Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover says he came to Bloomington to be the best version of himself.
Arriving at IU with 9,629 career passing yards and 71 touchdown passes, the version who came to the Hoosiers from TCU was already pretty good.
But Hoover has seen the progression of Fernando Mendoza, Kurtis Rourke, and the other recent quarterbacks who have thrived under head coach Curt Cignetti and his offensive staff.
The first order of business to follow in their footsteps?
Figurative self-harm.
“My quarterback coach, Tino Sunseri, when I got here he said if you want to become the new you, you have to kill the old you,” Hoover said on the Big Ten Network’s fall camp stop in Bloomington. “Going back to the foundation and breaking old habits and reestablish how we play football and how the quarterback plays here, and committing to that and hold myself accountable to our standards of quarterbacks.”
A Heath, Texas product, Hoover committed to Indiana out of high school before realizing the old him might have literally been killed with the way the old IU was protecting quarterbacks.
With a fresh perspective on Indiana and a final year of eligibility remaining, he saw a completely different opportunity four years later.
“This place and Coach Cignetti and this offense was really appealing just because of the discipline that they have here, the culture that’s been set in stone, the way Coach Cignetti coaches quarterbacks, the way his quarterback coaches coach and just emphasize the details,” Hoover said. “That’s one of the cool things for me, just watching how the details are coached here and how much the players really, truly care about making sure those small things are right. I think that goes a long way in offenses.”
Hoover told BTN he was overwhelmed when he first walked into the facilities at IU. The respect for Cignetti permeates the program, he says, and that fosters a complete commitment to the process and culture the head coach has installed.
Part of the process for Hoover involves cutting back on mistakes. He has thrown 33 interceptions and fumbled 17 times over his first four seasons. All of Cignetti’s last six quarterbacks have improved significantly in touchdown to interception ratio in their first year with the head coach. This is the 6-foot-2 and 200-pound Hoover’s fifth year in college football, and he says he’s never been pushed to improve quite like this.
“This place is just full of great coaches who hold guys to the highest standard,” Hoover said on BTN.
“I have never been held to a standard as high as I am here, and it has been — it was uncomfortable at first, growth is always uncomfortable, but that’s the only way to grow, is to be uncomfortable. It has been a great experience and I’m just looking forward to continuing to work every single day with these guys.”
For complete coverage of IU football, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on X: @daily_hoosier and find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
