Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza (15) is interviewed on the field Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, after winning the Big Ten football championship against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Credit: © Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
By Sam Neumann on

Jenny Taft still tears up watching the Fernando Mendoza interview back.

The Fox sideline reporter told Kay Adams on Up & Adams this week that rewatching that Big Ten Championship postgame moment — where Mendoza shouted “the Hoosiers are flippin’ champs” into her microphone — hits her differently now knowing what Indiana’s entire season meant to him and that team. She’s watched the clip multiple times since December, and it hasn’t lost its impact.

“It’s so unique when I watch that back. It still kind of gets me emotional because you look at that journey for that team and Fernando and the evolution of watching him evolve throughout the season,” Taft said. “And of course, it was a storybook ending for Indiana, but he is exactly who he is, right? Like his personality, and I love that now so many have seen him in interviews.”

Mendoza gives good interviews because he’s the same guy every time. Taft watched him all season and saw someone who talks about his faith, gets emotional after wins, and says “flippin'” on national TV because that’s actually how he talks.

“It sounds so beautiful!” Mendoza exclaimed when Taft asked him how Indiana being Big Ten Champions sounded. “I want to give all the glory to God! We were never supposed to be in this position! But by the glory of God, the great coaches, great teammates, everybody we have around us, we were able to pull this off! Whoever thought the Hoosiers would be here?! But now the Hoosiers are flippin’ champs! Let’s go!”

Taft and Adams both landed on the same comparison when discussing Mendoza’s personality. He reminds them of Kirk Cousins. Adams jumped in immediately when Taft brought it up and said she’d made the exact same connection independently. Mendoza has that same earnest, almost nerdy quality that Cousins projects, where he’s not trying to manufacture quotable moments or come across as cool. He just talks like himself and trusts that being genuine will be enough.

“He is this quirky guy, but he’s so lovable, he’s so smart,” Taft said. “He’s just — he’s so likable because it is who he is. It’s genuine, and he’s religious, and he’s not afraid to talk about it, and he is the nicest kid, but he has that, he has that turn it on. He has that killer mentality. So I think what’s been so fun for me is just to watch everyone else get to know Fernando.”

Adams said she met Mendoza at the Super Bowl, and his personality in person matched exactly what she’d seen on television, which confirmed what Taft had been saying about his authenticity. Taft explained that getting moments like the Big Ten Championship interview requires work that happens long before the cameras turn on for postgame coverage. Sideline reporters who develop relationships with players and coaches throughout a season earn access to genuine emotion when those big moments arrive, and that’s what happened with Mendoza in Indianapolis.

“I feel like sideline reporters, it’s so much about the relationship you have with the player, with the coach, leading up to the moment,” Taft said. “I’d like to think and believe that because Fernando and I had a good relationship, and, and he realized in that moment, they had just won the Big Ten championship, and that had been something he had told me about early on in the year that that was a goal for this team. So, it hit him in that moment, and you see the emotion.”

Taft also talked about working with Curt Cignetti throughout Indiana’s season and how much she enjoyed interviewing him despite his perpetual look of annoyance whenever she approached with a microphone. Cignetti doesn’t do the usual coach-speak where every answer is carefully calibrated to reveal nothing. He’s honest about how he feels, which makes him valuable for sideline reporters trying to get actual insight during games instead of generic platitudes about execution and taking it one play at a time.

“Everyone asked me about Coach Cignetti all year, and I actually loved interviewing him because even though he looks like he doesn’t want to chat, he will, and he’s honest,” Taft said. “And I love an honest coach. He tells you how he feels. And that was so fun for me to see Fernando in that moment.”

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