Kurtis Rourke’s record didn’t even last a year.
With his fourth touchdown pass Saturday against Wisconsin, IU quarterback Fernando Mendoza set the new Indiana single-season touchdown pass record.
Mendoza found a wide open Omar Cooper, Jr. in the end zone to give him the record-setting 30th touchdown pass of the season. It was part of a strong performance by the redshirt junior signal caller, who completed 22 of 24 throws for 299 yards and four touchdowns.
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“It feels great, but it’s a culmination of everything, rushing and passing success, and everything we’ve had this year,” Mendoza said after IU’s 31-7 win over Wisconsin.
Mendoza’s season is just the latest stellar performance by a quarterback under IU coach Curt Cignetti. And although he’s having a Heisman Trophy caliber season, Cignetti feels Mendoza is just beginning to tap into his potential.
“I can’t say enough about the job that he has done in terms of dedicating himself to the process of improvement and that Chandler Whitmer has done also in accelerating his development,” Cignetti said. “He’s come such a long way since we got him from Cal.
“But I still think that he’s barely scratched the surface of his potential. I think that much of him.
“He’s a little bit new to the position, really, when you look at him and his background and growing up in terms of his opportunities to get snaps in whether it was junior high or high school even.”
Although he’s only been with IU for 11 games, Mendoza already owns the 10th most career touchdown passes in program history.
Mendoza is also on track to set the single-season completion percentage record. He’s currently at 73%, more than three percentage points above Rourke’s 69.4% last year.
The Miami, Fla. product is likely to have at least three more games with Indiana, which could put other single-season passing records within reach. He now has 2,641 passing yards on the season. But he’s got a long way to go to catch Nate Sudfeld’s 3,573 set in 2015. Mendoza is currently ninth all-time for single-season yardage.
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