The transfer portal will officially be open at the start of this weekend. Once Friday, Jan. 2 rolls around, we will have a firm grasp of who is entering the portal, where everybody is going, and so on. While a team like the Indiana Hoosiers have bigger fish to fry at this stage of the game, as they are one of eight teams still left in the College Football Playoff, they still will have to replace Fernando Mendoza...
With the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner expected to be the first quarterback taken in the 2026 NFL Draft, Curt Cignetti will once again have to venture into the transfer portal to find his guy. He did it coming over to IU from James Madison by way of former Ohio Bobcats quarterback Kurtis Rourke. Cignetti got Indiana to the playoff with him. He secured the No. 1 seed with the former Cal transfer.
So who could Indiana be targeting? It looks like former TCU Horned Frogs quarterback Josh Hoover is the likeliest guy to be coming to Bloomington now. He has one year of eligibility left, but did not play in Tuesday night's Alamo Bowl vs. the USC Trojans. It just so happens that Indiana is Frank Sciarroni's top choice in the portal for Hoover over on Saturday Blitz. Indiana is going to be taking a quarterback.
Hoover is the seventh-highest rated quarterback set to enter the portal on Josh Yourish's big board.
What Josh Hoover could do in Curt Cignetti's Indiana offense in 2026
To date, Hoover has played in 36 games for TCU dating back to 2022. He emerged as Sonny Dykes' starter over the last three seasons, throwing for a combined 9,629 yards, 71 touchdowns, and 33 interceptions over his TCU career. With one more year of eligibility, he is the ideal transfer portal prospect that Indiana and Cignetti would want to land. They want a guy with production, and no ego...
For as much as everybody believed Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt was going to be their guy, his aura exceeds beyond what Cignetti is looking for. Yes, people who have followed college football closely know that Hoover can play. However, TCU is not exactly a pro football factory under center. Plus, he also has a propensity for throwing picks. In short, his stock is undervalued, and IU loves this.
In time, Indiana may become the transfer portal power player we all want to believe it can be. Where Cignetti and his staff are at its best is to find stars in the Group of Five, as well as at lesser Power Four schools, bring them to Bloomington, and make them into superstars. Cignetti wants players how are hungry, ones with something to prove. Hoover to Indiana makes so much sense for it not to happen.
Do not be surprised if Hoover is leading yet another playoff-bound Indiana team this time next year.