The bar Josh Hoover is stepping over in Bloomington is a tall one, and the history around it is not exactly comforting.
Indiana is asking him to follow Fernando Mendoza at quarterback, which means Hoover is walking into the same kind of post-Heisman spotlight that has tripped up plenty of others in the 21st century. The question sounds simple enough: what happens when a quarterback takes over after a Heisman winner? The answer, at least lately, has been: not much, at least not right away.
There have been 21 Heisman-winning quarterbacks in the 21st century, Mendoza included. That leaves 20 successor seasons to study, and the numbers are pretty blunt.
Only seven of those quarterbacks earned all-conference honors in their first year as the starter. Five of those seven came from USC or Oklahoma, with Todd Boeckman making All-Big Ten in 2007 after Troy Smith and Jalen Milroe earning All-SEC in 2023 after Bryce Young.
That’s the company Hoover is trying to join, and it’s not a long list.
Kyler Murray is the obvious exception people reach for, since he followed Baker Mayfield and then won the Heisman himself. But Murray is the outlier, not the rule. The bigger pattern is that replacing a Heisman quarterback is usually a messy business, even when the next guy is talented.
Hoover’s case is different from a lot of the recent examples because he already comes with serious mileage. He has 1,183 career pass attempts and nearly 10,000 career passing yards at the Power Conference level, which is more experience than any of the other 21st-century Heisman successors brought to the job. That matters, especially in the transfer portal era, where Hoover is the first former transfer to take over for a Heisman-winning quarterback since the Kyler Murray-to-Jalen Hurts move at Oklahoma in 2019.
That kind of background gives him a higher floor than the usual first-time starter. He’s also landing in a good spot, set to work with Curt Cignetti and Mike Shanahan behind what could be the best offensive line in the sport. Indiana is clearly hoping he becomes the third straight prolific quarterback in the Cignetti era.
Still, there’s a difference between a high floor and matching what Mendoza just did.
Hoover is not being asked to recreate Mendoza’s 199.1 QB rating in the second half and overtime, a number that only Jayden Daniels has topped among qualified Power Conference quarterbacks in the 2020s. He’s also not being asked to duplicate Mendoza’s ridiculous five-game stretch with more touchdown passes than incompletions.
But the standard in Bloomington is still going to be high. If Hoover is going to fit the pattern Indiana wants, he needs to be an all-conference quarterback and land in the top 10 of the Heisman voting, just like Rourke and Mendoza did before him. That has happened only a few times among Heisman successors this century: Leinart in 2003, Murray in 2018, Hurts in 2019 and Milroe in 2023.
That’s the level Hoover has to chase if Indiana’s encore season is going to match the preseason hype. And if it doesn’t, if fans end up spending fall Saturdays rewatching Mendoza’s 2025 highlights, the message will be hard to miss.
The shoes were just too big.
In Other News...
Indiana Suddenly Has A Player In College Footballs Biggest Money Talk
The latest reminder of how fast college football money has changed comes from a place that would have sounded impossible not long ago: a player in the Big Ten is now part of the sports biggest NIL conversation. With LeBron James taking a two-year, $8 million deal with the 76ers and several college stars projected to out-earn him this season, the market has moved into territory that once belonged only to pro contracts.
Miami quarterback Darian Mensah sits at the top of the list at $6.5 million, with Oregons Dante Moore and Ohio States Jeremiah Smith both projected at $5 million. Indianas presence in that upper tier is a sign of how far the Hoosiers have come in the NIL era, and it adds another layer to a roster that now has real financial weight attached to its most important positions. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Lands 10 Preseason All-Big Ten Honors And National Respect
The preseason respect keeps piling up for Indiana, and The Athletics 2026 All-Big Ten teams offered another reminder of how far the rosters profile has risen. The Hoosiers landed 10 selections overall, third-most in the conference behind only Ohio State and Oregon, with first-team nods for Charlie Becker, Carter Smith, Tyrique Tucker, Rolijah Hardy, Isaiah Jones and Nico Radicic.
For a program trying to turn last seasons momentum into something lasting, that spread of recognition matters as much as any one headline name. Beckers emergence at receiver, Smiths return up front, the defensive punch from Tucker, Hardy and Jones, and Radicics reliability all point to a team that is drawing national notice before a snap is played, even if the bigger question is how all of those pieces fit once the games start counting again. [Read more 🡒]
Indianas Defensive Transfer Haul Shows The Hoosiers New Standard
Indianas recent transfer haul says plenty about how the program is being built now, especially on defense. Preston Zachman arrives from Wisconsin with a chance to step into a major role at strong safety, Tobi Osunsanmi comes over from Kansas State as another edge presence, and A.J. Harris brings the kind of experience in the secondary that can raise the floor of a unit quickly. For a team trying to keep its momentum, those are not just depth additions. They are the kind of moves that signal a higher standard for who Indiana expects to land.
What makes the group stand out is how directly it addresses the parts of the roster that can swing a season. Zachman gives the Hoosiers a steadier back-end option, Osunsanmi adds pressure off the edge, and Harris offers another proven piece in coverage. Indiana has done well to build a class that looks ready to matter in 2026, and the bigger question now is how much of that talent can translate once the games start and the new pieces are asked to mesh right away. [Read more 🡒]