Kentucky offers 6-foot-9 offensive line transfer Jonathan Mendoza

One of the largest offensive linemen in the entire country is hearing from the Wildcats.

On Thanksgiving Day, Jonathan Mendoza, a 6-foot-9, 310-pound right tackle who spent the previous five years a Yale before putting his name into the transfer portal earlier this week, announced that he has received an offer from Kentucky. News of Mendoza’s transfer broke on Tuesday and he has since picked up scholarships from the likes of UK, Mississippi State, Louisville, Duke, Houston, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt, and a few others.

Mendoza will have one year of eligibility remaining for the 2024 season. Since the Ivy League did not hold a football season in 2020 due to COVID-19, he can play one more year of college football as a graduate student. He was named First-Team All-Ivy League this season after helping lead Yale to a 7-3 record and a share of the conference championship.

Honored to receive an offer from the University of Kentucky! pic.twitter.com/NQzP7O40ln

— Jonathan Mendoza (@MendozaJon77) November 24, 2023

Mendoza was an unranked prospect out of Westhampton Beach (NY) Senior High before enrolling at Yale ahead of the 2019 season. As a high school senior in 2018, he was tabbed Third-Team All-State and named the Westhampton Beach Offensive Lineman of The Year. He chose Yale over offers from other Ivy League schools such as Penn, Princeton, and Cornell.

Once he came to Yale as a freshman in 2019, Mendoza filled in as a reserve lineman. After the 2020 season was canceled, he appeared in just three games during the 2021 season. It wasn’t until 2022 that he began to make a true on-field impact.

Serving as the Bulldogs’ starting right tackle, he was named an Honorable Mention All-Ivy selection last year. His efforts in the trenches helped Yale lead the conference in rushing and total offense that season. This past season in 2023, Yale finished second in the Ivy League in total offense while also averaging 164.5 yards per game on the ground.