Sad, that it wasn't at Cal and we are an after thought. He did mention Cal, to be fair. But oh well. One day, will have our heisman winner.
Mendoza won
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Last: 3 mo ago by calumnus
Thanked his "Cal family" for being the "first to believe in him" and for his education and coaching.
Cal is Quarterback U.
Fernando has had so much media training. He was already polished at Cal.
Beautiful acceptance speech be Mendoza. He is a real class act.
SouthKBear said:
One day, will have our heisman winner.
What do you mean? Mendoza is Cal's first ever Heisman Trophy winner.
The trophy is going to sit in Bloomington, we'll never see it.
In any case, I expect JKS to be among the finalists two years from now, if not earlier.
In any case, I expect JKS to be among the finalists two years from now, if not earlier.
Cal88 said:
The trophy is going to sit in Bloomington, we'll never see it.
In any case, I expect JKS to be among the finalists two years from now, if not earlier.
Only if Tosh can get us a good OL and some top wide receivers.
Fernando Mendoza shouts out Cal in his Heisman Trophy acceptance speech
— Thomas Dunn (@Thomasdunn24) December 14, 2025
“To my Cal family, thank you for being the first to believe in my future. Thank you for the opportunity, educating me and giving me the foundation that enabled me to grow into the person I am today.” pic.twitter.com/cOSDmCzmpd
SouthKBear said:
Sad, that it wasn't at Cal and we are an after thought. He did mention Cal, to be fair. But oh well. One day, will have our heisman winner.
Dude, How?
Brown reportedly was better than Mendoza and JKS has proved to be better than brown, so.......
#1 Brown
#2 JKS
And third string would have been.............
Bear Googles again?
Three plus years at Cal with a degree and 5 months at Indiana. And which school gets all the honors?
The moment Fernando Mendoza became a Heisman winner 🥹🏆 pic.twitter.com/nEobBz3T8U
— ESPN (@espn) December 14, 2025
Fernando Mendoza's speech after winning the Heisman 👏 pic.twitter.com/l2xvqJzKju
— ESPN (@espn) December 14, 2025
Classy speech, some are saying it's the greatest Heisman acceptance speech ever.
Grrrrah76 said:
Three plus years at Cal with a degree and 5 months at Indiana. And which school gets all the honors?
The school with an OL that blocks and receivers that catch...
Grrrrah76 said:
Three plus years at Cal with a degree and 5 months at Indiana. And which school gets all the honors?
2022 Redshirt at Cal
2023 played at Cal
2024 played at Cal in Fall then transferred before last game in November.
2025 full year at Illinois.
So it is
2.5 years Cal.
1.0 years Indiana,
He has a year of eligibility left but he is certainly entering the NFL draft.
Grrrrah76 said:
Three plus years at Cal with a degree and 5 months at Indiana. And which school gets all the honors?
"Go Bears Forever!"
— Matt (@nosoupforgeorge) December 14, 2025
-former Cal QB Fernando Mendoza pic.twitter.com/IGVMQPpC42
Grrrrah76 said:
Three plus years at Cal with a degree and 5 months at Indiana. And which school gets all the honors?
13-0.
Cal_79 said:Grrrrah76 said:
Three plus years at Cal with a degree and 5 months at Indiana. And which school gets all the honors?
The school with an OL that blocks and receivers that catch...
And supported by the #11 rushing offense (while playing in the B1G) versus the #136 (dead last) rushing offense (while playing in the ACC).
TonyTiger said:SouthKBear said:
Sad, that it wasn't at Cal and we are an after thought. He did mention Cal, to be fair. But oh well. One day, will have our heisman winner.
Dude, How?
Brown reportedly was better than Mendoza and JKS has proved to be better than brown, so.......
#1 Brown
#2 JKS
And third string would have been.............
Bear Googles again?
Leading his team to a Big 10 championship and 1 seed in the playoffs probably helped. But give the kid some credit, he looked every bit the 2* high schooler when first came to Cal. He worked his butt off which put him in position to play for Cignetti.
