LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) —At some point during Fernando Mendoza’s Wednesday press conference, you stopped hearing a quarterback and started hearing a masterclass. Not in mechanics. In mindset.
Indiana’s undefeated signal-caller, a South Florida native with Cuban roots and a knack for looking cameras in the eye, spent his bye week fielding national questions with the poise of a Super Bowl MVP and the humility of a high school backup. He talked about his mother, who taught him to throw a football. He quoted Tom Brady, Matt Leinart, and a sports psychologist. And he laid out a philosophy that might be just as responsible for Indiana’s 11-0 season as any pass he’s thrown.
Here, then, are a few lessons from The Mind of Mendoza, a quarterback less concerned with winning the Heisman than with being fully present in a team meeting. A kid with a backyard imagination, now living out the high-pressure situations he used to make up with his little brother.
Lesson 1: Control the controllables
“You can’t control the last play, no matter how hard you try. There’s no time machine.”
Mendoza doesn’t appear to rattle. Not after an interception. Not in the media scrum. He credits his sessions with a sports psychologist, where the core message is simple: focus only on what’s in front of you.
That might sound cliché. Until you hear him describe how to handle nerves:
“Whenever you're nervous in those particular situations, just say, ‘Hey, that's my body getting ready,’” Mendoza said. He said the nervous system stimulus “is giving my body more energy and more focus. Then it's really just controlling the controllables in the present moment rather than looking at the surroundings.
“Whether it's Penn State, Oregon, or Iowa,” he said, “with the stadium absolutely rocking and the ground shaking,” his goal is “to really focus on the present moment and your technique and how you can control that play.”
It’s not superstition. It’s regulation. And it’s working.
Lesson 2: Pressure is a privilege
“With the spotlight comes a privilege… It’s a great opportunity to give praise to the people around me.”
Plenty of quarterbacks get overwhelmed by media attention or fan expectations. Mendoza views it as a gift, a chance to talk about his coaches, his team, and his faith.
That attitude isn’t performative. It’s practiced. Even when he’s talking about the Heisman race — which he downplays — he doesn’t duck the moment. He does meditate on game days. He watches Mass. Then he embraces what comes.
“I don’t have anxiety looking forward to it,” he said. “… I’m thankful about it. … I was able to talk to Matt Leinart a couple of weeks ago, and he's a Heisman Trophy winner, fantastic quarterback, and has a great TV personality. His advice was similar to what I got from a lot of the others, but it really stuck with me: This only happens once.”
Lesson 3: Listen with your eyes.
“From youth football to high school to college, people have always told me you listen with your eyes, not your ears.”
Mendoza doesn’t just answer questions. He connects. He’s intentional in interviews, present in film study, and deeply respectful of everyone in the room. That started with his mom, a former University of Miami tennis player who now battles MS.
She taught him to throw a football. But more than that, she taught him how to see people, to have his eyes – and mind – in the right place.
He sees her. And she’s taught him how to persevere.
“She was always there by my side. She was the overprotective mom per se, and she has always been a positive light and inspiration before and after MS.”
Lesson 4: You don’t need a “superman” play. Just the right one.
“Good players never get bored. You don't need to be a superstar. You don't need to make a superman play. You just need to make the right play with the right read with the right timing with the right technique.”
That’s the mantra Mendoza got from Indiana quarterbacks coach Tino Whitmer — a man Mendoza compares to a young Sean McVay.
The best quarterbacks aren’t highlight machines. They’re consistency merchants. And Mendoza, once a raw prospect overlooked by Power 4 programs, has refined his timing and anticipation to keep Indiana on schedule, and undefeated.
That was never more evident than after a first-down sack on Indiana’s final drive against Penn State, Trailing on the scoreboard and pinned back deep, Mendoza didn’t look at the crowd or the clock. He went back to first steps. His thought: What’s the next play, let’s complete one pass. He didn’t ask him to do anything miraculous. Just something he’d done thousands of times in practice.
The comeback began there.
Lesson 5: Gratitude is the grounding force
“When I see my mom and what she’s going through, and how she's fighting, how hard her fight is, I'm never, ever in a situation where I think that I can feel down on myself and not have a positive attitude and a smile on my face.”
He returns to this again and again, the faith, the family, the why behind every rep. For Mendoza, gratitude isn’t a mood. It’s a discipline. He said the words “grateful” or “thankful” a half-dozen times in his Wednesday interview.
“This is so special,” he said. “You can kick the can down the road, (but) what an honor it is and how grateful I feel, just giving all the glory to God. How great it is that I'm in this situation and that we’re in this situation?”
Lesson 6: It’s not about becoming a star. It’s about becoming yourself.
“Coach Cignetti sold me on becoming the best Fernando Mendoza.”
He could’ve gone elsewhere. He could’ve chased flashier offenses or easier paths. Other schools laid out fancy projections about how good their teams could be with him under center. But Cignetti didn’t promise wins. He promised development. And Mendoza bought in.
He told Mendoza, “Whatever happens, that I'm going to become the best quarterback. … I don't know if we would be the best team, but I would be the best quarterback. At this point, that's all I can control. I can control being the best Fernando Mendoza -- quarterback and character -- that I can become. That's what really sold me.”
He doesn’t call this the pinnacle. He doesn’t think he’s “made it.” But what he’s made — in this moment — is a case study in how mental clarity can elevate a football team.
Closer:
The next few weeks will decide whether Fernando Mendoza becomes a Heisman winner or a playoff hero. But win or lose, he doesn’t expect to change.
Because this season, the most important field Mendoza has mastered isn’t green. It’s gray. The space between setbacks and solutions, the in-between of awareness and action.
And he’s navigating it like someone who never needed a time machine. Just a present moment, a purpose, and a place to throw the ball.
Quick sip
Want to read more about this topic? There’s no better resource on sports performance, mindset, preparation and execution under pressure than Sally Jenkins’ book The Right Call: What Sports Teach us about Work and Life.
I want to share one of her conclusions from the book.
“A chief characteristic of the high performers in these pages, on identifiable personal quality they all possess, is this: they care more about the overall endeavor than their status. They’re not overly preoccupied by their fortune or elevation. Make no mistake, great champions can be flamboyant, strong characters. But first and foremost, they lose themselves in the enterprise. They’re wholly engaged in the work for its own sake. The riches or fame they might enjoy is purely a secondary enterprise.”
You can purchase the book at any online retailer or bookstore.
The Last Drop
“At a young age, I didn't have a crystal ball. I wasn't this young prodigy, who was a five-star coming out of high school or the next big thing. But I would say I'm just so grateful to be in the position that I am right now. I just can't thank the support staff I have around myself enough and can't thank the Lord enough.”
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza
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