College football had better get used to Indiana because the Hoosiers aren’t leaving.
After crashing the College Football Playoff this season, Indiana scored a significant transfer portal win to bolster its hopes of returning to the 12-team playoff in 2025.
The Hoosiers added Cal transfer quarterback Fernando Mendoza, one of the best quarterbacks in the portal.
This season, Mendoza was 265-of-386 (68.7 percent) for 3,004 yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions for the Golden Bears.
He even won on the road in the vaunted SEC at Auburn, bolstering Indiana’s paper resume, which, according to some college football talking heads, should be valued as much as anything the Hoosiers do on the field in 2025. Or do only SEC schools receive that benefit?
Mendoza’s signing is the second consecutive year Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti has landed a valued quarterback via the portal.
2024 starter Kurtis Rourke began his collegiate career at Ohio (2019-23), where he was named 2022 MAC Player of the Year and transferred to Indiana after the program hired Cignetti.
It speaks to the program’s growth in one year under Cignetti that it’s gone from an afterthought to a destination college for talented quarterbacks.
No. 8 Indiana (11-2) was humbled in the CFP first round at No. 5 Notre Dame (12-1), trailing by as many as 24 points in an eventual 27-17 loss.
Instead of celebrating the Hoosiers’ remarkable turnaround from 3-9 a season ago, ESPN college football commentators, including Sean McDonough
and Kirk Herbstreit, used their platform to denigrate Indiana, suggesting it had no business in the playoff.
Fortunately for Indiana, it won’t have as many detractors if it goes 11-1 during the regular season in 2025. The Hoosiers have marquee road games at Oregon and Penn State, giving them opportunities to prove themselves. Adding Mendoza gives Indiana a better chance of keeping pace with the Big Ten’s elite.
Anyone upset about Indiana’s run to the CFP was likely disappointed by Tuesday’s news. College football’s gatekeepers might not want the Hoosiers, but they aren’t budging.
