Alberto Mendoza’s path to Georgia Tech has one big theme running through it: he was never going to stay stuck behind his brother forever.
With Fernando Mendoza waiting on his NFL future, Alberto is the one getting his shot now. The younger Mendoza will open the season as Georgia Tech’s starting quarterback after transferring from Indiana, where he spent last season backing up Fernando during a dream run for the family and the Hoosiers. A day after the national championship game, he made the move to the ACC and stepped into the job left open by Haynes King.
Indiana could have made the story even sweeter by handing the offense to Alberto after Fernando’s season in Bloomington. But that was never the direction Curt Cignetti took.
By the time Alberto entered the transfer portal on Jan. 20, Indiana had already lined up its quarterback for 2026 in TCU’s Josh Hoover.
That decision fits the way Cignetti had handled the position before. His first two quarterbacks at Indiana both arrived with multiple years of starting experience, with Kurtis Rourke coming from Ohio and Fernando Mendoza from California. That formula paid off, and instead of gambling on Alberto - who had no college starting experience and came in as a three-star recruit ranked 137th in his class - Cignetti stayed with what had worked.
Georgia Tech gave Mendoza the opening Indiana did not. He beat out redshirt freshman Grady Adamson and now takes over for King, who finished 10th in Heisman Trophy voting last season.
Mendoza’s recruiting profile was modest, but not unusual for the family. He was ranked 137th among quarterbacks in the 2024 class by 247 Sports, while Fernando was a three-star quarterback ranked 134th at his position. Alberto committed to Indiana a year before his brother joined him in Bloomington, and that early offer helped set up the path that eventually led to Indiana’s dream season.
On the field, Alberto’s college résumé is still short, but it gave Georgia Tech enough to believe. He appeared only in mop-up duty last season, throwing 24 passes for Indiana.
Even in that limited work, he was efficient, tossing five touchdown passes on those 24 attempts. Now he gets the first real chance of his career at this level.
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