{"id":769200,"date":"2026-05-02T23:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T23:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/769200\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T23:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T23:25:17","slug":"fernando-mendoza-not-planning-to-attend-white-house-with-indiana-football-i-cant-miss-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/769200\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Mendoza not planning to attend White House with Indiana football: ‘I can’t miss practice’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Indiana quarterback and No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza<\/strong><\/a> is not planning to attend IU’s trip to the White House, he said Saturday afternoon. The Hoosiers\u00a0will reportedly\u00a0visit President Donald Trump at the White House on May 11 to be honored as the 2025 College Football Playoff national champions.<\/p>\n

Mendoza said Indiana’s trip to the White House falls on the same day as the start of the Las Vegas Raiders’ organized team activities (OTAs), and he doesn’t want to miss his first practice opportunities in the NFL.<\/p>\n

“I believe May 11 is the first day of OTAs, if I’m not mistaken,” Mendoza said in a press conference. “… If it is on the first day of OTAs, I’m at the bottom of the totem pole here. I gotta prove myself. I can’t miss practice.”<\/p>\n

Mendoza has already begun on-field workouts with the Raiders this weekend as part of rookie mini-camp. The beginning of OTAs will be Mendoza’s first chance to\u00a0take reps alongside his new teammates in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

“As a rookie, I don’t think that’s a good look,” Mendoza said\u00a0about skipping OTAs for the White House trip. “I want to try to best serve my teammates, and I don’t know if I’d be accomplishing that goal.”<\/p>\n

Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti is expected to attend the White House along with members of the 2025 Indiana championship team. Several key players could miss the trip as they begin their NFL careers, similar to Mendoza.<\/p>\n

The White House trip is annually\u00a0hosted for championship teams in professional and college athletics. The 2024 national champion Ohio State football program previously visited the White House on April 14, 2025.<\/p>\n

Indiana claimed its first football national championship after defeating Miami 27-21 en route to an undefeated 16-0 season. The Hoosiers became only the second team in college football history to win 16 games in a single season and the first to do so since Yale in 1894.<\/p>\n

Mendoza’s iconic fourth-quarter touchdown run\u00a0in the national championship game helped lift Indiana past Miami. Mendoza completed 16-of-27 passes for 186 yards and added one rushing touchdown in the title-clinching\u00a0victory over the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

Mendoza became\u00a0the fourth quarterback since 1967 to win the national championship, Heisman Trophy and be\u00a0drafted No. 1 overall in the same year. Only Joe Burrow, Jameis Winston and Cam Newton also achieved the feat.<\/p>\n

Mendoza\u00a0is expected to battle\u00a0veteran Kirk Cousins for the Raiders’\u00a0starting\u00a0quarterback job this fall. Las Vegas’ first 2026 preseason game is against the reigning Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks on Thursday, Aug. 7 at 10 p.m. ET. NFL regular season games and dates have yet to be announced for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Indiana quarterback and No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza is not planning to attend IU’s trip…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":769201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-769200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116507569608616850","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}