s national championship game against Miami at Hard Rock Stadium. “It was not knowing where to go with the ball, taking bad sacks, drops being not what they needed to be.”
A major issue was that Mendoza had happy feet. He took off too soon, partly the result of being sacked so frequently — 41 times in 2024 — at his previous school, Cal.
“He would get discouraged because he’s like, I want to be great,” Whitmer said.
His improvement was methodical, through the spring and summer. In his first game, at home against Old Dominion, he failed to produce a touchdown and barely completed 50 percent of his passes.
Then, came Sept. 20, against Illinois, which was ranked ninth in the nation at the time. Mendoza was brilliant that day in a romp: 21-for-23 passing for 267 yards and five touchdowns. He really never turned back en route to becoming the first Indiana player to win the Heisman.
“His preparation is at a whole other level,” Whitmer, who worked in the NFL the previous four seasons with the Chargers and Falcons, said. “He just loves football. It’s one of the top things I look for when it comes to quarterbacks and when you evaluate them is do they love football, because you have to have at that position. You can’t just show up and play. He enjoys it, what he does for fun in his free time is football.”
At the start of preparations for a game, Whitmer will provide a typed-out detailed tip sheet of the game plan that includes everything to do for every play, from his top reads and how the defense may counter, to his footwork and where his eyes should be. A day later, he can regurgitate everything on there, and then implement it when the lights are on.
“That’s how [Chargers quarterback Justin] Herbert would do it,” Whitmer said. “A lot of guys can have that on the mental side, but can they execute on the field? He can do both.”
It has been an incredible year for Mendoza, who went from anonymity to the biggest star in the sport. Monday night, he can write the final chapter to this incredible story by winning it all in his hometown of Miami in the stadium he went to as a kid.
“I would say that it’s been such a special journey. Can’t thank God enough and can’t thank my teammates enough,” Mendoza said. “It’s been such a great year, not only on the field but also off the field with those guys and in the meeting rooms. Special is the word to describe it.”
