Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza wins 2026 Davey O’Brien Award in Fort Worth

FORT WORTH, Texas — Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, fresh off a Heisman Trophy and a national championship, added another prestigious honor to his historic season Monday night by claiming the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top college quarterback.

The ceremony, held in downtown Fort Worth, punctuated a remarkable stretch for Mendoza that included a visit to the Super Bowl just days earlier. Since its inception in 1981, the Davey O’Brien Award has been presented in the city, and Mendoza’s name will now be etched alongside the game’s greatest signal-callers in the Davey O’Brien Hall of Honor.

“This one means so much to me,” Mendoza said after receiving the bronze statue. “It’s a culmination of quarterback. The quarterback is the ultimate position in all of sports. It requires so many attributes to be successful.”

Mendoza pointed to the award’s namesake, TCU legend Davey O’Brien, as a source of inspiration. “Davey O’Brien himself had the heart of a lion,” he noted. “The shortest player ever to win the Heisman. He was gritty, tough and had great leadership, and those are all things I try to embody as a quarterback.”

The Hoosiers’ national-title run vaulted the program into uncharted territory, with Mendoza engineering an unexpected march through the College Football Playoff. With his college eligibility exhausted, attention now turns to April’s NFL Draft, where Mendoza is widely projected as the likely first overall selection.

“There are a lot of great names, and I have to do a lot of work ahead to try and live up to those names,” he said of joining the award’s fraternity. “It just speaks to the history and how rich the tradition is at Davey O’Brien. I can’t be more honored or blessed.”

Former TCU head coach Gary Patterson also took center stage Monday, receiving the Davey O’Brien Legends Award for his two-decade tenure leading the Horned Frogs. Now defensive coordinator at Southern California, Patterson expressed his enduring bond with Fort Worth.

“I’m very thankful to TCU and Fort Worth because I’ve always said they raised me,” Patterson said. “People say, ‘Are you still going to live in Fort Worth?’ I kept my house, and I’ll probably die in Fort Worth, to be honest with you.”

The evening further highlighted the Texas-Indiana football pipeline: former TCU quarterback Josh Hoover transferred to Indiana this season, setting the stage for an intriguing matchup when the Hoosiers visit the Horned Frogs in November.