Fernando Mendoza was closer to committing to Georgia than people realize

Fernando Mendoza was the greatest player in all of college football last year. He quarterbacked the Indiana Hoosiers to an undefeated, 16-0 National Championship season that also included the school's first Heisman Trophy.

It is well documented that Mendoza transferred to Indiana from Cal last offseason. However, the specific details surrounding his Transfer Portal recruitment were not that known until many of those details emerged on Wednesday. And those details tell the story of how Mendoza almost committed to Georgia.

Fernando Mendoza was almost a Georgia Bulldog

Mendoza recently shared that Georgia was his other finalist along with Indiana. At the end of the day though that doesn't illustrate just how close he was to committing to Georgia over the Hoosiers.

Mendoza spoke about how much respect and admiration he has for Kirby Smart and his program. But those are just words that any recruit says about the schools they are interested, so it really doesn't mean all that much. But his actions show just how close he was to committing to Georgia and how much he really loved the program.

Mendoza reportedly took a visit to Athens right before Christmas in 2024. This visit however was a secret and was not made public. Who knows why they kept this a secret, but the fact he visited Georgia shows how much interest he had in the program.

But this story gets even crazier. Mendoza reportedly picked up the phone and called Smart to share that he was committing to Georgia. That call however did not go through, so he slept on his decision one more night and ended up changing his mind. And the rest is history.

Indiana is obviously thirlled that he chose the Hoosiers, and Georgia isn't too upset because they have Gunner Stockton running the show in Athens. But this undoubtedly is a very intriguing story because last season would've been completely different had Mendoza chose to transfer to Georgia instead.