IU coach Curt Cignetti has a long record of success with quarterbacks.
A former QB himself at West Virginia, Cignetti coached multiple consecutive conference players of the year at James Madison, and his first quarterback at Indiana, Kurtis Rourke, had the number one regular season quarterback rating in the country.
So what does Cignetti think of his likely 2025 starter Fernando Mendoza, who comes to Bloomington from Cal where he’ll join his brother Alberto in the IU quarterback room?
Alberto committed to Cignetti when he was still the head coach at James Madison. So there’s a family relationship that goes back a long way, and that paid dividends when it came to luring Fernando out of the transfer portal.
“We had Alberto, the younger one, so we had a relationship with the family. And Fernando was highly sought after. Two years of eligibility, started for a year and a half,” Cignetti told ESPN’s Pete Thamel on the College Gameday podcast.
Watching the elder Mendoza brother on film, Cignetti saw a quarterback who should prove to be a threat both through the air and on the ground.
“He’s got a lot of talent, a lot of skill,” Cignetti said. “He was under duress quite frankly a lot last year at Cal. The protection wasn’t very good. They had 41 sacks, they didn’t have a lot of time to throw. So you get to see him extend plays quite a bit on tape, and there’s talent there. We’re excited about him. We’ll fit him into the system, tweak our system according to the quarterback and who else we have offensively.”
Rourke didn’t look nearly as sharp in the spring as he did during the 2024 season. And that’s a progression Cignetti has come to expect as he introduces new quarterbacks into his system.
“All these guys (his former quarterbacks) have kind of followed the same path,” he continued. “They struggled the first two weeks of spring ball then they’re better the last two. Good summer. Good fall camp. And then put it on the field, have some success and build off it. We’re excited about him (Mendoza). We think we can do a lot of things with him.”
While Rourke was almost exclusively a pocket passer, Cignetti has had success with all types of quarterbacks.
Even with sack yards included, Todd Centeio rushed for 366 yards for Cignetti at James Madison in 2022, and Jordan McCloud went for 276 on the ground in 2023 for the Dukes. Compare those totals to Rourke’s -35 in 2024, and you see the potential for continued success with a quarterback who can escape the pocket.
“Our system is flexible. We’ve had true dual-threat guys play that position, and we changed,” Cignetti said. We’ve had true pocket guys.
“He (Mendoza) can throw the ball, he can spin the ball, he can make all the throws. He’s pretty mobile, he throws well on the move and he runs better than Kurtis. He’s a highly intelligent guy, that’s where it all begins as everybody knows, and we think he’s gonna give us something.”
Highlight reels: New IU football quarterback Fernando Mendoza
Mendoza was one of the top overall players available in the portal. He also considered Missouri, Georgia, UCLA, and others. He took visits to at least IU, Missouri and Georgia over the past couple weeks.
While leading Cal to a 6-6 season, the 6-foot-5 and 225-pound Mendoza was 265-of-386 (68.7%) passing for 3,004 yards, with 16 touchdowns, and six interceptions. He rushed for 105 yards and two scores.
Mendoza finished second in the ACC in completion percentage, third in passing yards per game, sixth in yards and efficiency, and eighth in touchdown passes. He missed the last game of the season due to an illness.
As a freshman in 2023, Mendoza was a Pac-12 Offensive Freshman Of The Year honorable mention selection of the Pac-12 coaches. He played in nine games that season including starts in each of Cal’s final eight contests. He completed 153-of-243 passes (63.0%) for 1,708 yards with 14 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions for a 132.8 rating.
Mendoza originally committed to Yale before flipping to Cal out of high school.
The 21-year-old Mendoza has two years of eligibility remaining.
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