TCU head coach Sonny Dykes was not shy about his feelings on former quarterback Josh Hoover.
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TCU coach Sonny Dykes is not shy about his feelings on former quarterback Josh Hoover.
Hoover entered the transfer portal in December after completing four seasons with the Horned Frogs, serving as the starting quarterback for the last three years. As a junior, he was the fourth-ranked quarterback in the portal, boasting the highest career passing yards (9,629) and touchdown passes (71) among his peers. He ultimately found a new home at Indiana, a program that built its national championship-winning roster primarily through transfers this past year.
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While Hoover established himself in TCU’s record books by setting a single-season record of 3,949 passing yards during his sophomore year, he also ranks third all-time in completions with 771 and fourth in career passing yards. However, these impressive statistics did not necessarily translate into wins; TCU posted an 18-13 record in games he started, including a victory in the New Mexico Bowl.
In a clip that has recently gone viral in the college sports space, Dykes says, “Look: numbers are numbers and stats are stats. For us: I think Josh started 31 games here as a quarterback and we turned the— he—turned the ball over, 42 times in those 31 starts.”
TCU HC Sonny Dykes didn’t hold back talking about Josh Hoover heading to Indiana
“Josh started 31 games here as a quarterback, and turned the ball over 42 times.”
pic.twitter.com/hIXly5IOUW
— Bussin’ With The Boys (@BussinWTB) March 25, 2026
The clip is from a March 23 episode of State of the Frogs, a podcast affiliated with Frogs Today, an independent, subscriber-only media network that collaborates with the university through Name, Image, and Likeness initiatives.
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Dykes’ quote is in response to a question by host J.W. Wilson, who asked about his thoughts on the new offensive coordinator, Gordon Sammis. He brings up Hoover on his own accord to start his answer with that 10-second thought.
“You go and look at Gordon (Sammis) was the offensive coordinator last year at Connecticut and their quarterback turned it over twice. So, I think that’s where we want to get to. You look at the teams that played for a national championship: you look at Indiana this year, they were number one in the nation in turnover margin. There were +22 in turnovers and No. 2 in fewest penalties. And so that’s what we need to become. We need to be a team that doesn’t turn the ball over. I felt like the last three years we’ve turned it over way too much.”
While it’s good to be wary of 10-second snippets taken out of context and passed along on the Internet, it does seem that Dykes was not a fan of the former quarterback, correcting the “we” to “he” when referring to turning over the ball, then mentioning the “last three years.”
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In case you are wondering: Dykes is not exaggerating. Hoover tallied 42 turnovers, including 33 interceptions and nine fumbles, as TCU’s starting quarterback over the last three years.
Josh Hoover moved on from TCU to transfer to Indiana during the offseason.
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But it’s also not the only time Dykes throws shade at his former quarterback on the podcast. In fact, he does it within the first few minutes of the show when asked about finishing the season with an Alamo Bowl win over USC.
“It was a great way to end: there was a lot of turmoil leading up to the game, which just kind of happens in college football that time of year,” Dykes said. “Ended up being really proud of our players, everybody but one ended up playing in the game for the most part.”
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He doesn’t mention Hoover by name, but Hoover was the player who opted out of the bowl game. The “turmoil,” might’ve been his decision to transfer, putting senior backup quarterback Ken Seals in the driver’s seat for the bowl game.
The other funny mention, which may or may not apply to Hoover, is at the beginning of the podcast, when Dykes describes the transfer portal as a “good way to clear out the bottom third of your roster” to “bring in new guys and create competition.” He goes on to praise Harvard transfer quarterback Jaden Craig.
Listen, it’s not shocking to see a quarterback want a change of scenery. But this much shade hints that Hoover’s breakup with the program was a little more heated than we realized.
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