WALDRON GRAIN & FUEL

01/23 12:24 CST Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza officially declares for the NFL draft and could be the No. 1 pick Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza officially declares for the NFL draft and could be the No. 1 pick BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) --- The Las Vegas Raiders are on the clock, and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza is officially available. Mendoza formally declared for the NFL draft Friday and could be headed to the Raiders with the No. 1 pick in April. Mendoza led Indiana to a 16-0 season and its first national championship with a 27-21 victory against Miami on Monday night. "Let's get to work," Mendoza wrote in a social media post that included a highlight video. "I'm humbled to announce that I am officially declaring for the 2026 NFL Draft!" The junior completed 72% of his passes this season for 3,535 yards, with 41 touchdowns and six interceptions. He also ran for seven scores and played some of his best football in the College Football Playoff, with eight TD passes and no picks while scoring a key late touchdown on a highlight-reel 12-yard run on fourth-and-4. It extended Indiana's lead to 24-14 in the fourth quarter. Mendoza's first and only season with the Hoosiers was capped by memorable moments. In October, he beat an Iowa blitz by throwing the tiebreaking 49-yard TD pass to Elijah Sarratt with 88 seconds left in a 20-15 win. Two weeks later, after throwing a Pick-6 that allowed then-No. 3 Oregon to tie the score at 20 early in the fourth quarter, he responded by leading the Hoosiers down the field and connected with Sarratt on an 8-yard TD pass in a 30-20 victory. At Penn State in November, Mendoza threw a perfectly placed 7-yard TD pass to Omar Cooper Jr., who toe-tapped the back line in the end zone with 36 seconds left to give the Hoosiers a 27-24 victory. Then in December, Mendoza's 17-yard TD pass to Sarratt midway through the third quarter proved the decisive score in a 13-10 victory over No. 1 Ohio State, ending Indiana's 30-game losing streak in the series while giving the Hoosiers their first outright Big Ten title since 1945. And in the playoffs, Mendoza helped hand No. 9 Alabama its worst postseason loss in school history, 38-3, and rout No. 5 Oregon 56-22 before defeating No. 10 Miami 27-21 on the Hurricanes home field --- thanks in part to his incredible scoring run. Along the way, Mendoza became a respected leader inside the locker room, a humble but well-known personality outside of it and Indiana's first Heisman winner as he capped what some called the greatest two-year turnaround in college football history. Mendoza also is the third Latino player to win the Heisman. None of it surprised Mendoza's teammates or coaches. "When you have this much success year in and year out, your teams are always close, but this team was exceptionally close," coach Curt Cignetti said Monday. "I think Fernando had a big part of that, and I think (center Pat) Coogan and (linebacker Aiden) Fisher and going on the road with some of those guys --- the Penn State game, what that did for this team, I can't measure, when we were down and out and all the odds were against us, second-and-17, running clock, 1 minute, 30 (seconds), and all of a sudden we recomposed and found a way to get that done." Mendoza's decision to turn pro was considered a formality. The Hoosiers seemingly tipped his NFL intentions when they signed TCU quarterback Josh Hoover during the open transfer portal window. Mendoza is considered the clearcut top QB in the draft after Oregon's Dante Moore announced he would return to school for the 2026 season. And the Raiders desperately need better quarterback play after going 3-14 in 2025 and clinching the No. 1 overall pick with a loss to the New York Giants in Week 17. The franchise will have a new coach after firing veteran Pete Carroll after one season. It's not just Mendoza's arm, either. Cignetti has spoken multiple times about the quarterback's uncanny ability to extend plays like the decisive one he had Monday night. Mendoza was a lightly recruited player coming out of a traditional powerhouse prep program, Christopher Columbus, in Miami. His first offer came from Yale. His only FBS offer came from California, where he started for two seasons before leaving the program to join his younger brother, Alberto, at Indiana. Alberto Mendoza announced this week he's transferring to Georgia Tech. And now Fernando Mendoza, after appearing on Jimmy Fallon's late-night show Thursday and "Good Morning America" on Friday, one more celebration --- Saturday in Bloomington --- before heading to the NFL. "When I first stepped in the locker room, you could tell that they believed, and if you didn't believe, you're kind of, like, outcasted," Mendoza said. "So in a way it was either our way or the highway. At that point once you know and you see everybody truly believe, not just believe because they want more catches or more stats but because they truly believe in the goal, I think it's infectious, and it's infectious throughout the locker room, and I'm so blessed to be a part of it." ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl