Fernando Mendoza didn’t need long to explain why Klint Kubiak and Curt Cignetti feel cut from the same cloth.
The Raiders rookie quarterback recently joined The Rush With Maxx Crosby and was asked about the two coaches. On the surface, the college head coach and the NFL offensive mind don’t look like obvious twins. Mendoza said the real connection shows up in the way they teach, demand, and correct.
"They're both their unique selves, and they're both great coaches," Mendoza stated simply. "The college and NFL level is different.
Dealing with college kids [rather] than grown men, it's very different. But I would say the main similarity that I've seen is the attention to detail."
That detail showed up in the little things. Mendoza pointed to reps in practice where a big completion still came with a correction instead of praise. In his telling, both coaches were quick to zero in on the extra hitch, the half-yard off, the small miss that could matter later.
"For example, you make a big completion [in practice], and you're looking forward to seeing it on film. And then both of those guys [would] be like, 'Come on, really?
You took an extra hitch,' or, 'Come on, instead of five yards, you're four and a half,'" Mendoza explained. "Then, in the season, you see it show up, and it's like, 'Okay that pass was completed by this much because I was at the right depth or because I didn't take that extra hitch.'
And you see the same similarities of coach Kubiak pushing and really making sure you're doing everything, rather than giving you a pat on the back. Finding something to improve because I have a lot to improve on."
Mendoza also said the two coaches share the same approach to the room: nobody gets special treatment, not even the quarterback. He described both men as preaching equality and pushing him to keep the ego out of the equation.
"I think Coach Cignetti and Coach Kubiak both preach in a way that everyone's equal," Mendoza said. "And how I see that as a quarterback is killing the ego. Making sure that no matter what success I had at Indiana or future success or whatever, [the] expectation [is] that there's no ego there, and the only motivation is getting better."
That kind of setup seems to fit Mendoza. He said he wants to be coached hard, wants to learn, and wants to be part of the group rather than treated like a star because of where he was picked.
Under Cignetti, he got that. Now he’s seeing the same thing with Kubiak, and that’s exactly the kind of fit the Raiders can live with.
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