The Boot Camp That Turned Indiana's Quarterback Into a Heisman Trophy Winner

Fernando Mendoza turned down the Manning Passing Academy to spend more time working out with the Hoosiers. Now he's leading the most improbable campaign in college football.

https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/fernando-mendoza-indiana-quarterback-heisman-c6c1e827?mod=hp_lista_pos1

Quote:

---

For a college quarterback, an invite from the Manning Passing Academy is usually too good to refuse. Being a counselor at the camp amounts to enrolling in football graduate school and learning directly from the first family of footballArchie, Peyton and Eli.

But when the academy extended an invitation to Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza last summer, Mendoza did something as shocking as a young violinist turning down Juilliard.
He politely declined.

"The Manning Passing Academy is like the Holy Grail for college quarterbacks," Mendoza said.
But Mendoza had his reasons. And as it turned out, turning down the Mannings was the smartest possible decision. Instead of decamping to Thibodaux, La., for football's most exclusive family reunion, Mendozaa transfer from the University of Californiaspent his summer in Bloomington, obsessively learning the playbook of his new coach, Curt Cignetti.

Now, Mendoza is the quarterback of the No. 1 team in the College Football Playoff and the national leader in touchdown passes. Saturday night, he walked away with the first Heisman Trophy in Indiana history.
"Coach Cignetti sold me," Mendoza said, "on being the best Fernando Mendoza that I could become."
When he arrived at Indiana before his junior season, he was a much more forgettable version of Fernando Mendoza. Over two seasons at Cal, he was the largely unknown leader of a mostly underwhelming team. The Golden Bears had put up losing records in back-to-back seasons, and Mendozaa graduate of Cal's business school who had already made one trip to the Manning Academyseemed far more likely to become a real-estate investor than a Heisman Trophy winner.

But Cignetti had a vision. Indiana's offensive mastermind favors a system heavy on "run-pass options," plays that require a quarterback to read the oncoming rush and decide in a microsecond whether to hand the ball to the running back or pull it out for a quick open throw. It's the type of offense that can absolutely shred even top college defensesjust as long as the quarterback is adept at making those split-second reads.
Mendoza knew that attending the Manning camp last summer would have required him to miss two Indiana workouts. So Cignetti asked him to spend time on campus instead, not wasting a single opportunity to build chemistry between Mendoza and his new teammates.

"Coach Cignetti doesn't like when one of his leaders, much less a quarterback who's new to the team…misses a workout," Mendoza said. "He's very by the rules. I think that's why Indiana's had so much success."
At least one former coach could appreciate Cignetti's rigidity. David Cutcliffe was Peyton Manning's offensive coordinator at Tennessee, and he remembered geeking out over football minutiae before Manning's freshman year. The two talked about offense so long, Cutcliffe said ,that "Archie fell asleep on the couch."

Cutcliffe believes that Cignetti and Mendoza made the right call by choosing the extra time on campus.
"The biggest part of coaching a quarterback one-on-one, of mentoring, is building that trust," Cutcliffe said. "Mendoza looks like a veteran in the system, so obviously that was time very well spent."

---

short excerpt from WSJ article...behind paywall...

Another WSJ article about Indiana!

Indiana went from one of college football's losingest schools to the top team in the country. And it didn't take endless hours on the practice field to get there.

In a sport that caps practice time at a maximum of 20 hours per week, the Hoosiers typically use just six of those on the field. Walk-throughs before and after games are barely as long as an episode of "The Office." Even Cignetti's most arduous sessions fall well short of the two-hour mark.

"I've always been a short practice guy," Cignetti said. "My practices have probably gotten even shorter through the years, as we do everything we can to prepare the team fully but keep them fresh and healthy."

This is all part of Cignetti's "work smarter, not harder" philosophy that is shaking up college football. Outside of Bloomington, no other coach would ever consider leaving a single minute of practice time unused. They equate high performance with extreme preparedness.
Indiana is the Best Team in College Footballand They Barely Practice at All - WSJ

The most similar comparison to Fernando Mendoza (and its not far off, IMO) for A&M quarterbacks is Kellen Mond 2020

I've found that I'm at my absolute best when somebody waves a Denny's menu in my face and screams at me every 5 minutes for 4 hours straight on Saturday afternoon.

Iraq2xVeteran said:

---

Another WSJ article about Indiana!

Indiana went from one of college football's losingest schools to the top team in the country. And it didn't take endless hours on the practice field to get there.

In a sport that caps practice time at a maximum of 20 hours per week, the Hoosiers typically use just six of those on the field. Walk-throughs before and after games are barely as long as an episode of "The Office." Even Cignetti's most arduous sessions fall well short of the two-hour mark.

"I've always been a short practice guy," Cignetti said. "My practices have probably gotten even shorter through the years, as we do everything we can to prepare the team fully but keep them fresh and healthy."

