From Overlooked to the National Title Game: The Remarkable Rise of Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza
Back in the summer of 2021, at a University of Alabama football camp loaded with top-tier high school talent, Alex Mortensen - then an offensive analyst for the Crimson Tide - noticed something unusual. Amid a sea of elite quarterback prospects, one unfamiliar name jumped out.
Not just for a few throws, but consistently. Smooth mechanics.
Sharp accuracy. Poise beyond his years.
Mortensen couldn’t look away.
The name on the back of the helmet? Mendoza.
“I remember thinking, ‘Is this my imagination? This guy’s really good,’” Mortensen recalled.
But when Mortensen asked Fernando Mendoza, a rising senior from Miami, which schools were recruiting him, the answer was almost hard to believe.
“FIU is talking to me,” Mendoza told him. “And I’m thinking of walking on in the Ivy League.”
Mortensen was stunned. “This is the best quarterback in our camp,” he thought, “and no big school is recruiting him?”
Fast forward to today: Mendoza is not just a starting quarterback - he’s a Heisman Trophy winner and the leader of Indiana’s improbable run to the College Football Playoff National Championship. And in a twist worthy of a movie script, the Hoosiers will face Mendoza’s hometown team, the Miami Hurricanes, for the title.
Slipping Through the Cracks
So how does a quarterback with Mendoza’s talent go virtually unnoticed in a recruiting hotbed like South Florida?
The answer is a mix of bad timing, underexposure, and a recruiting world that sometimes misses the mark.
In 2021, Alabama had already locked up five-star QB Tyler Simpson, so they weren’t in the market for another signal-caller. But Mortensen, convinced of Mendoza’s potential, reached out to longtime NFL quarterbacks coach David Lee, who was based in South Florida and known for working with young talent.
“I’ve got a guy you need to work with,” Mortensen told him.
Lee began working with Mendoza and his younger brother, Alberto, either at their Coral Gables home or during practices at Columbus High. Mendoza’s mechanics sharpened.
His arm looked cleaner. But the recruiting landscape didn’t budge.
COVID restrictions had limited scout access during Mendoza’s junior year - a season when he’d quietly excelled. To make up for it, he embarked on a whirlwind tour of camps the following summer, hitting 18 camps in 25 days. One of them was Alabama’s, where he caught Mortensen’s eye.
Still, the phones didn’t ring.
“No one,” said Dave Dunn, Mendoza’s high school coach. “He went to the camp of one ACC school outside of Florida, and the quarterback coach walked up and just said, ‘Have a good flight home.’ That was it.”
Dunn sent out Mendoza’s film to every Power 5 school. Every single one. The silence was deafening.
“The only feedback we got was that his body wasn’t filled out,” Dunn said. “He wasn’t the runner in high school he can be now. He was skinnier then.”
Even local programs passed. Florida Atlantic didn’t bite. Miami - still under Manny Diaz at the time - didn’t even offer him a walk-on spot.
Alabama, thanks to Mortensen, offered a preferred walk-on opportunity. FIU was the only Division I program to offer a scholarship.
But Mendoza and his family had a backup plan: the Ivy League. His father had gone to Brown and become a doctor.
Dunn had coached at Harvard and seen firsthand that Ivy League QBs - like Ryan Fitzpatrick - could make it to the NFL. Yale became the frontrunner, even with its steep $78,000 yearly price tag.
The Call That Changed Everything
Then came a second chance.
After Mendoza’s senior season, Cal’s quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave got another call from David Lee. Cal had just lost a quarterback commit.
Lee asked if Musgrave knew anyone still looking for a QB. Musgrave told him to send over Mendoza’s film.
Minutes later, Musgrave was on the phone again.
“What’s wrong with him?” he asked Lee.
“What do you mean?” Lee replied.
“I’ve seen the video. Why isn’t anyone recruiting him?”
Musgrave learned Mendoza had Ivy League-level grades, was class president, and a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Still, he wanted to see for himself.
“Come and meet him,” Dunn told him.
Musgrave flew to South Florida and worked Mendoza out in person. That was enough. Shortly after, Mortensen got a text from Mendoza’s father: “Cal just offered him.”
“I was really happy for him,” Mortensen said. “But I also thought, ‘Man, I just missed him.’”
From Cal to Indiana - and the National Spotlight
Mendoza spent three seasons at Cal, growing into his frame, refining his game, and proving what some had already suspected - he could play at the highest level.
Then came another twist: he entered the transfer portal. His destination?
Indiana, where his younger brother Alberto had landed. Miami, once again, showed no interest.
Their focus was on bigger names - Quinn Ewers, who ended up entering the NFL Draft and being selected by the Dolphins in the seventh round, and Carson Beck, who ultimately signed with the Hurricanes.
Now, Mendoza is preparing to face Miami in the biggest game of his life - the College Football Playoff national championship - just a mile from the campus he used to walk to, bike past, and play rec basketball on.
“It’s a very full-circle moment for myself,” Mendoza said this week. “If you open Google Maps and put my address, the University of Miami campus is under a mile away.”
NFL Scouts Are Watching Now
The buzz around Mendoza has shifted dramatically. These days, the calls Dunn gets aren’t from college recruiters asking if Mendoza is big enough or fast enough. They’re from NFL scouts wondering if he’s the real deal.
“He’s such a great personality, they want to know if he’s for real,” Dunn said with a laugh. “I say, ‘Everything about him - everything you see on and off the field - is 100% real.’”
From overlooked to overachiever, Fernando Mendoza’s story is a reminder that talent doesn’t always follow the traditional path. Sometimes, the best player at the camp is the one no one’s watching - until it’s too late.