Fernando Mendoza (born October 1, 2003) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

Early life and high school

Mendoza was born in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

where he attended Columbus High School. In Mendoza's high school career he completed 133 of his 203 pass attempts for 1,396 yards and 16 touchdowns with four interceptions, while also adding 137 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Mendoza would decide to commit to play

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

College career

Mendoza would earn his first career start in week six of the 2023 season, versus

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

. In his first start, Mendoza would complete 21 of his 32 pass attempts for 207 yards and two touchdowns, with an interception, but the Golden Bears would lose to the Beavers. In the following week, Mendoza would go ten of seventeen passing for 149 yards and two touchdowns with an interception, but California would lose to

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. However, Mendoza would be named the team's starting quarterback heading foward.

References

External links

California Golden Bears bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendoza, Fernando 2003 births Living people American football quarterbacks California Golden Bears football players Christopher Columbus High School (Miami-Dade County, Florida) alumni Players of American football from Miami