SamTown

Retired 🏀 Coach

[SamTown @SammyeTownsend]

@HalseyClark Love all these girls! Go Dawson!!!

[Halsey Townsend Clark @HalseyClark]

Another awesome Lady Eagles 🏀 Camp in the books with my favorite girls, and this year Dawson tagged along! ❤️❤️

[Halsey Townsend Clark @HalseyClark]

LETS GOOOOOO!!!!!

[SamTown @SammyeTownsend]

@HalseyClark Great game!!!!

[Halsey Townsend Clark @HalseyClark]

I loved watching Gerry as a player and now as a coach! What a game!

[Greg Riddle @DMNGregRiddle]

Frisco Liberty’s Eighmy Dobbins is named volleyball coach at 10-time state champion Lovejoy.
Frisco Liberty reached the Class 5A Division II state semifinals this past season, beating Lovejoy to get there.

Read: https://t.co/hToVaSZKdg

@SportsDayDFW @lovejoyisd1 @lovejoy_vb

[Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar]

In the competitive arena, being average is dangerous.

Coach Curt Cignetti of Indiana University reminds us that there is no demand for average

[G-MA & G-PA @GPAIndiana]

Gave me goosebumps 🙏
"I can do all things through
Christ who gives me strength" 🙏

[DK🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸 @1Nicdar]

130 schools said no.
He led the losingest program in college football history to a national championship anyway.
Fernando Mendoza was a 2-star recruit from Miami.

He tried to walk on at his hometown school. They passed.
So did FIU.
So did FAU.
So did everyone else.

At 17, he was sitting in his bedroom, crying over a silent recruiting inbox—after driving to 18 camps with his dad and sending highlights to more than 100 programs.
Not one FBS offer.
His only option? Yale. No scholarship. No NFL path.

Everyone told him to be “realistic.”
“Know your place.”
“Be grateful.”
He didn’t listen.
Because Mendoza understood something most people miss:
The worst outcome isn’t failing.
It’s never getting the chance to try.

Two weeks before signing day in 2022, his phone rang.
Cal needed a body. One offer. Out of 134 schools.
He took it.
He arrived as the third-string quarterback.
Spent a year on the scout team.
Lost his first four starts.
Got sacked 41 times behind a broken offensive line.

Still got up. Every time.
Then Cal brought in a transfer instead of building around him.
So Mendoza left the only school that had ever said yes.
He transferred to Indiana—the losingest program in college football history.

People laughed.
“Career suicide.”
“Graveyard program.”
“Nobody wins there.”
One coach told him something different:
“I’m going to make you the best Fernando Mendoza possible.”
That was enough.
Mendoza wasn’t just playing for football.
His mother has battled multiple sclerosis for 18 years.

Before every snap, he thought of her.
“My mother is my why.”
Indiana went 16–0.
Beat six Top-10 teams.
Won their first Big Ten title since 1945.
Mendoza threw 41 touchdowns.
Won the Heisman—first in school history.
First Cuban-American to ever do it.

Then came the title game.
Miami. Near his hometown.
Fourth-and-4. Season on the line.
Quarterback draw.
The kid 134 schools rejected spun through defenders and dove into the end zone.

Game over.
Indiana—national champions.
The losingest program became the best team in America.
All because a 17-year-old refused to believe “no” was the end.

Rankings don’t decide your ceiling.
Gatekeepers don’t write your ending.
Being overlooked isn’t a verdict—it’s a starting point.

Sometimes all you need is one shot…
and the courage to bet on yourself when nobody else will.
Don’t quit.

Credit: Barclay Mullins

[Brock Lady Eagles Basketball @BROCKTXGBBALL]

Congratulations to Junior Jacee Riddle on surpassing 1000 career points! 💙💛
#247to9 l @BrockAthletics

[Polymarket Football @PolymarketBlitz]

Fernando Mendoza’s Mom has multiple sclerosis and her body is slowly deteriorating.

Knowing that, watch the first 10-seconds of this. �

[Collin Rugg @CollinRugg]

JUST IN: Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza honors his mother during his speech after winning the Heisman Trophy.

Mendoza’s mother suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

“Mom, this is your trophy as much as it is mine. You've always been my biggest fan … Your sacrifices, courage, love...”

“Those have been my first playbook and the playbook that I'm gonna carry by my side, through my entire life...”

[OutKick @Outkick]

Auburn Men's Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl on Charlie Kirk:

"He was leading the most important revival... that was young, conservative, Christian people... and they couldn't beat him - so they killed him."
@dandakich @coachbrucepearl

[SamTown @SammyeTownsend]

@HalseyClark Y’all so cute ❤️

[Halsey Townsend Clark @HalseyClark]

First pep rally of the year with my bigs! Stomp Decatur! 🤠

[FOX College Football @CFBONFOX]

FOX Sports 🤝 @RGIII

@FOXSports welcomes Heisman Trophy winner and NFL Pro Bowler Robert Griffin III as a game analyst 👏🎙️

[Tiger Woods @TigerWoods]

Over a decade ago, I designed my first U.S. course at Bluejack National. I’m excited to announce that @tgrdesignbytw, @BluejackNation, and the Mitchell family are teaming up again to create @BluejackRanch, an exceptional new golf community in Aledo, Texas.
https://t.co/eGUJYkzQLf

[Tiger Woods @TigerWoods]

Mighty fine design visit at @BluejackRanch this week. Hats off to this exceptional Fort Worth development. Something special is on the horizon.

[Jamodi Podcast @jamodipodcast]

Look who’s coming up next!

[Halsey Townsend Clark @HalseyClark]

Listened while I was getting ready this morning! Great advice for young coaches looking to build success or seasoned coaches looking to maintain success! If there is anything @TWC_skiptown knows how to do- it’s win! Thank you @Matt_Sayman for doing a fantastic job!! 💯