‘He can make all the throws’: Curt Cignetti excited about addition of Fernando Mendoza and ready for Indiana football to ‘do a lot of things with him’

Kurtis Rourke added to the long list of successful quarterbacks under now Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti and his offensive staff. Now, he looks to Fernando Mendoza as the next in line to continue that trend.

Mendoza, who committed to Indiana this winter over Georgia and Miami, is a bit different than Rourke — both in skillset and in eligibility. Does that change anything for Cignetti and the Indiana offense next year?

“Our system is flexible,” Cignetti told ESPN’s Pete Thamel on the College Gameday podcast. “We’ve had true dual-threat guys play that position, and we changed. We’ve had true pocket guys.”

Mendoza threw for 3,004 yards including 16 touchdowns and only six interceptions this past season at Cal. He completed 68.7 percent on his passes, second-best in the ACC. He had three games with at least 300+ passing yards and seven total of at least 275 yards.

“He can throw the ball. He can spin the ball. He can make all the throws.,” Cignetti said. “He’s pretty mobile, he throws well on the move and he can run — he runs better than Kurtis.  He’s a highly intelligent guy. So, that’s where it all begins as everybody knows, and we think he’s gonna give us something.”

In terms of his running ability, a lot of that was due to Cal’s inability to protect him. He was sacked 41 times last season, the most among FBS quarterbacks.

“He’s got a lot of talent, a lot of skill,” Cignetti said. “He was under duress quite frankly a lot last year at Cal.  The protection wasn’t very good. They had 41 sacks, he didn’t have a lot of time to throw. So you get to see him extend plays quite a bit on tape, and there’s talent there. So, we’re excited about him. We’ll fit him into the system, tweak our system according to the quarterback and who else we have offensively.”

With sack yards included, Mendoza rushed for 105 yards on 87 carries. Compare that to the -35 yards for Rourke last year on 46 carries.

The ability to add that dimension to the offense for Indiana football is quite appealing to Cignetti.

With Mendoza already on campus, the learning process has already begun. Still, there is expected to be a learning curve coming to a new system and a new program. But, Cignetti is used to that and prepared.

The difference? He knows what to expect and knows the path that Mendoza will take.

“All these guys … have kind of followed the same path. They struggled the first two weeks of spring ball then they’re better the last two. (Have a) Good summer and good fall camp.  And then put it on the field, have some success and build off it,” Cignetti added. “We’re excited about him. We think we can do a lot of things with him.”

SEE ALSO: Chandler Whitmer officially announced as new addition to Indiana football staff as someone who came ‘very highly recommended’

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