Fernando Mendoza and Dan Le Batard Credit: ESPN / The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
By Sam Neumann on

Fernando Mendoza’s fourth-quarter touchdown run in Indiana’s 27-21 national championship victory over Miami has already been immortalized in bobblehead form. The play — a gutsy fourth-and-5 quarterback draw where the Heisman Trophy winner absorbed multiple hits, pinballed off defenders, and dove into the end zone with the ball extended — gave the Hoosiers a 10-point cushion with 9:18 remaining and effectively sealed their perfect 16-0 season.

Most people saw a quarterback laying it all on the line in the biggest moment of his life. Dan Le Batard saw dinner theater.

“I actually believe everything about Mendoza is sincere and sweet,” Le Batard said on his show. “And yet, when he jumped into the endzone there and extended the ball, I’m like, ‘Wildly unnecessary, he could have just run in.’ He did that because he knew the size of the moment. I didn’t think it was necessary.”

Let’s pause here for a second.

Mendoza’s touchdown came after Indiana coach Curt Cignetti waved off the field goal unit and called a timeout. Miami’s defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman later admitted his team knew what play was coming — it was Indiana’s go-to draw in that situation all year. The Hurricanes just couldn’t stop it. Mendoza cut right, bounced off linebacker Wesley Bissainthe at the six-yard line, steadied himself by placing his right hand on the turf mid-spin, then drove forward into multiple defenders before extending the ball across the goal line.

But sure, wildly unnecessary showmanship.

“I’m not sure in the moment he knew, ‘Oh, this is dramatic, I’ve got to extend the ball.’ That’s crazy,” said Jeremy Tache, who serves as on-air producer for the Meadowlark Media production. “That is completely insane that you could have that take. That’s nuts. That guy, you think that guy is like, ‘Ah, flair for the dramatic, I’ve got to extend!'”

“Not only, Jeremy, do I believe that because I believe he knew he was going to get in, but the other way looks more theatrical and wonderful,” said a doubling-down Le Batard. “I’m not even criticizing him for it. I’m simply saying that that part he was giving you a little extra. It was not necessary because he knew the size of the moment.”

“Look, he got it by more than the length of his body,” the former Miami Herald columnist continued. “He didn’t need to do that with the football…”

Except Fernando Mendoza had already explained why he did exactly that.

“I had to go airborne,” Mendoza told ESPN’s Holly Rowe postgame. “I’d die for my team. Whatever they needed me to do.”

That sentiment doesn’t leave much room for theatrical calculation.

Then again, maybe that’s the point. Maybe Le Batard knows exactly what he’s doing here, crafting a take so absurd that it generates exactly this kind of response. Maybe he’s the one being theatrical, extending his contrarianism across the goal line just to see if anyone will call him on it.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann