FRISCO, Texas - Sonny Dykes isn’t bristling at Curt Cignetti’s shot back at him. If anything, the TCU coach says the Indiana coach was “fair” in defending former Horned Frogs quarterback Josh Hoover.
“There’s a lot of truth to what he said,” Dykes told The Athletic on Wednesday at Big 12 Media Days.
The back-and-forth started after Dykes talked in March about Hoover, who left TCU this offseason and transferred to Indiana. In that podcast interview, Dykes pointed to the turnover numbers attached to Hoover’s time in Fort Worth.
“Numbers are numbers, and stats are stats,” Dykes said during a podcast interview in March. “I think Josh started 31 games here as a quarterback, and we turned the ball over 40 - he turned the ball over 42 times in those 31 starts.”
Cignetti answered a week later after an Indiana practice in which he worked with Hoover.
“When Josh got here, he met his two new best friends - great defense and a really good run game - and he was never the same after that,” Cignetti said.
Dykes didn’t push back on the substance of that response. He said Wednesday that the goal at TCU is to put Hoover’s replacement, Harvard transfer Jaden Craig, in a better spot.
“That’s what I’m trying to do. That’s why we have a new offensive coordinator,” Dykes said Wednesday. “Because we want to run the football and we want to put our quarterback in a less bad situation.”
Dykes also said he was frustrated that part of his March comments didn’t get the same attention as the criticism aimed at Hoover.
“When your quarterback turns the ball over like that - because I took the heat because of what I said about Josh - but in that same quote that nobody picked up on, I said when your quarterback turns the ball over, it’s really the coaches’ responsibility as much or more than it’s the quarterback’s,” Dykes said.
TCU went 9-4 for the second straight season in 2025 with Hoover at quarterback both years. Indiana, meanwhile, enters the season with Fernando Mendoza at quarterback after he won the Heisman Trophy last December before becoming the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.
Dykes pointed to the different styles around the two programs, noting that Indiana was much better in the trenches and on defense last season.
“There’s a million different reasons why he turned it over,” Dykes said Wednesday. “But (Cignetti) was fair.
I think (he) was right. When you don’t have to score 50 points to win, it’s a lot easier.”
TCU finished last year ranked 97th nationally in yards per carry and 62nd in yards per play allowed. Indiana was 16th in yards per play allowed and 19th in yards per carry.
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