“I think the best way to develop someone is just pushing them into the fire,” said Cal’s newest starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza to the media Wednesday.

“Newest,” meaning that Mendoza is the third starter for the Bears this year — and he has definitely been pushed into the fire.

The redshirt freshman got the first-ever start of his college career against then-No. 15 Oregon State Oct. 7. This was one of Cal’s most important games of the year, and also happened to coincide with homecoming weekend — and a consequently packed stadium.

After five weeks of lackluster play for the Bears’ signal callers, the young QB from Florida stepped in and showed out, earning the starting job and throwing for 207 yards and two touchdowns.

All of this happened in the first week of the Bears’ hardest five-game stretch in program history.

Cal, which has one of the most challenging conference schedules in the Pac-12 this year, was slated to play five ranked opponents in a row, beginning with then-No. 15 Oregon State. Then facing then-No. 16 Utah the following week, the Bears now prepare for No. 24 USC after the bye, with the gauntlet completed by current-No. 8 Oregon and Washington State in Weeks 9 and 10, respectively. Cal opened conference play against current-No. 5 Washington back on Sept. 23.

Mendoza said that people have a tendency to ease young quarterbacks into the game with “garbage time” reps and lower competition games — a philosophy he said he doesn’t 100% agree with. His philosophy, rather, lies with being thrown into the fire. It just so happened that in this case, the fire was the No. 15 team in the nation.

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