The Josh Innes Show - The Adorable Fernando Mendoza

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Prior to Saturday Night, I had never seen Fernando Mendoza or heard him speak. I think that was the case for most people. I had bet on him many times over the years. But, I'd never heard his voice. I love the guy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Look, you're Ohio State, man. You're late in the game. You're trying to enforce your will. You're down three. You're taking on Indiana. And I'm well aware that this isn't old school Indiana. This is Kurt Signetti, Indiana. By the way, I really hate this guy.

like his hard-on move or like he doesn't smile after they win the Big Ten championship. Like he looks like falling down. He looks like Michael Douglas and falling down. Like he looks like a guy that has like a lot of pent-up rage and at some point is going to take it out on a bunch of inner city thug-like criminals over the course of one day and take out his repressed white rage on all these people. I really despise this guy. I hate the look of him. Like he looks like a guy that's got bodies buried in a crawl space under his house.

I'm annoyed by the guy. Good coach, amazing coach. What he's done at Indiana is maybe the most remarkable thing any coach has ever done. And I think that's actually up for debate. Like, I don't know if any human in college coaching or any coaching has done something greater than Kurt Signetti. But hold on. Let's play a couple commercials. We'll get into that and some other stuff from that game.

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Think about it, though, for a second. What coach or who, whom, has done a better job, more impressive job at a school than Kurt Signetti has done. Now, granted, there were guys who built programs probably from the ground-up mini-moons ago, whatever, but in today's era where there are clear-cut powers, the haves and the have-nots, although in the NIL era things are different now, I'm well aware of that, but like you know who the big dogs are, is there a coach who has done a better job at a school? Let's leave pros out of it. A better job at a school than

Kurt Signetti has. And I say this is someone who finds this guy extremely annoying. Is there a better example? Find it for me. Like I'm trying to think at certain schools. Like Florida was never a superpower before Spurrier got there. Florida was fine and Spurrier built it into a juggernaut, but still that's Florida. And maybe part of it is we have a bias because we saw what he made Florida so we know what

Florida can be. So it's unfair to judge it for that. But like Florida was never a powerhouse. or like Nick Saban at LSU. But to me there's a difference between sleeping giants and completely worthless programs that are created by someone, right? Like LSU was a sleeping giant that had success before. Alabama was a sleeping giant that Nick Saban got there.

You know, Lane did a hell of a job at Ole Miss, but it's not like Ole Miss was always just a dreadful throwaway program that had no hope and no resources. Indiana, arguably, the worst coaching job in all of major college sports, at least football-wise, right? Like, trying to think of other examples, like Northwestern, and Pat Fitzgerald did fine at Northwestern, but Northwestern was never going to win the championship or anything like that. Snigetti's got these guys top-seeded, ready to go. I can't.

That's Indiana football. That is a school that no one has ever thought of as anything significant. I'm trying to think of all these different schools where, like, you have to think of schools that are obviously, like, also ran schools. Like, any major program has had some level of success at some point, right? So it's not like you'd look at that and go, all right, Cal did this. Like, well, but Cal's still a major program. Stanford kind of falls into that category, but Stanford's also had John Elway before. Like, I'm trying to think, like a coach who went into a scenario.

Like, you could also look at college basketball if you want, but I'm just leaving it at football. Think of somebody who's gone into a situation in college football, which is very tough to break into like that, that built a machine where there was no business being a machine. Like, Indiana, I believe, is the second losing this program. The second most loss is in the history of college football. So, where do we go? Like, what is the, like, I'm trying to think. And obviously you had to, like, you have to find someone that's down around that level. Which program has the most losses?

I would imagine the school with the most losses would have to be like a Northwestern or something, right? Let's see, college football team with most losses all time. Let's see. Indiana, Northwestern, Rutgers. Well, you know who did a pretty good job at Rutgers? I mean, Rutgers, Greg Shiano, the first time around, did a pretty good job at Rutgers. And Rutgers at one time, look, okay, here's your top five program losses. Kansas, Wake Forest, Rutgers, Northwestern.

