LOS ANGELES, Calif. (WDRB) -- Fernando Mendoza began the football season that would change his life not with a Xs and Os but with names and faces.
He didn't need a playbook. He needed a roster and photos. The quiet radicalism of Indiana's first Heisman Trophy winner is in a sport obsessed with rankings and revenue sharing, his first priority was remembering people.
He would know his teammates before he even met them.
"I wanted them to know I cared," he told reporters Tuesday, two days ahead of a Rose Bowl matchup against Alabama. "Doesn't matter who you are. If you're on this team, I want to know you. I want to serve you. ... I may not have gotten everybody right the first time. But by the second, I did."
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That quiet gesture — leading not with bluster or bravado but with attention and connection — may have done as much as anything to propel Indiana to this moment.
And moments don't get much bigger than this. No. 1 Indiana vs. No. 8 Alabama in the Granddaddy of Them All.
For Mendoza, it's a full-circle moment. He played in this stadium in the final Pac-12 After Dark game before the conference dissolved. He knows the lights, the shadows, the weather. ("L.A. has the best weather on earth," he said with a grin.)
But it's also family. It's heritage.
"I've got a lot of family coming to this game," he said. "My mom's Cuban. My uncle's family is Mexican. They're all out here. East Coast Cuban meeting West Coast Mexican, right here in Pasadena."
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza speaks with reporters during Rose Bowl media day.
For one of just two Latino quarterbacks to ever win a Heisman Trophy, this isn't just a bowl game. It's representation on the biggest stage, in front of one of the largest Hispanic fan bases in the country.
"It's what I do," he said. "I want to inspire young Latino kids. I want to represent my culture to the highest. ... I watched the Rose Bowl growing up. To me, it's the epitome of college football."
There's a natural temptation to see this all as a fairy tale. Indiana, a program known more for basketball than bowl games, goes 13-0. Its transfer quarterback wins the Heisman. And now it faces the most dominant program of the last 20 years in a New Year's Day showdown that doubles as a referendum on Big Ten vs. SEC, old power vs. new blood.
But fairytales are built on myth. What's happening at Indiana is grounded in culture and clarity.
Mendoza doesn't claim to have all the answers.
"I wasn't here before Coach Cignetti," he said. "I didn't live the old culture. But I've seen how his mindset filters down — no complacency, no egos, everybody pulling in the same direction."
That trickle-down runs deep. Not just coaches and coordinators, Mendoza said, but strength staff, graduate assistants, the entire support team. The result is a locker room that hasn't fractured under the weight of sudden fame.
"There's been a little crushing of egos," Mendoza said. "A lot of accountability. We know this moment counts. We're going to look back at this for the rest of our lives."
That may be Indiana's biggest edge heading into the Rose Bowl. Alabama has the history. Indiana has the hunger. And Mendoza, for all his accolades, still talks like he's chasing something.
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