This is all part of Cignetti's "work smarter, not harder" philosophy that is shaking up college football. Outside of Bloomington, no other coach would ever consider leaving a single minute of practice time unused. They equate high performance with extreme preparedness.
Indiana is the Best Team in College Footballand They Barely Practice at All - WSJ

---

Fisher was doomed by the ethos of American corporate structure. The idea that more is better, and that somehow moving up the ladder and making more money means that you magically have more bandwidth. I watched Fisher unwind from this mindset, commented on it years before he was fired, and watched the hours and hours of diminishing returns pile up.

Steve Spurrier and Bob Stoops never bought into the over-work crap.

Iraq2xVeteran said:

---

Another WSJ article about Indiana!

Indiana went from one of college football's losingest schools to the top team in the country. And it didn't take endless hours on the practice field to get there.

In a sport that caps practice time at a maximum of 20 hours per week, the Hoosiers typically use just six of those on the field. Walk-throughs before and after games are barely as long as an episode of "The Office." Even Cignetti's most arduous sessions fall well short of the two-hour mark.

"I've always been a short practice guy," Cignetti said. "My practices have probably gotten even shorter through the years, as we do everything we can to prepare the team fully but keep them fresh and healthy."

This is all part of Cignetti's "work smarter, not harder" philosophy that is shaking up college football. Outside of Bloomington, no other coach would ever consider leaving a single minute of practice time unused. They equate high performance with extreme preparedness.
Indiana is the Best Team in College Footballand They Barely Practice at All - WSJ

---

another interesting article and insight into Cignetti's working program.

OKC~Ag said:

---

The Boot Camp That Turned Indiana's Quarterback Into a Heisman Trophy Winner

Fernando Mendoza turned down the Manning Passing Academy to spend more time working out with the Hoosiers. Now he's leading the most improbable campaign in college football.

https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/fernando-mendoza-indiana-quarterback-heisman-c6c1e827?mod=hp_lista_pos1

Quote:

---

For a college quarterback, an invite from the Manning Passing Academy is usually too good to refuse. Being a counselor at the camp amounts to enrolling in football graduate school and learning directly from the first family of footballArchie, Peyton and Eli.

But when the academy extended an invitation to Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza last summer, Mendoza did something as shocking as a young violinist turning down Juilliard.
He politely declined.

"The Manning Passing Academy is like the Holy Grail for college quarterbacks," Mendoza said.
But Mendoza had his reasons. And as it turned out, turning down the Mannings was the smartest possible decision. Instead of decamping to Thibodaux, La., for football's most exclusive family reunion, Mendozaa transfer from the University of Californiaspent his summer in Bloomington, obsessively learning the playbook of his new coach, Curt Cignetti.

Now, Mendoza is the quarterback of the No. 1 team in the College Football Playoff and the national leader in touchdown passes. Saturday night, he walked away with the first Heisman Trophy in Indiana history.
"Coach Cignetti sold me," Mendoza said, "on being the best Fernando Mendoza that I could become."
When he arrived at Indiana before his junior season, he was a much more forgettable version of Fernando Mendoza. Over two seasons at Cal, he was the largely unknown leader of a mostly underwhelming team. The Golden Bears had put up losing records in back-to-back seasons, and Mendozaa graduate of Cal's business school who had already made one trip to the Manning Academyseemed far more likely to become a real-estate investor than a Heisman Trophy winner.

But Cignetti had a vision. Indiana's offensive mastermind favors a system heavy on "run-pass options," plays that require a quarterback to read the oncoming rush and decide in a microsecond whether to hand the ball to the running back or pull it out for a quick open throw. It's the type of offense that can absolutely shred even top college defensesjust as long as the quarterback is adept at making those split-second reads.
Mendoza knew that attending the Manning camp last summer would have required him to miss two Indiana workouts. So Cignetti asked him to spend time on campus instead, not wasting a single opportunity to build chemistry between Mendoza and his new teammates.

"Coach Cignetti doesn't like when one of his leaders, much less a quarterback who's new to the team…misses a workout," Mendoza said. "He's very by the rules. I think that's why Indiana's had so much success."
At least one former coach could appreciate Cignetti's rigidity. David Cutcliffe was Peyton Manning's offensive coordinator at Tennessee, and he remembered geeking out over football minutiae before Manning's freshman year. The two talked about offense so long, Cutcliffe said ,that "Archie fell asleep on the couch."

Cutcliffe believes that Cignetti and Mendoza made the right call by choosing the extra time on campus.
"The biggest part of coaching a quarterback one-on-one, of mentoring, is building that trust," Cutcliffe said. "Mendoza looks like a veteran in the system, so obviously that was time very well spent."

---

short excerpt from WSJ article...behind paywall...

---

Perhaps we should hire Jimbo so we can fire him again. Isn't mentioned in the article so you are merely trolling…

Jimbo was actually really good with QB. His issue in the end is he couldn't keep one healthy.