Fernando Mendoza is a Las Vegas Raider, if Jimmy Fallon’s sources are correct.
The Indiana quarterback appeared on The Tonight Show to celebrate winning the national championship after a perfect season with the Hoosiers.
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Mendoza came out of nowhere to win the Heisman TrophyCredit: Getty
A thrilling 27-21 triumph over Miami sealed the first 16-0 season since Yale in 1894, but Mendoza highlighted an even bigger victory.
“Well, we finally got our Coach [Curt] Cignetti to smile, so that was the biggest accomplishment,” he joked in reference to the notoriously straight-faced boss.
“But for real, Indiana’s been a predominantly basketball and football has been in purgatory for the longest time,” he continued.
“And our team with Coach Cignetti and a whole bunch of under-recruited guys, guys who have been doubted their entire lives, now finally marked as national champions. It means the world to all of us.”
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Mendoza looked every bit the franchise quarterback on national TV, something NFL teams will take note of as every aspect of his life is analyzed.
But it is on the field that he will ultimately be judged, and Mendoza gave a hint that he will join the growing trend of locked-in quarterbacks opting to skip throwing drills at the Combine.
Fallon asked the Hoosiers star to literally break records — the musical kind — as he threw them up in the air like an Olympic Trap event.
“Is this, like, my Combine?,” Mendoza asked.
The Raiders are on the clock with the No. 1 pick and after Dante Moore announced he was returning to college, all signs point to Tom Brady selecting a man he has praised in the past.
Fallon seems pretty sure that Mendoza’s next team is a done deal.
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Mendoza broke eight disks in 30 seconds
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Cignetti is not known for flashing his pearly whitesCredit: Getty
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you already got the job, bud,” he replied. “Don’t worry about it.”
Unsurprisingly, Mendoza was on target with most of his throws as accuracy is a big part of what he will bring at the next level.
But he also scored on a tough run up the middle in the CFP Final.
While the 22-year-old is no Josh Allen or Jalen Hurts, he will need to be watched in the red zone and revealed his killer instinct to Fallon.
He explained: “So at first I’m like, ‘Okay, here we go.’ And I’m supposed to run left and all of a sudden some instinct tells me, ‘Let’s run right.’
“So it’s like when you miss your exit on Maps and you’re like, ‘Oh shoot, here we go.’
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“But luckily it was the exit to a touchdown. I saw these huge football players in front of me and I was like a human pinball machine.
“I was like boom, boom, bang, getting banged up. And all of a sudden I’m in the air and I’m like, ‘Might as well reach for the touchdown because I’m so banged up, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get up after.'”
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As the race for Super Bowl LX, which fans can watch here, reaches its conclusion, Mendoza is clearing every hurdle that’s thrown at him.
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