"He practiced that 23 times in front of mirror," "CTE-less Gronk: CFB fans react to Fernando Mendoza's viral post-game speech after Indiana's win 

Fernando Mendoza continues to have an impressive campaign with the Indiana Hoosiers this season. After helping the program before the undefeated Big Ten champions, the quarterback also won this season's coveted Heisman Award.

The Hoosiers received a bye in this year's 12-team playoffs, meaning that they directly faced Alabama in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal game. And once again, Mendoza did not disappoint with his performance.

The quarterback and his team secured a dominating 38-3 victory over Kalen DeBoer's team. After the game, Fernando Mendoza's postgame interview on the sidelines made waves on social media.

"First of all, my team and I wanna give all the glory to God," Mendoza said. "What a historic venue, the Rose Bowl. One of the best venues in all of sports. It's just a great conglomorate of individuals coming together and really forming complementary football. "Coach Cig has hit on us, no complacency. And especially when you have a bye, it's tough to get into the rhythm of football. But once we got out feet on the ground, we knew that we're gonna stick together and come out with a W. ... I'm so honored and blessed to be a part of his type and this sports staff and coaching staff."

The Indiana quarterback's energetic postgame interview went viral, garnering over 800k views alone on X. Fans took to the comments to share their thoughts on the same.

"Bro practiced that about 23 times in front of the mirror lol," one fan commented. "This is Gronk talking without the CTE," another fan said. "He talks like a combination of Gronk and Tebow," this fan wrote. "Dude is gonna forego the nfl draft and go straight to ESPN Gameday," another fan said. "If chatgpt identified as a human for a day," one fan wrote. "CTEless Gronk," this fan commented.

In the Rose Bowl quarterfinal game, Fernando Mendoza completed 14 of 16 passes for 192 yards and three touchdowns. The quarterback joined the Hoosiers in 2024 after spending the first three seasons of his collegiate career with the California Golden Bears.

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Also Read: "Where's ICE when you need them," "Most articulate winner": CFB fans react to Fernando Mendoza's honoring his Cuban roots in Heisman Trophy speech

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Analyst Aaron Torres claps back at Fernando Mendoza's haters after his impressive CFP quarterfinal performance against Alabama

Despite his track record with Indiana this season, Fernando Mendoza still has a lot of critics and haters who doubt his ability to sustain the success he's enjoying with the program.

After their dominating Rose Bowl victory over Alabama, analyst Aaron Torres came forward to clap back at the quarterback's trolls and critics. He also heaped praise on the 2025 Heisman winner for his three-touchdown performance.

"Remember all those tweets that popped up the last few weeks about 'Most of Fernando Mendoza's TD's were against these fill-in-the-blank crappy teams.' Yeah, anyone who doubted this dude is a certified non-ball knower. Kid has been a KILLER. All. Damn. Year," Torres tweeted.

Indiana will face the Oregon Ducks in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl semifinal game on Friday, Jan.9, at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Edited by Priyam Hazarika