Saturday’s “Big Noon“ stage doesn’t get much better than this: an unbeaten Indiana squad led by the nation’s hottest quarterback hosting a resurgent UCLA team that has become one of the best stories in college football.
The Hoosiers are led by Cal transfer QB Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman front-runner whose journey from two-star recruit to national star has captivated the sport.
On the other sideline, UCLA’s turnaround has been nothing short of stunning. After an 0-4 start and midseason coaching change, the Bruins have ripped off three straight wins and are suddenly one of college football’s most fascinating redemption stories.
FOX Sports’ RJ Young and Michael Cohen take a closer look at the players, storylines, and stakes shaping this week’s “Big Noon Saturday” showdown.
1. Heading into Saturday’s Indiana-UCLA matchup, Hoosiers QB Fernando Mendoza is the betting favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. Is Mendoza’s Heisman case based more on individual stats, storyline, or team success?
RJ Young: For me, it’s as simple as asking if Mendoza is the best player in college football. He certainly is one of them and has the statistics to show for it. He’s tied for the most passing TDs in the country with 23 and has the nation’s best passer efficiency rating (191). He is completing 73.5% of his passes and is throwing for more than 272 yards per game. With the win against Oregon on the road, he also can lay claim to one of the nation’s best wins.
However, him being the betting favorite to win the Heisman is curious to me because we’re seeing Ohio State QB Julian Sayin lead the nation’s best team and put up astonishing numbers, too. Sayin has completed 80.6% of his passes, has thrown 19 touchdowns, and averages better than 267 passing yards per game on a team with two top-25 wins and threatening to repeat as national champions. If Mendoza and Sayin continue to play at the level they have through seven games, the Heisman could go to the QB on the team that wins the Big Ten Championship. The Buckeyes and Hoosiers are on a collision course to do just that.
Quarterback Fernando Mendoza #15 of the Indiana Hoosiers smiles as he walks off the field after the matchup against the Iowa Hawkeyes. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
Michael Cohen: All of the above — and if Mendoza was playing at a traditional football power like Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama or Texas, the attention he’d be receiving from fans and media members would be approaching stratospheric levels given what he’s accomplished thus far.
But despite reaching the College Football Playoff in 2024 and racing to an undefeated start this season, headlined by an incredible road upset of then-No. 3 Oregon earlier this month, Indiana is still a newcomer to the sport’s elite tier thanks to 26 losing seasons from 1995 through the dismissal of former coach Tom Allen in 2023. For some, the Hoosiers’ prolonged symbiosis with cellar-dwelling stench is much too difficult to unravel, especially in a sport that clings so tightly to tradition.
But everything about Mendoza’s candidacy should be respected in the sport’s modern era. A native of Miami, where he played at Christopher Columbus High School, roughly 20 minutes west of downtown, Mendoza was the No. 2,149 overall prospect and No. 140 quarterback in the 2022 recruiting class. He chose to play for Cal in part because the Bears were the only power conference program to offer him a scholarship. Mendoza’s other offers came from Bryant, FIU, Lehigh, Pennsylvania and Yale — only one of which is an FBS program. He was, as a two-star prospect, the lowest-rated player in Cal’s class behind three-star athlete Jeremiah Earby, the No. 1,288 overall recruit in the 247Sports Composite. That Earby was separated from Mendoza by nearly 1,000 other players speaks to how little recruiting buzz the latter had generated.
From there, Mendoza redshirted during his true freshman season in 2022 and never even saw the field. He worked his way into Cal’s lineup the following year, as a redshirt freshman, by starting the Bears’ final eight games and throwing for 1,708 yards with 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions — enough production to earn honorable mention from the league’s coaches in the race for Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year. Mendoza then became the full-time starter in 2024 with high-level production soon to follow: a 68.7% completion rate; 3,004 passing yards; 16 touchdowns; six interceptions and the program’s second straight trip to a bowl game, which had only happened once in the preceding 10 years.
That was more than enough to make Mendoza, who has a statuesque frame at 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, one of the most coveted quarterbacks in the transfer portal this past winter, third in the 247Sports rankings at that time behind only Carson Beck (Georgia to Miami) and John Mateer (Washington State to Oklahoma), though former Tennessee signal-caller Nico Iamaleava would eventually land at No. 1 on that list.
