Is Fernando Mendoza Actually Cousins With Kirk Cousins? Heisman 2025 Winner Addresses Rumor

When you’re receiving nearly 1,000 more votes than the runner-up in the Heisman trophy race, while also garnering comparisons to NFL quarterbacks, that tends to bode well for your future endeavors as a footballer. In the case of Farnando Mendoza, however, his comps to the NFL veteran, Kirk Cousins, are coming from a place of genuine curiosity.

With a total of 2,362 votes being cast in his favor, Indiana’s homegrown signal caller has nearly completed his climb towards the college football summit, but everyone seems to be a bit more interested in his family tree rather than his newfound hardware.

 

It all started with a fan inquiry on Reddit, which was titled “This Mendoza kid from IU is giving me straight Kirk Cousins vibes circa 2015.” According to the Redditor, Mendoza’s “teary-eyed and churchy” persona was painfully similar to that of Cousins’ back when he was still competing for the since-renamed Washington Redskins.

The similarities are certainly there, and that alone was enough for the internet to begin speculating even more. Nevertheless, the pride and joy of the Indiana Hoosiers is now here to pop the Internet’s bubble.

During a recent interview with Lucas Brody, Mendoza was directly asked, “Are you actually cousins with Kirk Cousins?” The 22-year-old erupted into laughter before explaining that “No, I’m not cousins with Kirk Cousins.”

Although he doesn’t blame anyone online for making the connection, he even admitted to being a fan of Cousins himself. “I think he’s a very likable guy,” Mendoza noted. “I can see how people would see similarities between us two… I do really love his game. He’s had a great career.”

Mendoza then noted that, when he’s not busy brushing off internet rumors or competing for one of the most coveted prizes in all of college football, he likes to hop online and compete with his friends in Fortnite. Going as far as to crown himself as a “Fortnite veteran,” the Indiana product jokingly suggested that either “the good ol’ Tilted Towers” or the “wailing woods” would likely be the toughest location for an Indiana road game.

“You’re in the middle of nowhere, a ton of trees, it’s dark. You’re there. You don’t know out of what a corner a beaver, or an Oregon Duck, or an Ohio State Buckeye, is going to come out of nowhere. I think that [wailing woods] would be a mysterious, more scary one.”

Thankfully, no one’s going to be downing the Hoosiers anytime soon, as that first-round bye should provide them with plenty of shielding from the first-round chaos. The Rose Bowl won’t take place until the first day of the new year, so if you happen to be grinding through some late-night lobbies, then you may want to take an extra look around before jumping off the battle bus, because you might just be seated next to a Heisman trophy winner.