Mendoza won the award over running back Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame) and quarterbacks Julian Sayin (Ohio State) and Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt).
Mendoza also earned First-Team All-American honours and was awarded both the 2025 Davey O'Brien Award for best quarterback and the 2025 Maxwell Award for most outstanding player in the nation on Friday.
He led Indiana to their first undefeated (13-0) season in program history after they took down the No.1-ranked Ohio State in the Big Ten Conference Championship.
Indiana's QB won the Maxwell Award over Love, who won the program's first-ever Doak Walker Award, and Ohio State's Sayin.
The Junior finished the 2025 season with 2,980 passing yards and career-best 33 passing touchdowns and 71.5% completion percentage. Mendoza also put up a career-high 340 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns, finishing the year with a total of 3,320 yards and 39 touchdowns with just six interceptions.
He spent the first two years of his collegiate career with California, where he put up over 3,000 passing yards in 2024 with just 16 passing touchdowns (18 total) and six interceptions.
Now, after earning three prestigious awards, he and his now No. 1-ranked Indiana Hoosiers will be waiting to see who they'll face in the College Football Playoffs between (#9) Alabama and (#8) Oklahoma.
Mendoza has yet to declare for the 2026 NFL Draft, but is being considered as the No. 1 overall pick in the draft should he decide to enter.
Other finalists
As previously stated, Love won the award for best running back in college football this season. He scored at least one touchdown in every game this season for the Fighting Irish, finishing with a total of 1,652 yards and 21 touchdowns (18 rushing) - the most in a single season in Notre Dame
Love's 1,372 rushing yards are the fourth most in Notre Dame history for a single season, falling behind Vagas Ferguson (1,437 - 1979), Josh Adams (1,430 - 2017), and Allen Pickett (1,394).
Vanderbilt's Pavia showed out this season. He finished the year with 4,018 total yards (3,192 passing), 36 total touchdowns (27 passing), eight interceptions, and a 71.2 completion percentage.
Pavia is the only player in all of college football to have put up at least 4,000 total yards this past season.
He led the program to their first-ever 10-win season (10-3) and their first-ever top-10 ranking back in November. They finished the year ranked 14th and will play Iowa in the ReliaQuest Bowl
Ohio State's Sayin led the Buckeyes to the No. 2 team in the country in his first season as a starting quarterback in his collegiate career.
He finished the 2025 season with 3,323 passing yards, 31 passing touchdowns, and six interceptions with an incredible 78.4 completion percentage - a college football record.
Despite some mentioning that Sayin was the long shot to win the Heisman, he took everything in stride.
“Me and my brother being quarterbacks, that was definitely a dream of ours, and growing up," said Sayin this week. "I think I would tell people, ‘Hey, one day I'm going to be in New York for the Heisman ceremony.’ So it's definitely pretty surreal to be going out there."