I think Mendoza is so under appreciated by Cal fans. When he took over as QB, he gave hope to a program that was really hopeless and sinking. He made the rest of that year and last year a lot of fun amidst many challenges . In exchange, Cal taught him how to function when your offensive line protection breaks down (as Goff learned before him).
There's a question of whether he worked to keep JKS away from Cal. Without his contributions to the program, Cal football might've been in such bad shape, that JKS wouldn't have considered it as an option. There's no question that leaving for Indiana was in his best interest.
Congrats Fernando!
There's a question of whether he worked to keep JKS away from Cal. Without his contributions to the program, Cal football might've been in such bad shape, that JKS wouldn't have considered it as an option. There's no question that leaving for Indiana was in his best interest.
Congrats Fernando!
But isn't the Heisman the kiss of death? What Heisman winner in recent memory had a brilliant pro career without scandal?
Good on him. We should be proud he acknowledged our part in his journey
HistoryBear said:
But isn't the Heisman the kiss of death? What Heisman winner in recent memory had a brilliant pro career without scandal?
That’s the future president of the United States pic.twitter.com/gJ8fR0ykMF
— Megan (@MeganMakinMoney) December 14, 2025
HistoryBear said:
But isn't the Heisman the kiss of death? What Heisman winner in recent memory had a brilliant pro career without scandal?
I assume you mean QBs specifically and "Kiss of death" is far too strong. Here are some current NFL players who won the Heisman:
https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2024-12-09/these-are-active-nfl-players-who-have-won-heisman-trophy?amp
Some really good NFL QBs in there.
Now one issue is that "Heisman" is usually a good QB on a top team, so they can be overrated. Secondly, if a Heisman QB goes #1 he is usually going to a bad team, a bad franchise. So that can be the "kiss of death."
QB in the NFL is a bit of a crapshoot. However, at worst Mendoza will be a long time back up making good money and will be a natural to become a top OC in the future. No one studies and prepares more than he does. And again, that is worst case. Given his rate of progress, who knows how good he can be next year or in following years? When Spacital made him the starter back in 2023, he compared him to Tom Brady.
We should probably get over any remaining bitterness and put a good Cal spin on this: A (former) Cal quarterback has won the Heisman Trophy! Let's own this!
"Go Bears forever!"
Grrrrah76 said:
Three plus years at Cal with a degree and 5 months at Indiana. And which school gets all the honors?
That's because Wilcox was his coach at Cal and Cignetti was his coach at Indiana. Big difference.
Golden One said:Grrrrah76 said:
Three plus years at Cal with a degree and 5 months at Indiana. And which school gets all the honors?
That's because Wilcox was his coach at Cal and Cignetti was his coach at Indiana. Big difference.
Wondering who gave him a chance when no other P5 school did….
Cal88 said:Grrrrah76 said:
Three plus years at Cal with a degree and 5 months at Indiana. And which school gets all the honors?
13-0.
Pretty much. We owe it to Indiana and Mark Cuban in that sense.
Mendoza wasn't the most athletic. He wasn't the best runner. He didn't have the strongest arm. He didn't pop off the page compared to the other QB's we brought in.
But he had that "it" factor. He constantly rose to the occasion. His whole was greater than the sum of his parts. He was always fast enough. His arm was always strong enough.
And most importantly, he made Cal football enjoyable when there wasn't much else going on.
Ignoring the way that he left for a moment here....he absolutely was let down by his coaching staff, and he absolutely made the right decision for himself, for his career, for his brother, and for his mom.
And he managed to complete his degree before leaving.
Guy absolutely deserved the award and I'm proud to say he's a Cal Alumn.
But he had that "it" factor. He constantly rose to the occasion. His whole was greater than the sum of his parts. He was always fast enough. His arm was always strong enough.
And most importantly, he made Cal football enjoyable when there wasn't much else going on.
Ignoring the way that he left for a moment here....he absolutely was let down by his coaching staff, and he absolutely made the right decision for himself, for his career, for his brother, and for his mom.
And he managed to complete his degree before leaving.
