Why does Fernando Mendoza talk like that? For Indiana’s star QB, it’s all part of the plan
MIAMI, Fla. — Last month, just minutes after Indiana beat Ohio State for its first Big Ten championship in 57 years, Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza couldn’t hold in his emotions. He had to let loose.
“The Hoosiers are flippin’ champs!” he told Fox Sports’ Jenny Taft, before crediting every position group on the team and explaining how the team is “process-oriented.”
Flippin’? Process-oriented?
“THE HOOSIERS ARE FLIPPIN’ CHAMPS!” 🗣️@IndianaFootball QB Fernando Mendoza was with @JennyTaft after winning the @bigten championship ‼️ pic.twitter.com/qNJBmXCSfW
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) December 7, 2025
For more than a year, Mendoza’s postgame interviews have drawn love and attention for their unique delivery and perfect grammar and prose.
Mendoza speaks like a coach or politician — maybe better — laying everything out, often looking into the camera while delivering an answer. He has dropped words like “migration” and “conglomerate” in interviews over the past month. In a world where athletes are trained to say as little as possible for fear of going viral in a bad way, Mendoza seems to always deliver something.
“People might think it’s fake, but it’s 100 percent him,” said Alberto Mendoza, Fernando’s brother and fellow Indiana quarterback.
Mendoza first went viral last year, as the quarterback at Cal, when he told ACC Network after a late touchdown drive to beat Stanford, “I’ll remember going 98 yards with my boys.” That line landed on T-shirts, but Mendoza’s near-tears proclamation that Cal was 6-6 and would go to a bowl game helped the clip resonate with college football diehards. It’s almost impossible to get a bad quote out of him.
“He’s incredible,” head coach Curt Cignetti said. “I take notes.”
“THAT WAS AN AMAZING COMEBACK … I LOVE MY BOYS … GO BEARS FOREVER!”
Fernando Mendoza overcome with emotion after his game-winning drive vs. Stanford 🥹@CalFootball | @qb_fernando pic.twitter.com/yYZvGQDhPY
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) November 24, 2024
People from Indiana, Cal and Mendoza’s marketing agency agree that it’s just Mendoza’s natural personality. The only media training notes he ever got from them was to shorten his answers. He didn’t need to name-drop every teammate.
“It’s greatly due to our parents,” said Alberto, who speaks with the same confidence and cadence as his older brother. “They taught us how to speak to people, how to carry ourselves, how to act in a professional manner.”
Like only he can, Fernando on Saturday referred to their 14-year-old brother Max as “a great businessman and person.”
His use of “flippin’” in Indianapolis was authentic, too. There is no cursing from Fernando, even in private.
“He’ll be like ‘gosh darn it’ when he gets scored on in (video games),” said Indiana receiver and roommate Charlie Becker, whom Mendoza referred to as “such a young man” in his on-field interview after beating Ohio State.
The quarterback’s delivery is no accident. Mendoza said at Saturday’s national championship media day that he took public speaking classes in high school and at Cal, and he watched YouTube videos about public speaking.
Those studies, along with his now-famous LinkedIn page, came from a desire to improve how he presented himself for a life after football — long before he was a Heisman Trophy winner and presumed No. 1 NFL Draft pick. He’s aware people say he talks like ChatGPT. He promises he’s a real person who does normal things.
“Such an important part is communication,” Mendoza said. “That’s how you really get yourself across the line. That’s how you really portray yourself and give a good impression to another person. That’s something I would recommend to anybody, especially any young sports athlete, is the way that you represent yourself and the way that you’re able to come across to your peers, to your coaches and to, later, ownership, it’s so important on your journey.”
As far back as his first press conferences as the starting quarterback at Cal, Mendoza would look into the camera while delivering answers. His Heisman Trophy acceptance speech last month, in which he got emotional talking about his mother and motivated overlooked players to believe in themselves, drew widespread praise.
Fernando Mendoza after winning Heisman:
“I want every kid out there who feels overlooked, underestimated to know, I was you… You don’t need the most stars, hype… You just need discipline, heart, and people who believe in you. And you need to believe in your own abilities.” https://t.co/S7I1RuA7dN pic.twitter.com/Vrekz6mPMX
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 14, 2025
For almost an hour on Saturday, Mendoza took every question, good and not-so-good, in stride. There wasn’t a single wasted answer, as he tried to give each reporter what they were looking for.
“He wants to make a personal connection with everyone,” said Greg Campbell, Indiana’s assistant athletic director for strategic communication. “That’s unique in a lot of ways for any walk of life. He wants people to feel like, when you ask him a question, he’s answering your question and not answering it for anybody else. He’s so personable and easy to like and work with.”
Mendoza has played the optimistic counter to his head coach Cignetti, who seems to like leaning into his own curmudgeonly narrative. Cignetti will rarely crack a smile. It’s hard to find Mendoza not smiling. They’re the yin and yang of emotional leaders who take the Hoosiers into Monday’s national championship. If Indiana wins its first title in school history, the world will await Mendoza’s next postgame message.
“He doesn’t say a lot in the building or on the practice field. He’s not a vocal guy,” Cignetti said. “Where you get a full taste of Fernando Mendoza is during the interview process.
“And it’s always an A-plus interview.”
