Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover deserves some grace

Indiana football sits at 8-1 heading into the bye week and ranks in at No. 4 in the initial set of College Football Playoff rankings released this week.

If most members of the fanbase were given that scenario heading into the season I’d bet that 95% or higher would take it and run. Instead, Indiana’s fanbase has spent the past several weeks feeling pretty angsty before, during and after gamedays. And it’s not without some valid reason.

Indiana is where it is by the skin of its teeth. The Hoosiers’ past three wins have come by three points, seven points and seven points, with the latter two being decided in overtime. Their lone loss, at home to Ohio State, was by four points in a result that could’ve been overturned if one player’s foot was a few more inches to the right on the final offensive play.

There’s a lot of reasons Indiana is just skidding by on offense. The quarterback position is under a harsher microscope than any other in sport, so Josh Hoover has taken much of the blame. That’s neither correct nor fair to Hoover.

Taylor over at Bite-Sized Bison put this better than I could hope to, but the issues plaguing Indiana’s offense this season are many and wide ranging.

Has Hoover played well enough to overcome them? No. Largely because those issues are making his job more difficult and, physically, he hasn’t been fully capable. Neither of those things are his fault.

Hoover, on the season, is completing 60.2% of his passing attempts. He’s thrown for 1,860 yards, 19 touchdowns and just two interceptions. That completion percentage, should it hold for the season, would be the lowest of his four-year collegiate career. It’s fallen largely because he hasn’t completed at least 60% of his attempts in a month, going for 74.1% at Rutgers.

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In a vacuum, that looks like Hoover struggling against top competition. But he’s been battling an arm injury since the latter half of the Ohio State game, visibly wincing in pain on passing attempts ever since. Before the Ohio State matchup, Hoover was completing 68% of his attempts. Ever since and including the game against the Buckeyes, he’s completed just 46% of his attempts.

Hoover gets so much of the blame because what viewers see is the misses in real-time. What usually isn’t accounted for is the run getting stuffed to put him in a poor position, the lack of consistent receiving options outside of Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh and the fact that Hoover still doesn’t look physically comfortable throwing the football. All of this on top of the fact that Hoover’s performances have come against some of the stronger defenses in the country this season.

These are all hallmarks of why Indiana was so successful on offense in 2025. Fernando Mendoza was excellent, but Indiana’s offense was built for that and functioned as such. Indiana’s running game was brutally efficient with the offensive line clearing way for Roman Hemby and Kaelon Black to pick up yards at an efficient enough rate that defenses were forced to devote extra personnel to stopping it, opening up lanes for Mendoza to throw. Becker’s emergence diversified the passing game enough that there wasn’t an area of the field that wasn’t under constant pressure. Mendoza was also able to stay healthy, partially due to the line’s play and partially due to luck.

Remember the first drive of the Rose Bowl, when Indiana’s offense stalled? All it took was some efficient carries into the teeth of the Alabama defense to get the Crimson Tide to back off and open up space for Mendoza and the receivers. Then think of those games when Mendoza’s receiving options were limited against talent, like Iowa or even Penn State. Strong defenses were able to cover 1-2 options consistently well enough to drag the Hoosiers into four-quarter games. Against a third, with Becker? The occasional fourth, with Riley Nowakowski? Indiana’s offense largely had its way.

This without mentioning Indiana’s special teams issues this season, which nearly cost the Hoosiers a game this past Saturday against Minnesota.

Hoover was never going to be Mendoza 2.0 and nobody expected him to be. He also isn’t benefitting from everything that set Mendoza up for success last year, from the supporting cast to health.

All the while, Hoover has shown remarkable toughness on the field and professionalism off of it. He’s stayed in games while bleeding profusely from the face after his helmet’s facemask was grabbed and through the injury he suffered against Ohio State. He’s taken the blame for the offensive shortcomings in media availabilities and was quickly on hand to support Grant Wilson after being replaced against Minnesota.

Has Hoover been perfect, despite all this? No. But he hasn’t been the catalyst for Indiana’s offensive issues. It’s a multitude of problems gelling together into something worse rather than one glaring flaw and a few blunders. For this, he doesn’t deserve the blame.

Indiana needs effective quarterback play to get where it wants to go this season. For that to happen, Hoover needs to be fully healthy and set up to succeed better than he has been. The bye week will prove crucial for each of these factors.

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