Miami-Cal is having a “personal impact” on Golden Bears quarterback, Columbus graduate Fernando Mendoza

Fernando Mendoza wanted to play for the Miami Hurricanes. His soccer career began about 5 miles from the University of Miami campus when he played at Miami Columbus High, the alma mater of UM coach Mario Cristobal (who played with Mendoza's father, also named Fernando, during their time as Explorers). .

So Saturday's game at 10:30 p.m. between the No. 8 Hurricanes (5-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) and the Cal Golden Bears (3-1, 0-1 ACC) has special meaning for Mendoza his first full season as Cal's starting quarterback as a redshirt sophomore is perhaps a bit of an understatement.

This is the first time Mendoza will play against his hometown team, a team that lightly recruited him and did not offer him a scholarship. It will be held on a national scale, with ESPN's “College GameDay” broadcast live from Berkeley before the night game at California Memorial Stadium. And it comes as Cal tries to rebound from its 14-9 loss to Florida State two weeks ago in the ACC opener.

It's a lot for Mendoza to think about and he does his best to break it all down before kickoff.

“I have a personal impact on the game — I really, really want to be successful and do well against Miami,” Mendoza, who turned 21 on Tuesday, told reporters this week. “But at the same time, especially as a quarterback, you want to do it so well and you put yourself under additional and unnecessary pressure, and then your performance is worse in the end.”

Mendoza wasn't a highly rated recruit coming out of high school, although he helped lead Columbus to the Tri-County title as a junior during the COVID-affected 2020 high school season and to the Class 8A semifinals as a senior that year to lead in 2021. The 247Sports composite rankings ranked him as a two-star prospect and the No. 140 quarterback overall in the class of 2022. He only had half a dozen scholarship offers coming out of high school.

Recalling the experience of speaking at the ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mendoza was attending a Hurricanes football camp during his senior year. When he asked if Miami was interested in him, he replied, “Maybe we'll take you as a companion.”

“It lit a fire under me,” Mendoza said. “I was sad and then I realized: I’m not going to be a Miami football player, but that wasn’t God’s path for me.”

That path took him across the country to Cal, the biggest name on the college football front among the schools in existence did Offer him a scholarship (the others were FIU, Bryant, Lehigh, Penn and Yale).

Mendoza redshirted his first year on campus and played in nine games as a redshirt freshman in 2023, completing 63 percent of his passes for 1,708 yards and 14 touchdowns with 10 interceptions after starting the season as Cal's third-string quarterback had begun.

Heading into Saturday's game against Miami, Mendoza has completed 67 percent of his passes this season (83 of 123) for 892 yards and five touchdowns with two interceptions; He threw for a career-high 303 yards in the Golden Bears' loss to FSU.

Even though it pains him not to play for Miami, his admiration for the school hasn't faded – and won't. Mendoza said he's been asked to do the upside-down U before to mock the Hurricanes.

That won't happen, he said.

“That’s something I’ll never do,” Mendoza said, “just out of respect.”