Curt Cignetti says Indiana tried to keep QB Alberto Mendoza

The Mendoza lineage won't be continuing at Indiana this season.

Cal transfer Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy and guided the Hoosiers to a 16-0 national championship season. He was backed up by his brother, Alberto, and with IU winning 12 games by double digits, the younger Mendoza had plenty of opportunities to play.

After appearing in nine games and attempting 24 passes, Mendoza opted not to remain at Indiana to compete for the starting job and instead transferred to Georgia Tech. The Hoosiers added TCU transfer Josh Hoover, who will start this fall.

While discussing player retention at Indiana with On3's Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman, Curt Cignetti said the team retained all the players it hoped to this offseason, before correcting himself to say Indiana did try to keep Mendoza.

"We retained everybody we wanted to retain; we didn't lose anybody we didn't want to lose," Cignetti said. "Well, Alberto, we tried."

Curt Cignetti: “We retained everybody on our roster that we wanted to other than Alberto.” pic.twitter.com/owofVbHtZo

Whether Indiana actually made a serious push to retain Mendoza is unclear, but even then, the starting job wouldn't have been guaranteed. The Hoosiers secured Hoover's commitment before Mendoza officially entered the transfer portal.

The younger Mendoza now heads to Atlanta, where he has big shoes to fill as he replaces Haynes King in a Yellow Jackets offense that also has to replace coordinator Buster Faulkner, who left for the same position at Florida.

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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: Curt Cignetti says Indiana tried to keep QB Alberto Mendoza