The 2025 Indiana football team is dominating and playing even better than the team that burst onto the College Football Playoff scene last year. The biggest key has been Fernando Mendoza's play under center. Mendoza is one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and he had a Heisman moment in Indiana's comeback win against Penn State when he threw a last-second touchdown pass to Omar Cooper Jr. for a tiptoe catch.
On the latest episode of “The Triple Option” podcast, Fernando Mendoza was a guest and talked to Urban Meyer, Rob Stone, and Mark Ingram. He spoke in depth about what went into that throw to Omar Cooper Jr. and why they believed it had a matchup advantage. It also fascinated Urban Meyer, and he was in awe of Mendoza's discussion of coverages and matchups.
Mendoza explained, “They play kind of like their two Joker structure. It’s a little similar and they have this middle safety who is really reading off the quarterback’s eyes and really playing off that speed, and so we had number three Omar Cooper Jr., who made the fantastic catch. So when I caught the ball I saw his hips turn, his hips and eyes turn. So that point all I knew was I needed to beat that boundary curl defender and beat that boundary safety.
