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jake trotter
two days after leading Indiana For its first Big Ten championship in 58 years, Fernando Mendoza Was announced as a Heisman Trophy finalist on Monday.
Vanderbilt quarterback diego pavia, Notre Dame rushing back jeremiah love And Ohio State quarterback julian sign The Hoosiers were joined by quarterbacks as four finalists.
The winner will be revealed on Saturday in New York.
Mendoza clinched the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff by defeating Sion and the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game on Saturday.
Mendoza sealed the win with a 33-yard strike. Charlie Baker On third down, the Hoosiers got a chance to remain undefeated in a 13–10 victory. Mendoza passed for 222 yards and the go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter as Indiana defeated the Buckeyes, who had defeated the Hoosiers 30 in a row dating back to 1988.
“We should never have been in this position, but now we’re flipping champions,” Mendoza, the game’s MVP, said after the victory.
According to DraftKings Sportsbook, Mendoza — a minus-1200 favorite to win the Heisman — will try to make more history this weekend. The Hoosiers never had a Heisman winner, even though he was a running back Anthony Thompson Runner-up in voting for Houston quarterback andre wareJoe is an ESPN college football analyst since 1989.
Mendoza, a junior, transferred to Indiana from Cal during the offseason.
The Heisman Trophy has been awarded to the nation’s most outstanding college football player since 1935. The top four vote-getters, determined by more than 900 voters, are selected as finalists. The voting panel includes members of the media and former Heisman winners.
Although Vanderbilt did not reach the playoffs, Pavia is producing historic performances for the Commodores.
The senior led Vanderbilt to the first 10-win season in school history and set school records with 3,192 passing yards and 27 passing touchdowns.
Love and the Fighting Irish also missed the playoffs by a narrow margin, as Miami finished behind Notre Dame in the final rankings.
Love scored 21 all-purpose touchdowns, the most in Notre Dame history in a season, surpassing Jerome Bettis (1991). Love, a junior, finished the regular season ranked fourth nationally with 1,372 rushing yards and third with 18 rushing touchdowns, while averaging 6.89 yards per carry.
Although he fell to Mendoza in the Big Ten Championship, Sain had a great first season for the Buckeyes. He ranks second nationally with a QBR of 89.6 and owns the best completion rate (78.4%) in FBS history. Sion, a sophomore, threw three touchdowns on November 29 as the Buckeyes snapped a four-game losing streak to Michigan with a 27–9 victory in Ann Arbor.
Ohio State is the No. 2 seed in the playoff, and like the Hoosiers, will receive a first-round bye.
