2026 NFL Draft: Former Cal OC Reveals Traits That Set Up Fernando Mendoza for Success

INDIANAPOLIS — When Jake Spavital joined Cal’s coaching staff ahead of the 2023 season, he immediately started hearing “great stories” about a true freshman quarterback on the Bears’ scout team. They were stories about how Fernando Mendoza attacked his role with an uncommon purpose. He studied the tape of his defensive teammates, committed to giving them the best possible look. He encouraged and celebrated his offensive linemen and receivers like they were the starters. That’s all you! Great job! That’s great blocking up front! That’s a great catch! That’s a great route! “A year later, he was competing for the [starting] job, and you just see him paying attention to every detail,” Spavital, Mendoza’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2023, told me. “Staying extra. Throwing after practice. If there was a route that he maybe didn’t hit very well, he’s going to make sure that he throws that a good amount of times until he gets very comfortable with it.” Now the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Baylor, Spavital spoke to me about what he saw in Mendoza at the beginning of his college career and how it lines up with what he’s become. Of course, after leaving Cal for Indiana last year, Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy and led the Hoosiers to their first-ever football national championship. Now he’s widely projected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the draft by the Las Vegas Raiders. Spavital’s second stint in Berkeley — he was also Cal’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2016 — lined up with Mendoza’s redshirt freshman season. The former two-star recruit was a backup for the Bears’ first five games that season, attempting only one pass in mop-up duty. Then, as a starter in Week 6 against No. 15 Oregon State, he threw for 207 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. Mendoza never gave up the job, leading Cal to an appearance in the Independence Bowl. “As the year went on, we put more on his plate,” Spavital told me. “As coaches, you never know how kids are going to react in that situation, so you kind of ease them into it. … We were comfortable with him, so we started adding more and more on the game plan for him — more checks that he had, more freedom to really manage the game. “A lot of that goes back to the work ethic and the relationships of leading and all that. I think you just gain trust around him the more you just see how much he prepares and just how he is.” [RELATED: What’s Fernando Mendoza’s Best Trait? NFL Scouts, Execs Weigh In] Mendoza was “obsessed with the details,” according to Spavital. He stayed up late to study opposing defenses. He talked frequently with the offensive line coach about protections. He sought out “anything and everything” from coaches throughout the program that would help him be successful. “Fernando has one of the greatest work ethics I’ve ever seen a college quarterback have,” Spavital told me. “He can literally tell you every single move of every single defender and what coverage it’s going to be. … Every single play, he’s going to know the ins and outs of it — the breaking point, when I need to get out of it. But also he’s going to understand everything that goes on with that defense of what front they’re getting into, what coverage it’s going to be. It could just be hours of study until he finds that one detail in the defense that’s going to give away every single coverage.” Even as a redshirt freshman, Mendoza would take the offensive linemen out for dinner. He checked on teammates and coaches throughout Cal’s program. He showed appreciation for his professors and the academic support staffers. “There’s a servant leadership side to him,” Spavital said. “What you see is what you get. It’s not like something fake that he’s putting on. That’s just how he is. He’s just a very giving person. He’s a caring person. That’s just something very unique in today’s time.” [RELATED: Fernando Mendoza’s QB Coach Reveals Why He’s Perfect No. 1 for Raiders] Though his time with Mendoza was brief, Spavital knew Mendoza was something special. The spark he provided in his first career start against Oregon State — he led six scoring drives — was noteworthy. But Spavital acknowledges that the thought process wasn’t future No. 1 pick. “It was more like, ‘How can we just maximize him to be the best quarterback at Cal?’” Spavital told me. “You look back at it, it doesn’t surprise me based off of just how hard he works and all that. I think that’s very unique. “But no, I don’t think anyone was thinking [No. 1 pick] at the time. I don’t think they were thinking that in ‘24 as well. But they all knew he could be a special player if he just kept staying the course and kept working.” It appears he did so. And the stories about Fernando Mendoza became even more legendary.