The college football world has never seen a quarterback like Fernando Mendoza, a LinkedIn aficionado, investment enthusiast, and football strategy nerd. Now the Hoosier QB can add another line to his already impressive resume: Heisman Trophy winner.
For someone as detail-oriented as Mendoza, there is no aspect of his game that he will overlook if it means gaining an edge, even something as small as a facemask. Because Mendoza doesn’t see it as just a facemask, he sees it as an opportunity to maximize his vision on the field and get an edge over the defense. For his first two seasons at Cal, Mendoza used the Vicis ZERO2 helmet with the standard SO-212 quarterback facemask, the same combination used by Patrick Mahomes and countless other quarterbacks.
However, Mendoza is not the type to settle for “good enough” or the status quo. Always looking to get that extra edge, Mendoza made an interesting change to his helmet heading into the 2025 season. Keeping the Vicis ZERO2 helmet shell, Mendoza switched to the SK-212 facemask, a style typically reserved for kickers. As you can see from the picture below, this facemask has a way lower profile compared to the quarterback version that his brother Alberto (#16) is wearing.
This lower-profile facemask allows Mendoza to see more of the field at once. The wider field of vision has helped Mendoza make big-time throws all season long, from the game-winning throw to Omar Cooper Jr. against Penn State to the game-sealing pass to Charlie Becker in the Big Ten Championship Game.
Quarterbacks wearing kicker facemasks is nothing new; Fran Tarkenton and Joe Theismann rocked the single bar for years. However, as times and league safety requirements changed, QBs in the modern age opted for more traditional facemasks. Mendoza might have just changed that.
This change wasn’t just about how it looked; it was about efficiency. In IU’s RPO-heavy offense, much of the success is based on Mendoza’s ability to read defenses. As such, shaving milliseconds off of his decision-making time pays dividends and can result in huge plays. The fewer bars on his helmet allowed Mendoza to diagnose Penn State’s defense pre- and post-snap and connect with Cooper before they had time to react. It’s part of what let him scan the field in a blink of an eye and find an open Charlie Becker to seal a Big Ten Championship.
When Mendoza was crowned the Heisman winner on Saturday, the media was quick to latch on to his quirkiness. But it is the story of his facemask that encapsulates everything that makes Mendoza so unique. Now, Mendoza’s facemask isn’t the reason he won the Heisman, but it symbolizes the extremely detail-oriented approach that Mendoza takes towards his game. It was this approach that allowed him to become Indiana’s first flippin’ Heisman winner.