The Indiana Hoosiers are rolling right now. They’re 15-0, just blew out the Oregon Ducks 56-22 in the national semifinals, and are on track to win the program’s first National Championship if they can take down the Miami Hurricanes next Monday.

The Hoosiers are led by Fernando Mendoza, the presumed No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. The 2025 Heisman Trophy winner is on a tear this year, throwing for 3,349 yards, 41 touchdowns, and six interceptions in 15 games this season. He’s coming off one of the most efficient games of his career, throwing five touchdowns to just three incompletions, and after one more college game, he’ll be taking the NFL by storm.

Mendoza and Indiana have been incredibly dominant on their run to the National Championship game, and they’ve drawn some comparisons to the 2019 LSU team, which is arguably the most talented and dominant CFB team ever. While Indiana is closer to LSU than anyone in the past six seasons (outside of 2020 Alabama), people need to stop getting ahead of themselves with this comparison. We may never see another team as dominant as LSU was in 2019, and I highly doubt we’ll ever see a college quarterback as great as Joe Burrow.

Let’s take a look at how Mendoza’s 2025 season stacks up to Burrow’s, and then see where he ranks among college quarterbacks in the 21st century.

2025 Fernando Mendoza vs 2019 Joe Burrow

Fernando Mendoza has been playing great football this year. He is clearly the best quarterback in the country in 2025, but it’s unfair to Burrow to keep bringing his name up in these comparisons. Just take a look at Mendoza’s 2025 stats compared to Burrow’s 2019 stats and tell me those comparisons are fair.

Again, I’m not trying to belittle what Mendoza has done this year. He’s taken a team that is historically one of the worst in the country, and with the help of Curt Cignetti, has turned them into the National Championship favorites. But you just can’t compare a guy with 3,600+ yards and 47 touchdowns to a guy with 6,000+ yards and 65 touchdowns. You just can’t.

Burrow obviously had the best single season of any college quarterback in the 21st century, but where does Mendoza rank against the rest?

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Where Does Mendoza’s Season Rank?

If Burrow’s 2019 season was the best since 2000, Tim Tebow’s 2007 season has to be No. 2. In his second year with the Florida Gators, Tebow threw for 3,286 yards and 32 touchdowns while rushing for 895 yards and 23 more scores. And if Tebow’s isn’t No. 2, Cam Newton’s 2010 season has to be. The former Auburn quarterback threw for 2,854 yards, 30 touchdowns, and seven interceptions while rushing for 1,473 yards and 20 touchdowns. That’s over 4,300 yards and 50 total touchdowns for the 2010 Heisman winner.

One season that gets slept on is Marcus Mariota’s Heisman campaign in 2014. The Oregon star threw for 4,454 yards and 42 touchdowns to four picks, which alone would win you the Heisman most seasons, but he also added 770 yards and 15 scores on the ground. Statistically, it might be the closest thing to Burrow we’ve ever seen.

When talking about the best single seasons of the 21st century, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include Johnny Manziel, who became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy in 2012. Manziel threw for 3,706 yards and 26 touchdowns, while adding 1,410 yards and 21 scores on the ground.

Mac Jones followed Burrow’s 2019 season up with a very strong 2020 Heisman campaign. It wasn’t as great as Burrow’s, but Jones still threw for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns while completing 77.4 percent of his throws.

Kyler Murray’s Heisman season was also pretty incredible. The Oklahoma standout totaled 5,300 yards and 54 total touchdowns in 2018. The year before Baker Mayfield also put up some lofty numbers, throwing for 4,627 yards and 43 touchdowns to just six interceptions.

Regardless of how bad a person Dashaun Watson is, his 2015 season was pretty darn good. The Clemson star threw for over 4,000 yards and rushed for over 1,000 while totaling 47 touchdowns. We’re inching closer to Mendoza’s territory, but not quite there yet.

Vince Young’s 2005 season needs to be up there as well. The former Texas Longhorn totaled 4,086 yards and 36 touchdowns while leading the Texas Longhorns to the National Championship. And he did that in an era that was much more run-heavy than today’s game.

This is where we get to the area I think Mendoza would land on the list. Jameis Winston’s Heisman season was better statistically – 4,057 passing yards, 219 rushing yards, and 44 total touchdowns – but when you consider the level of talent they were surrounded with, I think I might put Mendoza’s season higher. It’s close between the two, but this is definitely Mendoza’s area.

I think it’s fair to say that Mendoza’s Heisman season is a borderline top-10 season since 2000. His numbers may not be as mind-blowing as a lot of the other guys, but you have to consider the talent around him, the fact that Indiana was nowhere two years ago, and that he’s sat out a lot of fourth quarters in blowouts. There are arguments to be made for others being above him, but around Winston feels right to me.