For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Las Vegas Raiders selected a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick: Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza from the University of Indiana.

While he enjoyed a triumphant and glamorous 2025 season, his football journey has been anything but. Get to know the newest member of the Silver and Black below.

Started from the bottom

Fernando Mendoza wasn't your traditional blue-chip high school prospect. He only had two football scholarship offers: Yale and California.

In hindsight, it seems unusual considering all Mendoza accomplished at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, Florida. His senior season as the team's starting quarterback, he threw for 1,169 yards with an 11:4 touchdown to interception ratio while leading the Explorers to the 8A Football State Championships semifinals.

However, he was still the 134th-ranked quarterback by 247 Sports in the class of 2022.

"I was raw, that was a true ranking," Mendoza said at the NFL Combine. "I was terrible. So, it's all about the small wins every day and it's all about discipline."

Early glimpses of his talents

Mendoza shifted his decision from Yale to California after receiving an offer late in the recruiting process.

He worked his way up the depth chart in a span of two years and was named the starting quarterback midway through his redshirt freshman year. In his third start, he went toe-to-toe with eventual 2022 Heisman Trophy winner and current Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, but Mendoza and Cal suffered a narrow 50-49 defeat after throwing for 292 passing yards and two touchdowns.

Mendoza began to find his footing the following year. In 11 starts, he completed nearly 69% of his passes for 3,004 yards and 16 touchdowns. His premier win with the Golden Bears was against Auburn, in which he threw for 233 yards and two touchdowns.

Season for the ages

Mendoza did enough at Cal to make himself far more desirable in the transfer portal than he was as a high school prospect.

After receiving several lucrative offers, he zoned in the Indiana Hoosiers, who were coming off their first season with double-digit wins in school history (11-2). However, that season would pale in comparison to the perfect 16-0 ride Mendoza would take Indiana on.

On their way to winning their first national championship, Indiana defeated five ranked opponents to win the Big Ten championship and defeated Alabama, Oregon and Miami in the CFB playoffs.

Mendoza completed a whopping 72 percent of his passes for 3,535 yards and FCBS-leading 41 touchdown passes. He took home the Heisman Trophy, CFP National Championship Game Offensive MVP, Walter Camp Award, AP College Football Player of the Year and Big Ten Most Valuable Player – just to name a few of his most notable individual accolades.

"This moment, it's an honor, it's bigger than me," Mendoza said during his Heisman Trophy acceptance speech. "It's a product of a family, team, community and a whole lot of people who believed in me long before anybody knew my name."

Family first

Mendoza chose to skip the draft festivities so he could remain in Miami with his family — especially his mother, Elsa.

Elsa Mendoza, who is the anchor for Fernando and his two younger brothers, has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Even as the disease has brought significant physical challenges, she attended every game throughout Indiana's run to the national championship.

Fernando has become an advocate for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, partnering with several local restaurants in Bloomington, Indiana, to raise money and awareness for the organization. Alongside his two younger brothers and parents, he also launched the Mendoza Family Fund, which directly supports the National MS Society.

"My mom means the world to me – she's the most caring and positive person I know," Fernando Mendoza wrote in a previous online fundraiser, "and I'll keep doing everything I can to support her and others living with MS! Nearly 1 million people in the U.S. live with this unpredictable and often disabling disease, and while progress has been made, there's still so much more to do."

In December 2025, Elsa penned a personal letter to her son through The Players' Tribune, as she watches him accomplish his dream of making it to the NFL.

"Your accomplishments will NEVER impact how proud of you I am," she wrote. "Because you are already everything I could have hoped for as a mother.... and that has nothing to do with the miles you throw or the touchdowns you score. It has everything to do with the man you've grown into. As an oldest brother who shows the way. As a hard worker who has an unstoppable spirit."