Josh Hoover
Josh Hoover has thrown for more than 9,500 yards. Now he's taking over the Indiana offense that just produced a Heisman winner. A proven arm, a proven system -- and one question: can he cut the giveaways?
Buzz vs Tape
Fans warmer than rivals
His own fans are far more bullish than the rival fanbase.
Also worth knowing:
The story
At TCU he was a yardage machine -- 3,472 yards, 29 touchdowns and a 65.9 completion percentage in 2025, on top of a single-season program record in 2024 and more than 9,500 career passing yards. Now he inherits one of the best landing spots in the sport: Indiana, where Curt Cignetti's CFP-tested offense just turned Fernando Mendoza into a Heisman winner. The pairing is the pitch -- a high-volume veteran arm dropped into a system proven to maximize quarterbacks. The forward stakes are a sleeper Heisman run and a Playoff push, gated by the one flaw that has followed him: he's turnover-prone, with 13 interceptions in 2025. If Cignetti's structure tightens his decisions the way it sharpened Mendoza's, Hoover has the arm and the volume to be one of the most productive quarterbacks in the country. The talent was never the question; the giveaways are.
Career Arc
Coaching Lineage · 2022–2025
1 coachPlayed his entire career under Sonny Dykes.
2025 snapshot
Season context · Team result + system
Splits & context
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Sonny Dykes
Career stats
How he plays
Play style
Hoover is a high-volume pocket passer who pushes the ball and lives with the consequences. Our play-by-play likes the production -- a 91st-percentile touchdown rate, an 84th-percentile EPA per dropback, an 80th-percentile explosive-pass rate at a real depth of target (13.8 yards) -- the profile of an aggressive thrower who hunts chunk plays. The accuracy is solid (70th-percentile completion), but the honest mark is the one that's followed him: a 37th-percentile interception avoidance, i.e. a fairly high pick rate, the cost of all that ambition. He's a true gunslinger -- the kind of arm that piles up yards and touchdowns and, on the wrong night, hands a game away. In a system built to discipline that exact profile, the upside is a star.
Our classifier reads him the same way: operates within the system without forcing anything.
2026 Outlook
TCU
2026 Depth chart
Returning starter
Quarterback · TCU · editorial
Returning around him
- 61% of 2024 offensive production back (Solid continuity)
- 3 TCU players drafted to NFL
- Transfer portal: -2 net (12 in / 14 out)
2026 Award watch
- Manning Award
- Davey O'Brien
TCU · Last season: 9-4 (AP #24) · Talent rank #32 · 2026 recruiting class #47
Perception vs tape
At TCU he was a yardage machine -- 3,472 yards, 29 touchdowns and a 65.9 completion percentage in 2025, on top of a single-season program record in 2024 and more than 9,500 career passing yards. Now he inherits one of the best landing spots in the sport: Indiana, where Curt Cignetti's CFP-tested offense just turned Fernando Mendoza into a Heisman winner.
Read the story →DNA match
Player DNA
Pocket Passer
Balanced passer who operates within the system, without one standout number carrying the profile.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Josh Hoover’s 2024 season.
Matches Josh on
Differs from Josh on
Through 3 college seasons, his career arc tracks closest to Bailey Zappe’s path through Western Kentucky.
Matches Bailey on
As a senior, his production profile tracks closest to Kevin Jennings's senior season at SMU (2025).
Matches Kevin on
Differs from Kevin on
Player DNA
Players who play like Josh Hoover
Heisman trajectory
Heisman futures · sportsbook market
#7 in market ▼ from #4 · 6 books
Heisman Trajectory · 2025
Peak #60
Peaked at #60 this season.
Development
Development Trajectory · passing yards
2022–2025+173500%
Up 173500% from first season to most-recent.