NEW YORK — After lifting Indiana from improbable upstart to legitimate football powerhouse with his clutch play this season, Fernando Mendoza added another breakthrough to the Hoosiers’ remarkable rise.
The nerdy and unflappable quarterback won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night, becoming the first Hoosier to win college football’s most prestigious player of the year award.
“I thank God for giving me the opportunity to chase a dream that once felt a world away,” Mendoza, the former two-star recruit, said in his acceptance speech. “Standing here tonight, holding this bad boy, representing Indiana University, still doesn’t feel real.”
Mendoza won by a large margin over another quarterback leading an unlikely College Football Playoff contender. Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia finished second, 927 points behind Mendoza.
Mendoza received 643 first-place votes and 2,362 points to Pavia’s 189 and 1,435. Mendoza appeared on 95.16 percent of voter ballots, tying Oregon’s Marcus Mariota in 2014 for the second-highest percentage in Heisman history. LSU’s Joe Burrow set the record in 2019, appearing on 95.47 percent of ballots.
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love finished third in the voting with 719 points, and Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin was fourth among the finalists with 432 points.
Mendoza is the first Big Ten player to win the Heisman since Ohio State’s Troy Smith in 2006. He is also the first Cuban-American to win the award and the second player of Hispanic descent to win the Heisman, joining Stanford’s Jim Plunkett in 1970.
Mendoza thanked his IU teammates, including his brother and backup quarterback, Alberto.
He shouted out his coaches, going back to high school and California, the school he first attended after high school.
He thanked his family, including his Cuban grandparents in Spanish, and barely held it together when he talked about his mother.
Elsa Mendoza was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system, 18 years ago. She recently wrote in The Players’ Tribune about how her condition “went downhill” after she got COVID during the pandemic.
“This is your trophy, as much as it is mine,” Mendoza said. “You’ve always been my biggest fan. You’re my light, you’re my why, you’re my biggest supporter. Your sacrifice and courage, love, those have been my first playbook, and the playbook I will carry by my side through my entire life. You taught me that toughness doesn’t need to be loud. It can be quiet and strong.”
About a dozen of Mendoza’s IU teammates made the trip to New York City and gathered for a watch party at a steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan. The Hoosiers made their way to the hotel where Mendoza’s post-ceremony news conference was held, and moments later gave him a raucous greeting when he arrived.
“Let’s go do this damn thing,” linebacker Aiden Fisher told his quarterback.
“Those are my boys right there,” Mendoza said as he began taking questions from reporters.
After posing for pictures with his new trophy, Mendoza made his way out of the ballroom with teammates chanting: “Heis-Men-do-za! Heis-Men-do-za!”
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti had one warning for his players as they continued celebrating.
“This party’s over Tuesday,” he said.
A player responded: “Monday.”
Mendoza transferred to Indiana this season after graduating from California in three years, establishing himself as a skilled and tough leader while playing for a team that couldn’t surround him with top-flight talent. Yet, he caught everybody’s attention last year by going “98 yards with my boys” to beat Stanford with a fourth-quarter comeback in his final game with Cal.
Not the best quality but Fernando Mendoza’s teammates greeting him at his post Heisman news conference pic.twitter.com/VO2cMNgDU6
— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoATH) December 14, 2025
Simply landing at Indiana to play for coach Cignetti was a sign the Hoosiers wouldn’t be a one-hit wonder after last season’s surprising run to the Playoff.
Mendoza chose IU over SEC blue blood Georgia and then proceeded to lead the Hoosiers (13-0) to their first Big Ten title since 1967, their first No. 1 ranking ever, and the top-seed in the upcoming CFP.
He finished with 33 touchdown passes to lead the nation and 2,980 passing yards. He completed 71.5 percent of his throws and was second nationally behind only Big Ten rival Sayin in passer efficiency rating at 181.39.
Mendoza was typically at his best with the game on the line, shrugging off mistakes and turning into captain clutch in the fourth quarter.
After throwing a pick six that tied a top-10 showdown at Oregon, he led a 75-yard scoring drive capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Sarratt that silenced a raucous Autzen Stadium in October. The Hoosiers beat the Ducks 30-20.
He did it again a few weeks later at Penn State — with an even higher degree of difficulty — going 80 yards with just under two minutes left and finding Omar Cooper Jr. in the back of the end zone for a gravity-defying touchdown catch to beat the Nittany Lions 27-24.
For his final act, Mendoza helped Indiana take down the defending national champions and biggest bullies in the Big Ten.
The Hoosiers snapped a 30-game losing streak against Ohio State in the conference championship game, with Mendoza’s perfectly placed touchdown pass in the third quarter giving IU the lead and a deep ball on third-and-6 late in the fourth quarter, ensuring the Buckeyes would not have enough time to mount a comeback.
Mendoza, who grew up in Miami, is the first player to win his school’s first Heisman since Lamar Jackson did it in 2016 with Louisville. The closest an Indiana player had ever come to winning the award was a second-place finish by running back Anthony Thompson in 1989 to Houston quarterback Andre Ware.
The only other Hoosier to even crack the top five was running back Bill Hillenbrand in 1942.
The next stop for Mendoza and Indiana, which came into this season as the losingest program in major college football history, is the Rose Bowl for a College Football Playoff quarterfinal against the winner of Friday night’s game between Alabama and Oklahoma.
“It’s gonna be an honor to play any of those teams in the Rose Bowl,” Mendoza said. “What a magical place.”
What a magical season for Mendoza and the Hoosiers.
