Fernando Mendoza spent one season with Indiana’s Curt Cignetti and just a few months with Klint Kubiak in Las Vegas, but sees similarities between the two coaches.
In an interview on “The Rush with Maxx Crosby” podcast, Mendoza said the main similarity between Cignetti and Kubiak is “attention to detail.
“I think the example of, you know, in practice you’re going to play well,” Mendoza said. “You catch big things, for example, and you look forward to seeing it on film, and then both of those guys would be like, ‘Come on, really? You made an extra catch,’ or ‘Come on, instead of five yards, you went for four and a half.’ And you’re like, ‘What? I literally took perfect footwork, perfect read, perfect throw, awesome explosive game.’ And you’re like, “Bro, you gotta give me a break, what’s this guy talking about?” So you see, especially with Cignetti, after spending a whole season with him, like when he’s riding me on all that in fall camp, I’m like, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” and then the season you see it show. And it’s like, okay, that pass ended up so much because I was at the right depth or because I didn’t take the extra clip.”
In his short time in Kubiak’s system, the No. 1 overall pick has seen similar expectations from his new head coach.
“You see the same similarities with Coach Kubiak pushing and really making sure you’re doing everything, rather than patting yourself on the back, finding something to improve on, because I’ve got a lot to improve on,” he said.