Exploring Indiana football’s history with the Heisman Trophy

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Exploring Indiana football’s history with the Heisman Trophy

For the first time in 35 years, Indiana has a Heisman Trophy finalist.

Fernando Mendoza, who led the Hoosiers to a 12-0 regular season finish, a 13-10 win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Football Championship game and the No. 1 seed in the 2025-26 College Football Playoff, was named as one of four finalists for the award on Monday night.

He’s Indiana’s second finalist in program history after Anthony Thompson came up just shy of winning the award in 1989.

Thompson was one of eight finalists that season, a list that included Florida’s Emmitt Smith, Notre Dame’s Tony Rice and the eventual winner, Houston’s Andre Ware. The winning margin for Ware over Thompson, just 70 points, is the sixth closest margin in the award’s history.

While Thompson is Indiana’s lone finalist, he’s definitely not the only Hoosier to receive votes. Here’s a few who did and some information about their seasons.

QB Kurtis Rourke, 2024

  • Rourke, Indiana’s first starting quarterback under Curt Cignetti, led the Hoosiers to an 11-1 regular season finish, including a 66-0 win over rival Purdue to reclaim the Old Oaken Bucket, and the program’s first College Football Playoff appearance. He completed 69% of his passes for 3,042 yards with 29 touchdowns and just five interceptions, missing one game due to injury.

RB Tevin Coleman, 2014

  • Coleman’s extensive list of honors includes being named Indiana’s third unanimous and consensus All-American, becoming just the 18th player in FBS history to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a season, owning Indiana’s single-season rushing record, First Team All-Big Ten. He ran for 2,036 yards and 15 touchdowns, picking up 7.5 yards per carry on the ground.

QB Antwaan Randle El, 1999-2000-2001

  • Randle El was an electrifying talent at quarterback, being named an All-American and winning the Big Ten’s MVP award in 2001. He was the first quarterback in the history of NCAA Division-I to rush for 3,895 yards and finished fifth on the D-I total yardage list. He passed for 1,664 yards with nine touchdowns and five interceptions and ran for 964 yards and eight scores in 2001.

RB Vaughn Dunbar, 1991

  • Dunbar was named a consensus First Team All-American in 1991. Sporting an iconic tinted visor, he ran for 1,699 yards and 11 touchdowns in 1991, picking up 5.1 yards per carry while creating space against Big Ten defenses.

RB Anthony Thompson, 1989

  • Thompson was named a First Team All-American during his junior and senior seasons with the Hoosiers, finishing his career owning just about every rushing record for Indiana and setting multiple for the whole of the Big Ten. Nobody in the country scored more points or gained as many yards on the ground as Thompson in 1989. He finished with 1,793 rushing yards and 24 touchdowns, gaining 5.1 yards per carry. He won the 1989 Maxwell Award and came up just shy of that season’s Heisman Trophy.

HB Bill Hillenbrand, 1942

  • Hillenbrand was named a First Team All-American after leading Indiana in rushing, passing and scoring at halfback and as a returner. He’d previously served in the U.S. Army during World War II and hailed from Reitz Memorial High School in Evansville, Indiana.

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