Nothing changes for Fernando Mendoza amid Old Oaken Bucket debut: 'Can't wait to get a bite at the rivalry'
During Curt Cignetti’s first season coaching in the Indiana and Purdue rivalry, he wasted no time making a statement. It was a 66-0 beatdown for the Hoosiers, the largest margin of victory for either team in the longstanding rivalry. But, this year is different and there’s more at stake in this game than ever before.
One of the biggest differences is who’s under center for Indiana. Fernando Mendoza enters the final regular season game of the year as the current Heisman Trophy favorite and while he inches closer to potentially etching his name in college football history, his focus is on Purdue and trying to replicate what his predecessor did last season.
“I just can’t wait to get a bite at the rivalry,” Fernando Mendoza said during IU’s bye week. “Just to be able to experience it, be able to play in it against such a great team, such a great defense that they have. And it’s such an honor. It is such an honor to play Purdue.”
Trying to replicate the game that Kurtis Rourke had a season ago will be difficult. He torched Purdue’s defense for 349 yards and a program record-tying six touchdown passes. Mendoza, however, is focused on just one thing, and one thing only.
“Really just can’t wait to keep the Oaken Bucket,” Mendoza said. “And control the controllables in order for us to do so.”
Fernando Mendoza will enter Friday’s matchup with 2,641 yards, 30 touchdowns and just five interceptions. He’s coming off of his fifth game this season of at least four passing touchdowns and his third of completing at least 90 percent of his passes.
While he’s put together one of the best seasons in college football, he hasn’t done one thing; beat Purdue. And that’s something that’s been on his — and Indiana’s — goal list since the beginning of the year.
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“Since I’ve got here, everyone’s always talked about the Oaken Bucket, talked about the rivalry with Purdue,” Mendoza said. “A lot of people here are calling them Purdon’t. However, I’ve never played them, so I can’t call them anything because they’re a great football team on film and they’re something to be taken extremely serious.”
That type of mentality and attention to detail, while eliminating the outside noise is something that is rare in today’s age of college athletics. It’s also why and how Indiana has been able to enter the final weekend of the regular season as the No. 2 team in the nation, on an 11-game winning streak and a program that is in line to make a deep run in the College Football Playoff.
Purdue, however, enters Friday with the Big Ten’s worst passing defense — allowing 256.2 passing yards a game this season. That number raises to 284.6 a game in Big Ten matchups. The defense also has just four interceptions on the season.
None of that matters to Fernando Mendoza, though. He’s attacking his first Indiana – Purdue matchup as he has all year; not taking the opponent lightly.
“Watching them on film, they’re a really good football team. They’re a really good football team,” Mendoza said. “It’s going to be a tough, gritty match.
“We’re still on a long journey. We still have a long season to go and a lot of improvement to do.”
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