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01/19 05:00 CST Transfer QBs Mendoza, Beck headline college football's biggest
game and signify broader trend
Transfer QBs Mendoza, Beck headline college football's biggest game and signify
broader trend
By MAURA CAREY
AP Sports Writer
MIAMI (AP) --- For the second straight year, the biggest game in college
football will be decided by a quarterback who wasn't on the roster the year
before.
Heisman-winning Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza arrived in Bloomington in
December 2024 following three years at California. Carson Beck transferred to
Miami in January 2025 with one year of eligibility remaining after five years
at Georgia.
Last January, a similar story was being told. Notre Dame quarterback Riley
Leonard had transferred in from Duke, and Ohio State acquired Will Howard after
four years at Kansas State. Both signal-callers had proven success elsewhere
and adapted to new systems well enough to lead their respective teams to the
national championship game.
The occasional one-off success story has now become a broader trend, raising
the question of whether transfer quarterbacks are the fastest path to the
national championship.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti says there's no time to wait for development in
this day and age in college football. Winning requires immediate action.
"It would be nice to have a guy for a few years," Cignetti said. "But when
you've got a chance to get a guy that can play winning football that's been
through the wars, that's the way... To me, it's an easy decision. You've got to
win every year. Now, there's no, ?Oh, in five years we'll be good.' That was a
long time ago."
Transfer quarterbacks leading teams on championship runs isn't entirely new.
Joe Burrow accomplished a somewhat similar feat in 2019, though it was his
second season at LSU and he didn't have prior starting experience at Ohio
State. Jake Coker did the same for Alabama in 2015. Stetson Bennett's path was
even more unconventional --- initially a preferred walk-on at Georgia, he
transferred to a JUCO for a year before returning as the Bulldogs' starter and
winning back-to-back national championships in 2022 and 2023.
It's not that Beck didn't have the patience to wait his turn, it's that his
time in Athens had come and gone.
Beck started for two years after a redshirt freshman year and two seasons as
Georgia's primary backup under Bennett. He tore his UCL in the SEC championship
game at the tail end of the 2024 season. Gunner Stockton subbed in, performed
well, and Georgia didn't look back.
"My story, it's a little bit different because I was at Georgia for five years.
I stuck it out. I sat for three years. I waited my turn," Beck said. "Obviously
I had the injury, and things don't pan out the way that I exactly thought they
were going to. Then I was blessed with the opportunity to enter the transfer
portal, to have another opportunity to play at the University of Miami."
Beck's starting experience at Georgia made him especially appealing to
Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal, and it gives him ample confidence in the
quarterback heading into Monday night.
"I think he's the most experienced player in the College Football Playoff,"
Cristobal said. "Since the day he arrived, and this shows again how savvy and
how experienced he is, he couldn't participate in spring ball, but yet every
walkthrough, every meeting, anything post-practice, pre-practice, anything
outside of football, he was very much spearheading gatherings, opportunities to
galvanize the entire team."
Cignetti also takes pride in having experienced veterans lead the charge, and
the Hoosiers' roster reflects it. Indiana entered the postseason with more
combined career starts than any other roster in the College Football Playoff.
Cignetti describes himself as a "tape junkie." He didn't have to watch much
film before realizing Mendoza was the guy to replace 2024 signal-caller Kurtis
Rourke.
"That was an easy decision," the Indiana coach said. "Recruiting is evaluation.
If you trust your evaluation and your history of evaluation has been
successful, you have a lot of confidence in yourself and your process... I felt
extremely strong about Fernando. Extremely. Like I knew we had something."
To say Mendoza has met Cignetti's expectations would likely be an
understatement. He became Indiana's first Heisman winner after leading the
Hoosiers to an undefeated season, Big Ten title and the No. 1 seed in the
College Football Playoff. Cignetti thinks he's only gotten better since winning
the prestigious award.
With Mendoza sailing off to the NFL draft, it's rinse and repeat for the
Hoosiers and plenty of other programs around the country looking for a similar
success story. Cignetti has already found someone who fits the model: Proven
starter Josh Hoover, who announced his transfer from TCU to Indiana on Jan. 4.
That is, if Hoover can beat out Mendoza's younger brother, Alberto, in a
quarterback competition.
Good quarterbacks don't like to sit back and watch, Cignetti said, while
acknowledging this new era of college football isn't always ideal.
"The guys that play quarterback, they don't like to sit. Like if they know
they've got the right stuff, they want to play," he said. "It's not a perfect
world, college football. A lot of issues, obviously. You've got to improvise,
adjust, be light on your feet if you want to thrive and survive."
___
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