Indiana football 2026 position preview: Quarterbacks

With the 2026 Indiana football season rapidly approaching, we’re going through the Hoosiers’ roster with position by position previews.

Indiana, coming off of its first national title in program history, lost a fair amount of production to the NFL Draft and exhausted eligibility this past offseason. The Hoosiers’ staff hit the portal to fill in the gaps while working to develop the already existing talent on the roster, and that’s not to mention key returners from 2025.

We’ll be previewing the offense first this week with the defense following next week. Follow along!

Quarterbacks

Josh Hoover – Sr(5)

• Role: Starter
• 2025 stats: 65.9% pass completion, 3,472 passing yards, 29 TDs, 13 INTs

Hoover was brought in this offseason via the transfer portal to be Indiana’s starter in 2026. The Hoosiers needed an experienced hand to offset the departure of Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza and found it in Hoover, who spent the past four seasons with TCU.

There was an existing connection between Indiana and Hoover, who’d originally committed to the Hoosiers out of high school when Tom Allen was still leading the program before flipping to TCU. Hoover was the Horned Frogs’s starting quarterback for three of the last four seasons, completing 65.2% of his passes for 9,629 yards, 71 touchdowns and 33 interceptions in those seasons.

Strengths

• Experience
  • You won’t find a more experienced quarterback in the portal than Hoover. Three full seasons as a starter at TCU has exposed Hoover to plenty of different defenses that should suit him well in adjusting from the Big 12 to the Big Ten. Part of the reason Indiana’s offense was successful in 2o24 was Kurtis Rourke’s experience at the position allowing him to mesh with the offense relatively quickly. Hoover’s already run several of the concepts Indiana likes on that side of the ball.
• Mobility
  • Hoover’s definitely not the fastest or most agile guy on the field, but he’s shown he can extend plays and pick up yards on the ground with his legs. That additional dimension gave Indiana’s offense a huge boost in 2025 relative to 2024 with Mendoza’s mobility giving the Hoosiers a greater margin for error than Rourke’s lack thereof. If Hoover sees a running lane, he’ll take it to keep a drive going.

Weaknesses

• Turnovers
  • The turnover issue has plagued Hoover for years. He threw nine interceptions in 2023, 11 in 2024 and 13 in 2025. TCU head coach Sonny Dykes made light of this during a podcast appearance to which Curt Cignetti responded by noting Hoover would be working with a great running game and defense with Indiana. The Horned Frogs struggled on the ground several times during Hoover’s time in Fort Worth, relying on his arm to stay competitive at times. But, ultimately, Hoover still threw those picks. An offseason of working with Cignetti and quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri alongside an improved supporting cast should work in Hoover’s favor but it’s a stat that’ll follow Hoover until he proves he can produce without mistakes.
• Some mechanical quirks
  • There’s moments when Hoover’s throwing motion relies much more on his arm than his lower body. Sometimes this isn’t his fault, like when the pass rush prevents him from stepping into throws, but other times he has the time to step up and the ball sails a bit or lingers in the air longer than you’d like it to. You can’t really adjust a quarterback’s mechanics too much this late into his career, but it’s something to watch for if and when Hoover is put in a position where Indiana needs him to keep a drive going.

Final Thoughts

• Hoover will be playing in a system that’s similar to the one he ran at TCU for all those years. He’ll be doing so with an improved supporting cast and an adept play caller in Mike Shanahan. There’s flaws to watch, like the turnovers and at times worrying mechanics, but there’s every reason to believe Hoover is in for the best season of his college career in Bloomington in 2026.

Tyler Cherry – So

• Role: Backup
• 2025 stats: N/A

There’s quite a few unknowns with Cherry, who joined Indiana out of high school as a member of the class of 2024 after a strong in-state high school career. He suffered a knee injury during Indiana’s postseason prep in 2024 and was out for the entirety of the 2025 season, instead working as a student assistant coach.

Cherry operated from the pocket during his time in high school but had the ability to extend plays with his legs and could be relied on as a bit of a rushing threat. What this looks like coming off of a leg injury is yet to be seen, but there’s strong traits that the staff liked enough to bring him in two years ago.

The race for the backup quarterback will come down to Cherry and Grant Wilson, with Cherry receiving some second unit reps last week as said race began to heat up. Cherry is looking to make his case as Indiana’s potential quarterback of the future, with the first step being supplanting Wilson as the Hoosiers’ backup in 2025.

Grant Wilson – Gr

• Role: Backup
• 2025 stats: 1/1, 100% pass compeltion, 5 passing yards (still counts!)

Wilson joined the program last offseason as an experienced arm after starting at Old Dominion in 2022, ultimately settling as the Hoosier’s third string behind the Mendoza brothers.

His passing stats were a tad iffy at Old Dominion with two seasons at sub-60% completion, but he was able to find the end zone enough to be a reliable starter and brings some ability on the ground with his legs, having rushed for 291 yards and four touchdowns in 2023.

Wilson will serve a similar role in 2026 with experience in Indiana’s offense as he competes with Cherry to be the Hoosiers’ backup. Long-term, it’ll be interesting to see what Wilson does with the experience of having been on Indiana’s roster for a pair of seasons learning from the coaching staff.

Jacob Bell – So

• Role: Backup
• 2025 stats: N/A

Bell signed with Indiana out of Naperville North High School in Illinois as a member of the class of 2025 and redshirted as a freshman (prior to the NCAA’s 5-for-5 rule). The Hoosiers emerged late in Bell’s recruitment, flipping him from a previous commitment to Ball State.

Bell was primarily a passer at the high school level with modest rushing stats. His future with Indiana would be in the long-term and rely on his development, but for now he’s a name toward the bottom of the depth chart.