If not for the Pop Tarts Bowl, perhaps this whole 2025 season might have played out different.
Miami native Fernando Mendoza entered the transfer portal on Dec. 11 of 2024, and it was widely expected early on hometown Miami, and Indiana, where his brother Alberto played, would headline his recruitment.
But let there be no doubt, Mendoza grew up a Miami fan and dreamed as a boy of playing for “The U.”
He said as much in a May, 2025 interview with Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports.
“The dream was to play for Miami as a Hurricane,” Mendoza told Auerbach. “And once I entered the transfer portal, Miami was recruiting me.”
If Indiana ends up winning the national title against Miami on Monday night — in Miami of all places — they might have a Dec. 20, 2024 loss at Notre Dame to thank.
That IU loss ended their magical first season under the direction of head coach Curt Cignetti, and allowed the Hoosiers to focus their efforts on gaining a commitment from Mendoza.
Just four days later, on Christmas Eve of 2024, Mendoza announced he was headed to Bloomington.
“It just didn’t end up working out (playing for Miami), especially with the timing as Indiana’s season got finished a little earlier than Miami because Miami had a very late bowl game. But it was always a dream,” Mendoza said.
With Alberto as their not-so-secret weapon, Indiana was able to close fast, before Miami played Iowa State at the Pop Tarts Bowl on Dec. 28.
And with the Hurricanes distracted by the Cyclones, Cignetti presented Mendoza a raging tempest of enlightenment that swept him towards Bloomington.
“I had a couple things on my priority list when transferring to a new school, but the first was development and the second was coaching,” Mendoza told Auerbach of his time in the transfer portal.
“The development and coaching at Indiana were second to none. Every quarterback they’ve had in the past four years have all been conference player of the year and the only one that wasn’t was Kurtis Rourke, who had a phenomenal season and he finished ninth in Heisman voting. So to see that development and to see not necessarily top ranked guys go into that system develop become all conference level quarterbacks was something that was extremely attractive to me.”
But with the Miami dream still out there, how was Mendoza able to commit to Indiana so fast, even before the Hurricanes concluded their 2024 season?
Give the assist to Alberto.
“You’re trying to find out as much information as possible about each school. And that was extremely easy for Indiana as my brother was here and knows all the intricacies of the school, the good, the bad, the excellent,” Mendoza said. “And so when really deciphering and putting all the information down on one piece of paper, seeing all the different schools, seeing how they stacked up against each other, that extra information that Indiana brought, plus having the aspect of being able to play with my brother, develop with him, and just unite with him was also an additional gaining factor for Indiana.”
The development and coaching at Indiana led Mendoza to win the Heisman Trophy, and he appears to be a lock to become a first round NFL draft choice in April.
And in the end, both Indiana and Miami found quarterbacks to lead them to the national title game.
On Jan. 10 Georgia transfer Carson Beck transferred to Miami. Also a Florida native, he’ll lead the Canes against Mendoza and the Hoosiers Monday in Miami.
It will be reunion in more ways than one.
Miami coach Mario Cristobal went to the same high school as Mendoza, and played on the same high school football team as his father.
With his own chance to win a title led by a talent like Beck, Cristobal isn’t left wondering what could have been with Mendoza. But he sees the challenge he’ll have to face on Monday evening as he tries to deliver Miami’s first national title since before Mendoza was born.
“I think he (Mendoza) combines everything that you would want in an elite quarterback. He’s ahead of the defense all the time. He’s two steps ahead. He understands the back end, the front. He’s extremely accurate, poised. He can make you pay with his feet. He can make you pay with his arm,” Cristobal said.
“He understands protections really well. He anticipates like no other. He really has distinguished himself as the best football player in the country this year, and it’s not by accident. A lot of reps, a lot of hard work, a guy that’s been a complete difference-maker for their program.”
As Mendoza concluded his remarks in May to Auerbach about his transfer portal recruitment, he wished the best to Cristobal and Miami for the upcoming season.
“I do wish Coach Cristobal and the Miami staff the best of luck this season as they are phenomenal people. Coach Cristobal is also a fellow Cuban. He also went to our high school, Christopher Columbus. So, there’s a lot of ties there and he’s a phenomenal human being.”
Mendoza could not have imagined at the time the 2025 season would come down to the school he chose and the school he dreamed of playing for — for a national championship.
On Monday night, with help from Alberto and the Pop Tarts Bowl, Mendoza is an Indiana Hoosier.
And the boy who once dreamed of being a Hurricane has a chance to put Miami in a state of tropical depression.
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