Inside Raiders QB Fernando Mendoza's game preparation - ESPN

HENDERSON, Nev. — Quarterback Fernando Mendoza is a football nerd, but in a good way. Just ask his former high school coach, Dave Dunn.

As a 15-year-old quarterback at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, Mendoza would skip eating lunch with his classmates in the cafeteria and take his food to Dunn's office, where he would have a notebook and pen in hand to go over the practice plan.

Their routine meetings continued throughout Mendoza's time at Christopher Columbus. Even in the offseason, Mendoza would go over what defenses are doing and come up with ideas for the Explorers to implement into their game plan.

«How many 15-year-old kids are wired that way?» Dunn told ESPN.

Mendoza's meticulous preparation and dedication to his craft propelled him from being a three-star recruit in high school to becoming a Heisman Trophy winner and national champion at Indiana in 2025.

It is with these traits that the Las Vegas Raiders hope Mendoza can develop into the face of the franchise and help the organization achieve sustained success whenever the 2026 NFL draft's No. 1 pick is called to be the starting quarterback. For now, Mendoza will look to use his studious techniques for Thursday's preseason game against the Houston Texans (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

"[At quarterback], the expectation is to be the most prepared guy in the building," Raiders coach Klint Kubiak said. «Out of the young quarterbacks that I have been around, I think he has the upper hand on them in that area.»

Dunn, who has been at Christopher Columbus since 2019 and even coached Mendoza's brother Alberto, said Fernando doesn't like to leave any stone unturned. In Dunn's experience with Mendoza, nothing rarely caught the South Florida native off guard.

The coach