Indiana football lands commitment from highly-ranked transfer QB Josh Hoover
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BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football has landed Fernando Mendoza’s heir apparent by landing a commitment from top-ranked TCU transfer quarterback Josh Hoover on Sunday night, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Hoover, who was a one-time IU commit during Tom Allen’s tenure, comes to Bloomington after a successful stint as a multi-year starter for the Horned Frogs. He topped 3,000 yards and 25 passing touchdowns each of the last two seasons while helping lead the team to back-to-back nine win seasons.
Mendoza hasn’t announced his future plans, but he’s widely expected to enter the NFL Draft as an expected top pick. He cleaned up during the college football award season — he won all the major national offensive awards and was named Big Ten Player of the Year — and became the first IU player to win the Heisman.
Landing Hoover, gives IU a ready-made successor.
The Texas-native was the No. 35-ranked overall transfer at the time of his commitment and No. 9-ranked quarterback.
Indiana‘s coaching staff has impeccable track record developing quarterbacks
Indiana’s coaching staff hasn’t had a two-year starter since Mike Shanahan took over as Curt Cignetti’s offensive coordinator and play caller in 2021. The Hoosiers braintrust has still managed to develop one top quarterback after another with four of the staff’s last five starters winning offensive player of the year awards.
The exception was Kurtis Rourke in 2024, who finished second-team All-Big Ten, led the nation in QBR and was drafted by the 49ers.
Last year, Cignetti traced that success to bringing veterans in out of the transfer portal — he has long preached a production over potential mantra — a description that certainly fits Hoover.
“That’s the key to the drill,” Cignetti said. “It’s not like you’re teaching a young guy how to play the position,” Cignetti said. “You got older guys that know how to play the position and now you’re just fitting them into your offensive structure and then building upon the things that they do well. And so, you know, that position, there’s just so many things that go on to have an older guy. You can’t put a value on it.”
Hoover has started in 31 career games and had a 17-8 record over the last two seasons.
Why did Josh Hoover leave TCU?
Josh Hoover announced that he would enter the transfer portal with a social media post on Dec. 18.
“I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to represent TCU for an incredible 4 years,” he wrote. “It has been a dream to be able to play and graduate from this university and I will forever be grateful for that.”
Hoover picked TCU from among 20 scholarship offers as a three-star recruit coming out of Rockwall-Heath High School. His list of scholarship offers included ones from Arkansas, Houston, Memphis, SMU and Tulane.
What year is Josh Hoover
Josh Hoover redshirted as a true freshman in 2022 and took over as starter for the team midway through the 2023 season. He became the first Power Five quarterback with 400 yards passing and four touchdowns in his first career start since 2019.
Hoover will be a redshirt senior next year in Bloomington and in his final year of eligibility.
Josh Hoover stats with TCU
Josh Hoover completed 65.9% of his passes for 3,472 yards, 29 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 2025. He left the school ranked third in career touchdown passes (71) and career total offense yards (9,629). His best season came in 2024 when he set TCU’s season passing record with 3,949 yards while completing 66.5% of his passes and tossing 27 touchdowns.
He also led the Big 12 with 61 completions of 20-yards or more that season.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana football lands highly sought after QB transfer Josh Hoover
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