Fernando Mendoza leads group of once-overlooked college recruits in the NFL draft

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jack Endries saw everything the recruiting “experts” missed in Fernando Mendoza almost immediately in 2022.

The former California tight end watched his roommate work in the film room and on the field to become a dependable leader, a model quarterback and an unmitigated winner. No, even Endries couldn't predict Mendoza would become a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, a national champion or the presumptive No. 1 pick in this week's NFL draft once he traded Berkeley for Bloomington, Indiana.

But Endries sensed immediately that Mendoza had everything he needed to defy the odds.

“When we stayed late after practice, you could see the dedication in both of us, just throwing and catching extra balls, staying late in the facility,” Endries recalled during the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. "You could see it as he started to take over a little bit, he would stay later and later at the facility. He was there until like nine o’clock most days when we were done at three.”

Mendoza was never expected to make it this far.

He finished his prep career in Miami as an overlooked college prospect who had already chosen Yale over the likes of FIU, Bryant, Lehigh and Pennsylvania. Before Cal finally offered a scholarship, Mendoza even seemed willing to accept a walk-on spot with a more traditional Football Bowl Subdivision power such as his hometown Hurricanes or Alabama.

But somehow in an era where prominent programs make heavy investments in finding players such as Mendoza, the recruiting coordinators and analysts never envisioned him becoming the first quarterback to win college football's most prestigious awards — the Heisman and a championship ring — in the same season since Joe Burrow with LSU in 2019.

Now, Mendoza is perfectly positioned to join Burrow as the NFL's top-overall draft pick.

“Right now, I’m unemployed, I have no job,” Mendoza said in February, a sentiment he's repeated often over the last two months. “So this is my job interview. Everyone says, it’s the most important job interview of your life and right now I’m trying to do everything to hopefully get employed.”

That shouldn't be a problem for Mendoza.

His story is just one intriguing twist in a draft class filled with overachievers.

Endries, a walk-on who didn't start playing football until he was a high school freshman, also wasn't supposed to be here.

Neither was 5-foot-10, 207-pound quarterback Diego Pavia, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, or tight end Riley Nowakowski, a walk-on at Wisconsin who joined Mendoza with the Hoosiers last season.

Through the years, the NFL has been a boon for the rags-to-riches tale.

Just ask 6-foot Drew Brees, who threw for more than 80,000 yards and was a Super Bowl MVP despite some teams' concerns over his height.

Three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt and Super Bowl champion Clay Matthews III were both college walk-ons before they were first-round picks and became feared pass rushers. And the latest iteration came last year when Cleveland Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger, a walk-on at UCLA, won the league's Defensive Rookie of the Year Award.

Pavia is ranked just outside the top 10 quarterbacks in this year's class and believes he can add his name to the list because he's done it before. He spent his first two college seasons at New Mexico Military Institute and two more at New Mexico State before helping Vanderbilt become an SEC title contender over the past two seasons, and the confidence oozes from the outspoken Pavia.

“I feel like, I’m going to carry that chip (being overlooked) on my shoulder wherever I go," he said. “Whatever team gets me is going to get a hard worker, a heck of a teammate. And then, if my number, when my number is called, you know, I’ll be ready.”

Pavia typifies this larger, more varied group of players who have taken similar journeys.

Eli Stowers, Pavia's teammate the past three seasons, could be the first tight end drafted despite starting his college career as a Texas A&M quarterback. Nowakowski played linebacker and fullback with the Badgers before finally finding a more natural fit as a tight end. Endries spent this season at Texas playing more split sets and in a receiver role after spending his Cal career as a more traditional tight end.

Endries also saw his college hopes impacted by COVID, with his junior season shortened to six games and moved to the spring — not good for a raw player in his third season in the sport. The result, he walked on at Cal, roomed with Mendoza and then played with Arch Manning at Texas, meaning he caught passes from one quarterback everyone figures will be the No. 1 pick when he leaves school and one quarterback few ever thought would make it this far.

Endries knew better.

“I knew he had it in him, but just thinking where he came from, like a regular Cal guy, almost a walk-on to a Heisman winner and national champion,” he said, reflecting on Mendoza's career path. "That is a big step. A little surprising, but I could see it happening. He’s a leader and a dog.”

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