BLOOMINGTON — Fernando Mendoza's mother Elsa watched all his interviews this season.

The Indiana football quarterback is earnest to a fault — a trait his family knows all too well — and he put that on full display earlier this fall when he told a reporter that winning a Heisman would be "great and all," but what he really wanted was a national title.

"I just thought, oh my gosh, I hope none of the voters see that," Elsa told The Herald-Times with a laugh. "Maybe don't say it like that."

The close-knit Mendoza family actually never had a conversation about the Heisman until the day before the votes were due, even though he had long been a favorite to reach New York. Mendoza's focus throughout the fall was "playing for his brothers" as his father, Fernando IV, said with a note of pride

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