IU football has one week left in spring camp, and its quarterback spot is in good shape.
The Hoosiers will roll with TCU transfer Josh Hoover in the fall, with a lot of production under his belt with the Horned Frogs. He finished second in the Big 12 last season with 3,472 passing yards, and his 29 passing touchdowns tied for second in the conference as well. As a sophomore in 2024, Hoover threw for 3,949 yards, which also ranked second in the Big 12. He tied for third with 27 touchdowns that year.
IU head coach Curt Cignetti said Thursday that the Heath, Texas native has progressed as expected this spring.
“We’re putting new stuff in still, so he’s learning the offense. He’s probably about where most of the other quarterbacks (they’ve had) have been at this point in the spring,” Cignetti said. “We’re a little thin on the offensive line, so when we go to team periods, the protection isn’t the best in the world. So he doesn’t have a lot of time to get rid of the ball.”
Hoover has seemingly acclimated well to his new surroundings and his new team.
Running back Turbo Richard said he’s building rapport with his offensive teammates from a leadership standpoint.
“I feel like he’s a great leader. He pushes the offense,” Richard said. “He’s good at breaking the huddle, or in a pass, just making sure everybody’s good with their assignments. And overall, just having the offense run smoothly.”
Last week, Cignetti said he held out Hoover and Grant Wilson in some practices to get a closer look at the younger quarterbacks in the room with increased reps against stronger competition.
Wilson transferred in from Old Dominion last season and rarely saw the field, entering only three games in mop-up situations. But he has plenty of experience — something Cignetti values highly — starting 14 games with the Monarchs in 2023 and 2024. The graduate student appears firmly in the mix for the No. 2 job this season.
“Grant Wilson went a few days without reps,” Cignetti said, “but then took the 2s in the scrimmage (on Saturday), and I thought he did a really good job and he moved the team again on Tuesday. Today, he didn’t get reps.”
Redshirt freshmen Tyler Cherry, Jacob Bell, and Maverick Geske are the younger quarterbacks Cignetti was looking to evaluate further in recent practices.
Cherry is the most acclaimed of the three, as a former four-star recruit out of Center Grove High in Greenwood, Ind.
He redshirted as a true freshman in 2024, seeing very limited action behind Kurtis Rourke and Tayven Jackson. And then he missed the entire 2025 campaign with a significant knee injury. Cherry is continuing to work his way back into everything coming off that injury, but Cignetti has been pleased with his progression.
“Tyler Cherry, I think, continues to develop,” Cignetti said. “He’s had that knee. But I think he’s further along than he was as a freshman, for sure. And we’ll see what it looks like when we go back to August camp.”
Bell was a three-star recruit out of Naperville, Ill. in the class of 2025. He’s less polished than Cherry and Wilson, but there’s clear potential down the road.
“Jacob Bell’s got a gun,” Cignetti said. “Just got to become a little more accurate, do a better job of processing. But it’s hard because the reps are limited.”
Geske, a walk-on from Indianapolis, likely has the longest road towards a tangible role. But Cignetti praised him in that group as well, saying he “knows how to play quarterback.”
For complete coverage of IU football, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- Find us on Instagram, X, and Facebook
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