I guess Indiana's actually technically first, okay? Like Northwestern had a moment with Pat Fitzgerald, but that's nothing that you would look at and go, that's remarkable, right? They weren't like a college football playoff. Now, granted, there wasn't a college football playoff back then, but you get the point. Rutgers, like Greg Shiano did a pretty good job at Rutgers, right? Wake Forest. Who was it that was the coach at one point that was decent at Wake Forest? I forgot that guy's name. And they're fine. And then Kansas. But in Kansas had a brief moment. And then they've had their decent now. The fat dude was

named Mark Mangino or whatever the fuck his name was. That fat dude with the mustache had a little bit of a moment. But I can't think of a more impressive thing. Now, I mean, the number one see that Indiana? So no. Look, you can list all that shit you want. There is not. Now, anyway, Part of the reason why they are where they are is they went out into the portal and got Fernando Mendoza who while I didn't discover Fernando Mendoza, I did know of him from Cal and Jillie and I used

to bet on Fernando Mendoza a lot because we are Fernando Mendoza people. So at Indiana he's been a beast and might just win the Heisman. But I had honest to God, I had never seen this man's face and I had never heard him talk. I think that's a lot of people. Like I knew him from Cal I never saw him talk. I never

listened to him talk, saw him talk, I never saw his face. until that game last night or two nights ago, three nights ago, whatever it was that they talked with him. And I was floored by this guy. My goodness, my friend here is adorable. James, how does that sound? It sounds so beautiful.

I want to give all the glory to God. We were never supposed to be in this position, but by the glory of God, the great coach's great teammates, every we have around us. We were able to pull this off. Whoever thought the Hoosier would be here, but now the Hoosers are flipping champs. Let's go.

You guys call yourself a bunch of miss who found the right home at Indiana. Why was this the right place for this group? It's the right place for Process Orange's it. We're going day by day. Where it's the office line, the defense, the coaches, special teams. We're all processed Orange's to one goal.

That's our thing. It's we're brothers. We can drag teams into the deep end because we know that we're going to stick together and we're the strongest glue ever. Tell me about finding Charlie Becker, third down. Two minutes to go. We talk about Heisman moments. But take me through that one. Also, the guy's just adorable.

It's infectious. He's got like a Hispanic Kirk Cousins quality. Like, oh, we're the flipping champs. Like, he's got a Kirk Cousin's equality about him that I think is adorable, that is charming is all I will say. I had never heard this guy talk. Like, you think about, like, we're like in the age of the Hispanic quarterback right now, right? Because you've got Pavia who could win the high. We might have two, I don't think we might.

We will have two Hispanic quarterbacks at the Heisman trophy ceremony. And I'm missing one other one. Another big, there's Pavia, there's Fernando Mendoza, and then there's one other dude that's like a big Hispanic quarterback in college. I can't believe I'm drawing a blank on him at this point. But like that's kind of where we are right now. We're like in the golden age of the Hispanic quarterback in college football. Rock on. What an incredible trial.

He's been every single day in summer. We were always thrown before practice, before at 7 a.m. on Sundays doing spots, doing routes. And now you see it to come for fruition. He's my roommate. I couldn't be happy for such a young man as well, as well as our defense playing lights out. What kind of a college guy refers to his roommate as a young man? Like, this dude is primed to be doing the Coles commercials. Whenever there's no more, when there's no more Kirk Cousins, my man Fernando Mendoza is going to be Coles dad.

And well, everybody just, what an incredible moment. Congratulations. Enjoy it. Thank you so much. God bless. Go Hoosiers. Good for him. How do you not like that?

He's adorable. Most guys are just assholes or whatever, cocky, arrogant. Good for him. Good for Fernando Mendoza. Who is the other Hispanic quarterback? There's another one. There's Pavia. There's Fernando Mendoza.

And there's one other dude that's out there slinging, too. And I'm trying to remember his name. But two Hispanic quarterbacks are going to be at the Heisman trophy ceremony. That is pretty phenomenal. That's a pretty remarkable accomplishment. Who would have thought that ever be the case? But here we are. All right.

Anyway, good for him. Indiana, there's never been, like, I don't know if there's a greater turnaround based on just history, not just a short-term thing, like, oh, Alabama's down with Mike Shula, here comes Nick Saban. I'm talking, like, program that was never anything, and Indiana has never been anything until now. Pretty remarkable. More to come.