IU Spring Position Outlook: QB
A look at who Indiana will have on campus for Spring Practice, their position on the depth chart and who could break out...
With OSU beating Notre Dame in the CFP National Championship…and IU securing the title of 3rd best team in college football (I kid, I kid…sort of)…it is officially the off-season and that means Spring Practice that caps off with the Spring Game. Each teams Spring Game is really the only time the general public will see live college football until late August.
I’m sad 2024 ended but am absolutely pumped for how IU finished their 2025 HS and portal classes. And that’s why I’m here.
A lot has changed since IU’s season ended on that cold, blustery December night in South Bend. Lots of really good players graduated and lots of good players coming back in via the transfer portal.
In this exercise, we’ll look at who IU has brought in in a position by position basis. Since there really isn’t much happening yet, I wanted to give people a primer on what to expect and who they’ll see once Spring Practice starts in a couple months.
Today, we’ll focus on QB’s.
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Before we get into the analysis, you can check out my depth charts for both offense and defense (below), which is where I see the roster and 2-deep being before Spring Practice starts.
As you can see, I put these out in mid January and things can always change. If you’d like to see the entire roster early, please feel free to check out the Google Sheets version here. This is a working document. I usually make a ton of notes about who and why I move players up and down (or off when they leave) but Google isn’t smart enough to let people who don’t have editing power actually see the notes…which is incredibly dumb and something that’s annoyed me for the 5 or so years I’ve been doing these on my own (rant over).
Today, we’ll be looking at QB’s, who I think starts and a bit of analysis regarding who each player is and their outlook, not just for this year, but in future years. Since this is a smaller position group and arguably the most important, I’ll probably have more words about these guys than some of the others and won’t really pick a “breakout” as we pretty much know how these guys stack up…
Fernando Mendoza (Sr/Jr) 6'5, 222 / Starter:
The unquestioned favorite to start when IU suits up on August 30th against Old Dominion in Bloomington is Fernando Mendoza.
Mendoza was sort of an afterthought QB coming out of powerhouse Columbus HS (Miami, FL) and ranked as just the 140th QB (2*) per the 247 Composite of all the recruiting sites.
California was his only high major offer coming out of high school, and, even just looking at his HS HUDL videos, you can sort of understand why. He has prototypical size for the position but that’s really all that is “prototype” about him. That isn’t meant to discount him at all but he’s just not an elite athlete, didn’t put up elite numbers in high school (albeit against very good competition) and he doesn’t have the elite arm strength that teams and scouts look for when evaluating QB’s.1
Mendoza entered Cal and redshirted his freshman season in 2022. In 2023, Cal had brought in Sam Jackson (TCU) and Ben Finley (NC State) to compete for the starting job but both struggled with consistency and injuries. Enter Mendoza who, as a redshirt freshman, took over the starting job around week 6 and never really looked back. Even with the 111th grade pass blocking OL per PFF, Mendoza finished 2023 with:
1708 passing yards (7.0 ypa) / 63% completion rate
14 TD’s / 10 INT’s
PFF Passing Grade of 68.1 (right around average)
2 Rushing TD’s
15 “Big Time Throws” (or BTT) in limited action and a BTT rate of 5.7% which ranked 34th out of 165 QB’s in FBS
Honorable Mention All Pac-12
Not bad for a composite 2* in his redshirt freshman season, eh?
In 2024, Mendoza was the unquestioned starter and began to refine his craft even more. Despite having the 72nd ranked pass blocking graded OL, Mendoza’s numbers were even more impressive. His improved command of the offense, his improvisational skills, his feel for the game, his improved arm strength and touch were all on display for a Cal team that had one of its better seasons in a while, despite having such a porous OL.
