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Indiana Hoosiers football coach Curt Cignetti will almost certainly be losing quarterback Fernando Mendoza at the head of IU’s No. 1 touchdown-scoring offensive attack in the country this coming offseason.
No, not to the transfer portal like Michael Penix to the Washington Huskies ahead of the 2022 season when Tom Allen was still in charge. But to what could become Indiana’s new normal for quarterbacks in Cignetti and Mike Shanahan’s offense if the latter isn’t hired elsewhere, the NFL.
ESPN’s Todd McShay shared that Mendoza is the likeliest signal-caller in an otherwise underwhelming 2026 QB draft class to declare and never look back.
“The sense is, Fernando Mendoza is the most likely of these underclassmen when we’re talking about LaNorris Sellers, John Mateer, Dante Moore, and Ty Simpson, that he’s the most likely of those guys to leave for the NFL and not return to college football,” McShay revealed.
After the season Indiana is having, Cignetti may have to fend off poachers for his entire coaching staff. He was already going to have his roster recruited elsewhere, given the volatile nature of the transfer portal.
With Mark Cuban throwing down big-time donor money for his alma mater, and many across the country doing the same, the Hoosiers are likely going to become a perennially competitive program. It’s just fair to wonder if being ranked in the top 10 every week, and even the top two, now, will still be happening after losing Mendoza.
Cignetti needs to develop a quarterback recruiting record and make smart hires like Ohio State Buckeyes football coach Ryan Day to keep the standard sky-high after the 2025 season concludes.
It’ll be the difference between this year being the peak Hoosier fans will always yearn for or the beginning of a dominant era in college football in Bloomington, Indiana.
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