NEW YORK -- Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who guided the Hoosiers to their first No. 1 ranking and the top seed in the 12-team College Football bracket after throwing for 2,980 yards and a national-best 33 touchdown passes, won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night.
In final voting, Mendoza outdistanced Vanderbilt's Diego Pavia, Ohio State's Julian Sayin, and Notre Dame's Jeremiyah Love, and will now turn his focus to the CFP, in which the Hoosiers have a first-round bye. He is Indiana's first Heisman winner in school history.
Pavia set records at Vanderbilt, and Sayin kept defending national-champion Ohio State at the top, while Love, a running back, had an impressive season for Notre Dame. But none could top the Hoosiers' quarterback who played last season at Cal.
Quarterbacks have now won the Heisman four of last five years, with two-way player Travis Hunter of Colorado the only outlier in that run last season.
The award presentation Saturday night came after a number of accolades awarded already. Mendoza was named The Associated Press player of the year earlier this week and picked up the Maxwell and Davey O'Brien awards Friday night while Love won the Doak Walker Award.
A redshirt junior, Mendoza, the once lightly recruited Miami native is the second Heisman finalist in school history, joining 1989 runner-up Anthony Thompson. Mendoza is the seventh Indiana player to earn a top-10 finish in Heisman balloting and it marks another first in program history -- having back-to-back players in the top 10. Hoosiers quarterback Kurtis Rourke was ninth last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
