Josh Pate says the biggest question facing Indiana in 2026 is simple: can Josh Hoover replace what Fernando Mendoza left behind?
That’s the “multimillion-dollar question,” as Pate put it during a recent appearance on "The Jim Rome Show," and the concern is easy to understand. Indiana is moving from a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback in Mendoza to a transfer in Hoover, and that kind of handoff has usually led to a dip in production across college football.
In the last decade, Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley has been the rare exception to that trend. Louisville, LSU, Alabama and USC all took noticeable steps backward after their Heisman quarterbacks moved on.
Hoover arrives with plenty of experience and plenty of numbers. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound quarterback spent nearly three seasons as TCU’s starter and piled up 9,629 passing yards, 71 touchdowns and 33 interceptions. He also topped out at 29 touchdown passes in a single season.
The concern, though, has always been turnovers. Hoover threw more than 10 interceptions in each of his last two seasons as TCU’s starter, and he had nine picks in eight games during his first year in the role. Pate pointed to that issue, while also suggesting Indiana may not ask Hoover to carry nearly the same load he handled with the Horned Frogs.
"I talked to Cig in the spring, and he has that usual smirk on his face, and he's like 'we like what we got there.'" Pate said. "Translation: we're not going to ask him to do what TCU asked him to do, firstly, and secondly, we feel pretty good about the topsoil that we're going to plant that seed in."
Pate also brought up Mendoza’s clutch work in last season’s close wins over Penn State, Ohio State and Miami as a major reason Indiana was able to make its national title run.
Hoover has shown he can handle pressure, too, even if most of his wins at TCU came by wider margins. In 2024, the Horned Frogs opened with a 34-27 win at Stanford, then closed that game with two touchdowns in the final four minutes.
Later that season, TCU erased a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Texas Tech 35-34. Hoover hit a pair of throws that traveled more than 20 yards in the air, with the second leading to an 84-yard touchdown run that gave TCU the lead.
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