Guy absolutely deserved the award and I'm proud to say he's a Cal Alumn.
calumnus said:HistoryBear said:
But isn't the Heisman the kiss of death? What Heisman winner in recent memory had a brilliant pro career without scandal?
I assume you mean QBs specifically and "Kiss of death" is far too strong. Here are some current NFL players who won the Heisman:
https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2024-12-09/these-are-active-nfl-players-who-have-won-heisman-trophy?amp
Some really good NFL QBs in there.
Now one issue is that "Heisman" is usually a good QB on a top team, so they can be overrated. Secondly, if a Heisman QB goes #1 he is usually going to a bad team, a bad franchise. So that can be the "kiss of death."
QB in the NFL is a bit of a crapshoot. However, at worst Mendoza will be a long time back up making good money and will be a natural to become a top OC in the future. No one studies and prepares more than he does. And again, that is worst case. Given his rate of progress, who knows how good he can be next year or in following years? When Spacital made him the starter back in 2023, he compared him to Tom Brady.
He's too talented to aspire to be an OC, that's for nerds. He's a shoo-in as a S. Florida Congressman or maybe Senator after his future NFL career. Look at the dou***s like Rubio or Fine currently there, he's far more presentable and 10x better as a communicator than they could ever be. Or maybe a sales VP or future CEO.
PAC-10-BEAR said:The moment Fernando Mendoza became a Heisman winner 🥹🏆 pic.twitter.com/nEobBz3T8U
— ESPN (@espn) December 14, 2025Fernando Mendoza's speech after winning the Heisman 👏 pic.twitter.com/l2xvqJzKju
— ESPN (@espn) December 14, 2025
Classy speech, some are saying it's the greatest Heisman acceptance speech ever.
Who is that? Donald Trump? "Some are saying it's the greatest ever" will never sit with me quite right again as anything other than a con artist statement.
This year's Heisman like no other showed how much this award is not about individual talent as much as it is about a team effort. We've all seen Fernando. He was never a player that could change a game by himself. He was a player who could manage a game when he was surrounded by a good cast of characters, which wasn't what he had at Cal. I'm also a bit turned off by all the highly produced human interest story aspects of the made for TV moment. Too many football players, like all people in society, are flawed. We selectively ignore these flaws in pursuit of the whitewashed sham in the money driven industry of college sports. Let's get back to watching the game, not for the purpose of building false idols.
HistoryBear said:
But isn't the Heisman the kiss of death? What Heisman winner in recent memory had a brilliant pro career without scandal?
Still too early to tell on some players but Caleb Williams is having a pretty good season in Chicago & Jayden Daniel's did lead Washington to conference championship last year. Most Heisman winners are drafted by bad teams
SouthKBear said:
Sad, that it wasn't at Cal and we are an after thought. He did mention Cal, to be fair. But oh well. One day, will have our heisman winner.
RIP Chuck Muncie
gross
— indy reporter (@Indy_reporter_) December 14, 2025
CALiforniALUM said:PAC-10-BEAR said:The moment Fernando Mendoza became a Heisman winner 🥹🏆 pic.twitter.com/nEobBz3T8U
— ESPN (@espn) December 14, 2025Fernando Mendoza's speech after winning the Heisman 👏 pic.twitter.com/l2xvqJzKju
— ESPN (@espn) December 14, 2025
Classy speech, some are saying it's the greatest Heisman acceptance speech ever.
Who is that? Donald Trump? "Some are saying it's the greatest ever" will never sit with me quite right again as anything other than a con artist statement.
This year's Heisman like no other showed how much this award is not about individual talent as much as it is about a team effort. We've all seen Fernando. He was never a player that could change a game by himself. He was a player who could manage a game when he was surrounded by a good cast of characters, which wasn't what he had at Cal. I'm also a bit turned off by all the highly produced human interest story aspects of the made for TV moment. Too many football players, like all people in society, are flawed. We selectively ignore these flaws in pursuit of the whitewashed sham in the money driven industry of college sports. Let's get back to watching the game, not for the purpose of building false idols.
I'm surprised the show didn't provide an update on Sherrone Moore & Michigan. I wonder why they left it out?
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