Both of the Hoosiers’ quarterbacks under Curt Cignetti have enjoyed career seasons in Bloomington.
When Indiana football enters the 2026 season, it’ll almost certainly do so without quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
Mendoza, the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner, is projected as an early first round selection in this coming spring’s NFL Draft. He’s led the Hoosiers to the best regular season in program history and their first Big Ten championship in several decades while being awarded with the sport’s highest individual honor. He’s proven himself at the college level.
Between Mendoza and Kurtis Rourke, who had one of the best passing seasons for an Indiana quarterback in his own right in 2024, Indiana should be one of the top destinations for transfer portal quarterbacks moving forward.
Mendoza and Rourke enjoyed career seasons at Indiana. Both came to Bloomington with several seasons of starting experience and posted career highs in passing touchdowns, completion percentage and passer rating with the Hoosiers.
That’s not even mentioning team success, with Indiana going 24-2 under Curt Cignetti.
Mike Shanahan, Indiana’s wide receivers coach, offensive coordinator and play caller, has put together talented groups of pass catchers while putting both Rourke and Mendoza in position to succeed, especially on third downs. Indiana’s also gone through a seamless transition at quarterbacks coach from Tino Sunseri to Chandler Whitmer.
It’s not like Indiana ran the same offense for two seasons either. Cignetti developed his system over time as a head coach and tailors it to fit the strengths of whoever starts at quarterback.
Indiana surrounded Rourke with several experienced receivers who were productive after the catch and had him go through quick reads, often through the run-pass option, to deliver strikes to more receivers than most defenses were equipped to cover.
Indiana molded a bit to fit Mendoza, a pretty perfect fit for the base of Cignetti’s system. Indiana still makes use of RPOs, but leans more heavily on a top-2 duo of Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper, with Charlie Becker emerging in either’s stead, rather than several options. Mendoza, who has a stronger arm and more mobility than Rourke, is asked to push the ball downfield more often and makes reads ahead of and during the play, one of his more valuable skillsets.
Finally, Indiana made sure neither had to shoulder the burden of carrying the offense down the field. The two have shared the backfield with a productive rotation at running back with names like Justice Ellison, Ty Son Lawton, Roman Hemby and Kaelon Black giving the Hoosiers a balanced, two dimensional offense that opens further opportunities in the passing game.
Indiana did all that in just two seasons including, again, producing a Heisman Trophy winner. Now that the Hoosiers have further proof of concept (and then some) they’ll be even more well positioned to develop quarterbacks in the future.
Which makes Bloomington a top destination for the position moving forward.
Category: General Sports
