Curt Cignetti admits Indiana would not have landed Fernando Mendoza without 2024 success

The Indiana Hoosiers are looking to repeat the success they had in 2024 in 2025. To do that, head coach Curt Cignetti has hit the Transfer Portal, landing several key players like quarterback Fernando Mendoza to try and make up for losses from last season’s roster.

While speaking to Greg McElroy on Always College Football, Curt Cignetti shared that last year’s success was vital to recruiting this year. Without it, players like Fernando Mendoza likely wouldn’t be Hoosiers this year.

“Oh, quite a bit,” Curt Cignetti said. “There’s no doubt about it. I think without that success, you don’t land a Fernando Mendoza or a Pat Coogan or some of the other guys we were able to get.”

Fernando Mendoza is coming to Indiana as a transfer from Cal, where he spent the first three seasons of his career. After taking a redshirt in 2022, he has two years of eligibility remaining. He’s also coming off a season where he completed 68.7 percent of passes for 3,004 yards and 16 touchdowns in 11 games. He also rushed for 105 yards and another two touchdowns.

“And I think where you’re really starting to see it show up now is in our high school recruiting,” Cignetti said. “Where we’ve in the last three weeks, picked up seven or eight quality commitments — they haven’t all announced. Because, really, last year’s class was put together before the season started. So, it’s all promises and the vision. Now, you’ve got the results to show for it.”

Curt Cignetti landed the 53rd-ranked high school class in the 2025 cycle. That class was the highest-ranked for Indiana since the 2022 cycle. Beyond that, it’s been a strong Transfer Portal class too. Indiana currently has the 13th-ranked transfer class in the 2025 cycle.

“The portal haul, I think, was good. I think we have a lot of nice pieces on this team. I’ve got the typical post-spring anxiety. I always do heading into the summer. But we’ll have a great summer and a good fall camp,” Cignetti said. “And you gotta have them thinking alike as you have them running out of that tunnel game one and build on every success. So, I like where we’re at right now, and a lot of it is probably because of the success we had last year in terms of who we’ve been able to bring in. But regardless of who you bring in, you’ve got to coach them up and form those intangibles.”

Indiana is going to look to make the College Football Playoff again in 2025. That run will start on August 30th against Old Dominion.