3004 passing yards (7.6 ypa) / 68% completion rate
16 TD’s / 6 INT’s
PFF Passing Grade of 75.6 (above average)
46th out of 159 in PFF Passing Grade when under pressure
When removing sack yardage — 52 carries for 334 yards, 6.4 ypc, 2 TD’s
IU is counting on Mendoza to continue to improve his feel for the game and seeing his year over year jump from Freshman to Sophomore season, I’m not sure why you wouldn’t be bullish on that happening.
Add to the fact that Mendoza has two more years of eligibility and you can see why 247 ranked him as a 4* (93 grade) and the 15th overall player and 4th QB in the transfer portal this cycle.
Barring something totally unforeseen (basically like only an injury), Mendoza is locked into starting at IU for the foreseeable future and Hoosier fans should be very excited to have such a veteran signal caller with his poise and toughness leading this team.
Grant Wilson (R-Sr+) 6’3, 217 / Competing for Back up
Wilson is a transfer from Old Dominion who’s coming to IU to compete for the back up role in his 6th year of college football. This was a very under the radar signing by IU this portal cycle because Wilson threw for over 2100 yards as ODU’s starter in 2023 and it’s rare you get a player with this much experience to come in knowing they will likely be the back up.
But that happens when you have a player like Wilson who probably sees that he can get a jump start on his coaching career learning from OC Mike Shanahan and HC Curt Cignetti. Essentially, this will be an internship for Wilson while also having the chance to potentially get on the field as the back up in his first taste of FBS football. It’s a win win for him as he gets to sit in a room with Fernando Mendoza and new QB Coach Chandler Whitmer every day for the next 10 months while getting an IU degree.
Alberto Mendoza (So/Fr) 6'2, 203 / Competing for Back up
Fernando’s little brother Alberto will be battling with Wilson for the back up role this season. Out of the same Columbus HS (Miami, FL), Mendoza doesn’t have the size of his brother but makes up for that in HS production (4,596 passing yards and 57 TD’s). The younger Mendoza was ranked by ESPN as the #55 overall QB in the 2023 cycle and #86 by 247. Mendoza had been committed to Cignetti at James Madison before switching his pledge to IU when the coaching staff moved from JMU to IU.
Mendoza seemed like he was ahead of fellow freshman Tyler Cherry last year but we saw both players sparingly. I expect a jump from the younger Mendoza but hopefully we’ll just see him this spring as he battles Wilson for the back up role.
Tyler Cherry (So/Fr) 6'5, 219 / Competing for Back up/Injured
Cherry was the crown jewel of the Curt Cignetti’s first HS recruiting class at IU. Cherry was rated as one of the top prospects in Indiana by all the services and a top 25 QB nationally per 247 (#22), Rivals (#18) and On3 (#6), as well as being a composite 4* by 247.
Cherry possesses prototypical size for a pocket passer. He’s got a big, accurate arm and is still learning how to throw with more touch. As with former IU QB Tayven Jackson (ironically both from Center Grove HS), it’s more about how they process information at speed that will determine their ceiling’s as a QB.
Unfortunately, Cherry tore his ACL in CFP practices and will miss Spring Practice and is probably doubtful for the start of the 2025 season at a minimum. It wouldn’t be surprising if he missed the entire year as they try to get him healthy and ready for 2026.
After missing out on the 5* QB Julien Lewis drama (signed with Colorado), it looked like IU might not sign a QB this cycle but Cherry’s injury is likely the reason IU decided to bring in two transfer QB’s (Mendoza and Wilson) and a HS QB.
Jacob Bell (Fr) 6'3, 195 / Not on campus for spring/developmental
Speaking of the HS QB…I’m not going to go very deep on Jacob Bell because he’s not going to be at IU this spring. The former Ball State commit has some intriguing raw tools, a good arm and good athlete but is being brought in as a developmental QB to redshirt during the 2025 season.
One of the things that drives me nuts in QB evals is that they take what happens in 7 on 7 or against air in throwing sessions and project that to game play. Every year we see players with elite skills who simply can’t process in game speed. We see these types of QB’s get overlooked each season.
Fernando is a field general and a locker room team leader.