An Unlikely Path to Success

UNCAGED CLINICIAN
Blog

January 26, 2026

Truth beats facts!

You know me. I LOVE IT when sports provides us with a good life lesson.

Fernando Mendoza just gave us a doozy one.

Great story about facts and truth.

Let's start with the fact that 130 schools rejected him during the college recruiting phase.

Mendoza sent game films to over 100 programs across the country.

Florida International University, not exactly the beacon of college football, located just 20 minutes from his home, showed zero interest.

Finally, he was extended a non-scholarship offer to Yale. Again, a school not known for producing NFL talent.

Then, two weeks before signing day, Cal-Berkley reached out. The school was in need of a quarterback. Any quarterback.

One scholarship offer out of 134 programs Mendoza contacted.

He jumped at it.

Despite Cal's need for a body, Mendoza wasn't handed the keys to the car, so to speak.

He was third string on the depth chart. His first year was spent on the scout team.

A year spent in obscurity.

When he finally got the chance to play, he lost his first four starts.

In those games he got sacked 41 times behind a very porous offensive line.

Most kids disgruntled by their situations look to go elsewhere where things might be a little easier.

Oftentimes, they look to make a jump to a bigger name.

Not Mendoza.

He transferred to Indiana University, a school with more football losses than any other program in the country.

Not the direction that players looking to upgrade their chances for the NFL take.

Yet, in Indiana's new coach, Curt Cignetti, he found someone known for taking losers and making them winners.

Cignetti's previous stint at James Madison University was proof.

While many coaches may promise a young player the world, Cignetti gave Mendoza only one assurance: "I'm going to turn you into the best Fernando Mendoza possible."

That was exactly what Fernando wanted, what he needed.

He simply wanted the opportunity to be his best.

In Cignetti, Mendoza found a coach who was willing to help him grow and mature, first.

And along the way, equip him to lead a winning team.

With that, Mendoza knew he had found the right place.

Where did that belief lead?

Mendoza just guided the historically worst football team - certainly in the Big 10 Conference - to an undefeated season and the school's first national championship.

He did so only 40 minutes from his hometown against one the local hometown teams that didn't want him, the Miami Hurricanes.

He helped secure the victory with an incredible all-out effort, quarterback sneak, diving run into the end zone late in the game.

It was the type of play that even Hollywood may not have been able to script.

He became the first Heisman winner in school history. Evidence that he had become more than the best possible version of Fernando Mendoza.

He is the first Cuban American to win the prestigious award.

Here's a truth: He refused to let other people define his abilities.

The fact was that many did not want him.

He didn't listen to what others thought.

He understood his truth.

More importantly, he understood his Why.

His mother Elsa has been fighting multiple sclerosis for 18 years. She's in a wheelchair now, barely able travel to his games.

Mendoza thought about his mother before every snap.

The most mentally tough athletes - the entrepreneurs who gut it out - are the ones who have a "why" bigger than themselves.

For Fernando, his "Why" was confined to a wheelchair cheering him on.

In his one season at Indiana where he became the best player in college football and lead a once downtrodden team to its first national championship, Mendoza managed to raise over $155,000 for MS research.

So what's the lesson?

Will you be defined by the people who said no, or by what you do next?

Mendoza answered with a national championship trophy.

You can answer by building a practice that sustains you and your family.

Some coaches are you building programs over building players.

Yet, programs - businesses, practices - can't succeed unless the players are developed into their gifts.

Many of us are waiting for permission to pursue dreams.

Some bet on themselves.

They look fear in the eyes and take a step forward.

The naysayers don't get the final word.

Cultural and societal expectations don't get the final word.

You do.

When everyone says no, all you need is one shot and the guts to take it.

Brand new practice owners! .....

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Your Success is our success!

The UNCAGED team