Fernando Mendoza Just Won It All as a Freshman and the College Football Offseason Is Absolutely Unhinged
We're halfway through the college football offseason and things are getting weird. Like, really weird. Indiana's quarterback Fernando Mendoza went 16-0, won the Heisman Trophy, and captured the national championship all in his first year at the school. Yeah, you read that right. A Cal QB just did what seemed impossible, and now every team in the portal is scrambling to figure out what's next.
When College's Biggest Stars Actually Stay (or Leave)
This year's NFL Draft has a distinctly college football flavor to it. The top prospects aren't raw, projectable unknowns. They're the names you actually watched dominate on Saturday. Three of the top five prospects on Dane Brugler's board are Ohio State defenders from their 2024 national championship team. Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love finished third in Heisman voting and is one of the best college backs we've seen in years. Safety Caleb Downs and LB Sonny Styles are the other Ohio State defenders expected to go earliest. Edge Arvell Reese rounds out the standouts, though he's got more separation between his college production and projected NFL output than the others.
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Indiana? Living on cloud nine after winning it all and hitting the portal hard again. Ohio State, Georgia, and Oregon are doing fine, though with some underlying tension. Both Ohio State and Georgia know they could collapse to 10-2 if player development slips. Oregon? Fans are tired of just contending. They want that trophy.
Ole Miss and Oklahoma are holding their own in court and on the field. A judge's ruling kept Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss in the mix, and Oklahoma LB Owen Heinecke secured a similar win this week.
Alabama is worrisome after a 35-point loss to Indiana in the Rose Bowl. The Tide didn't land a huge portal haul and now need to develop a new starting QB. Miami and Texas A&M are on the rise. Texas Tech is portaling aggressively thanks to their deep-pocketed energy-baron donor. Tulane and James Madison are in transition after losing coaches to Florida and UCLA.
Nineteen weeks until Week 0. It's going to be a wild spring.
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