Fernando Mendoza Pulls a Graduation Surprise at Cal

Fernando Mendoza has pulled off a number of surprises in his football career, but he may have topped those on Saturday when he walked the stage at Cal to receive his diploma from the Haas School of Business.

Haas dean Jenny Chatman played her part in the introduction of the unexpected graduate.

“I hope you don’t mind that I invited this person to our MBA commencement. He actually had a really good excuse for missing commencement,” Chatman said. “He used his hot skills and coursework to negotiate an excellent job and an excellent comp package, but he wasn’t able to change his start date when he needed to report to his new job. Can you please help me in welcoming Las Vegas Raider, Heisman Trophy winner, Haas graduate and Cal Bear forever, Fernando Mendoza.”

Mendoza then walked across the stage wearing the balck graduation attire and his trademark smile that is so wide that it nearly shuts his eyes.

As we all know Mendoza transferred from Cal to Indiana following his third season at Cal in 2024. That move paid off in a big way, as Mendoza won a national title and a Heisman Trophy in 2025 and was the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft, going to the Las Vegas Raiders. He has already participated in Raiders practices.

But before he played his first game for the Hoosiers, Mendoza completed his coursework at Cal, doing so in three years at Berkeley’s prestigious business school.

His graduation ceremony on Saturday finalized his Cal story. Mendoza was set to attend Yale in his senior year of high school in Miami (he reportedly had a 5.2 grade-point average) because he received no Division I scholarship offers. Afterall he was only a two-star prospect, and Division I schools seldom pay any attention to two-star recruits.

But Cal needed a quarterback recruit for its 2022 class after highly rated Justyn Martin had decomitted from Cal in September of 2021.Almost desperate for a quarterback late in the recruiting process, then-Cal offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave heard about this Mendoza kid from Miami, went down to see him and offered him a scholarship.

The last commitment in Cal’s class of 2022 was Fernando Mendoza and the news passed with little notice.

He redshirted his freshman football season at Cal, and started as a third-string quarterback in his second season. But Mendoza was pushed into the starting lineup midway through the 2023 season when the first two Cal quarterbacks – Sam Jackson V and Ben Finley – were not productive enough.

Mendoza was impressive the rest of the 2023 season as well as the 2024 season as the Bears’ starting quarterback.

His emotional TV-interview rant after the comeback win over Stanford was the stuff of Cal legend.

He sat out Cal’s bowl game following the 2024 season, which came as a surprise, but presumably that was because he was planning to transfer.

Mendoza signed with Indiana, but completed his coursework at Cal during the spring and summer, leading to Saturday’s graduation ceremony.

Las Vegas began OTAs (Organized Team Activities) on May 18 and continued OTAs on May 20, May 21, May 26, May 28, May 29 and June 1-4.

It left a gap on May 23, and Fernando filled it by returning to Berkeley and being a surprise diploma recipient.

He was unable to attend Cal’s undergraduate commencement last week because of his participation in the OTAs, missing the chance to walk the stage at the Greek Theater.

Mendoza has not yet signed his rookie contract with the Raiders, but there is not much to negotiate as he is slotted to get a four-year, $54.6 million deal as the the top overall draft pick.

There is speculation that recently signed veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins might start the Raiders’ regular-season opener on September 13, but Mendoza is full of surprises.

Fernando Mendoza looks happier to graduate from Cal than he did after winning the national championship https://t.co/LQhRYPDlT4 pic.twitter.com/YDuLyETC3N
— GOLDEN Bearz (@Golden_Bearz) May 24, 2026

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