Watch Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza deliver touching gesture to Ggrandparents in Heisman Trophy speech

The Indiana Hoosiers are going into the College Football Playoffs as the surprising top-ranked team in the postseason. The Hoosiers’  quarterback Fernando Mendoza will lead the team into the playoff as the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner.

Fernando Mendoza spoke in Spanish for his grandparents in his Heisman winning speech pic.twitter.com/UHaqSO92mu

— ESPN (@espn) December 14, 2025

Mendoza beat out Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia, Ohio State’s Julian Sayin and Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love to become the first Indiana player to win the award. Mendoza has passed for 2,980 yards and 33 TDs this season.

The quarterback gave a heartfelt speech in which he thanked his coaches, his teammates, his friends and family. Towards the conclusion of his remarks, he thanked his grandparents by acknowledging their presence with several sentences spoken in Spanish. His grandparents had a hard time holding back their tears as Mendoza spoke about how much they meant to him.

Mendoza is a redshirt junior who had played last year for the California Bears before he moved on to Indiana. He was named The Associated Press player of the year during the week and he also won the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien awards Friday.

Mendoza finishes with dominating triumph in  Heisman Trophy voting

Pavia finished second in the Heisman voting followed by Love. Sayin finished fourth overall in the voting.

Mendoza was a runaway winner for College Football’s highest honor. He had 643 first place votes, 191 second place selections and 51 votes for the third spot. Pavia had a brilliant year for the surprising Vanderbilt Commodores. He had 189 first place votes, 352 second place selections and 164 third place votes.

Love was the highest ranked non-quarterback. He received 46 first place votes, 157 second-place selections and 267 third place votes. Sayin was one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the nation and he received 8 first place votes along with 118 second place selections and 173 third place votes.

Linebacker Jacob Rodriguez of Texas Tech, wide receiver Jeremiah Smith of Ohio State and quarterback Gunner Stockton of Georgia followed the top four in the voting.

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