All Mendoza has done since arriving at Indiana is compile a stat line that ranks third nationally in completion rate (73.5%), tied for first in passing touchdowns (21) and first for fewest interceptions (two) among players with at least 20 passing scores, propelling the Hoosiers to seven straight wins, a No. 2 ranking in the latest AP Poll and a clear path toward the College Football Playoff.
It’s the kind of development story everyone in college football should be cheering.
2. After beginning the season 0-4, UCLA has shocked the college football world, winning three in a row and looking to make another monumental statement against unbeaten Indiana. How does this UCLA resurgence compare to other turnarounds in recent memory?
Michael Cohen: With the understanding that this answer might very well be rooted in recency bias, the turnaround at UCLA should probably be considered the most impressive given both the breadth of changes that were made and the outside factors at play in college football’s modern era.
When UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond decided to fire second-year head coach DeShaun Foster on Sept. 14, two days after the Bruins were embarrassed at home, 35-10, by New Mexico to begin the season with three consecutive defeats, he did so knowing full well what that timing might mean for the roster. Any dismissal of a head coach immediately opens a 30-day transfer portal window that affords players an opportunity to reevaluate their present and future. And by firing his coach after four or fewer games — which is the upper limit of participation in order for players to preserve a potential redshirt season — Jarmond knew he was exposing the Bruins to what could have been widespread defections or hold-ins for the remainder of the year.
The subsequent departures of defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe and offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri, both of whom were gone before the end of September, seemed to further imperil the operation.
But the emerging triumvirate of interim coach Tim Skipper, newly promoted offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel and freshly hired senior defensive analyst/defensive play caller Kevin Coyle has done a masterful job of preserving the locker room and keeping the program afloat.
Not only have those three coaches guided UCLA to consecutive wins over then-No. 7 Penn State, Michigan State and Maryland to become one of seven teams tied at 3-1 in the Big Ten, trailing only Ohio State and Indiana in the conference standings, but the 30-day transfer portal window came and went without a single player deciding to leave. And for a roster that was already briefly upended by the late-spring arrival of divisive quarterback Nico Iamaleava, a high-priced transfer from Tennessee who underwhelmed during UCLA’s first four games, such cohesion in the face of widespread upheaval is truly remarkable, a testament to the new men in charge that can’t be praised enough.
Now, UCLA is preparing for a nationally televised date with No. 2 Indiana (noon ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app) and will arrive at Memorial Stadium as one of the most intriguing outfits in the sport. The Bruins are chasing their first win over a top-five opponent since defeating second-ranked USC on Dec. 2, 2006, and their first road win over a top-five opponent since toppling No. 2 Washington on Nov. 10, 1990. What an incredible story it would be if Skipper, Neuheisel, Iamaleava and Co. can do it again this weekend.
UCLA offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel calls a play late in the game against Penn State.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
RJ Young: In 2008, Tommy Bowden resigned at Clemson after the program lost a 12-7 game to Wake Forest and fell to 3-3. Offensive coordinator Rob Spence was fired. The interim pick to take over for him was former wide receiver Dabo Swinney. He and then-interim offensive coordinator Billy Napier led the program to a mighty 7-6 record, and, because they did, they were given the role permanently. From there, Swinney developed a powerhouse at Clemson that has been the class of the ACC and won multiple national titles in the CFP era. That’s what UCLA could be building toward if it can continue the run it’s been on since Skipper assumed the role and promoted assistants into play-calling positions.
The game is in Bloomington, and the Indiana fan base is more energized than ever. This is a program that not only believes it can win the Big Ten title, but dares to dream about a national championship. Curt Cignetti is an $11.6 million man, and Fernando Mendoza is the betting favorite to win the Heisman. And yet — if UCLA can knock off the No. 2 team in the country this weekend to climb back to 4–4, the Bruins could turn a season once defined by misery into one overflowing with belief and momentum. For a program still finding its footing in the Big Ten, that would be nothing short of remarkable.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him @RJ_Young.
Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him @Michael_Cohen13.
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