Sonny Dykes’ comments were typical of a salty ex when he spoke about former TCU Frogs’ QB1 Josh Hoover. However, Curt Cignetti, Hoover’s newfound love at Indiana, has now aimed a slight dig at him in response to his comments.

“We’re excited about Josh, first of all, let me be clear about that,” Cignetti said in response to Dykes. “He’s got a body of work in terms of winning football games, passing yards, touchdown passes. Although, got to clean up some of the turnovers, obviously, which Coach Dykes made light of. But when Josh got here, he met his two new best friends: a great defense and a really good run game. And he was never the same after that.”

Curt Cignetti did not just defend his quarterback but also flipped the script on Dukes by highlighting Indiana’s elite defense and rushing attack to subtly blame TCU’s roster flaws for Hoover’s past turnovers. It’s a bold statement, proving that great quarterbacks need a reliable supporting cast to thrive, which is something that Hoover finally possesses.

Josh Hoover did not just leave a team whose 9-4 record could not take them past the regular season for the national champions, who had a 16-0 unbeaten record. As highlighted by Curt Cignetti, he also picked the nation’s fourth-best defense over a poor defense, whose 378 yards allowed per game placed them at No. 73 in the nation.

When it comes to the run game, TCU was even worse. Their 131.4 yards per game earned them a 100th-place ranking in the nation, compared to the Hoosiers, who ranked 12th in the country for running over 218 yards per game.

Despite TCU’S shortcomings, Hoover has a career record of throwing for 9,629 yards and 79 touchdowns, which places him above other returning quarterbacks in the country. The problem clearly was translating this individual brilliance to the team to succeed with the struggling Frogs. As the starting quarterback, Hoover led the Frogs to an 18-13 record and two bowl appearances, which could have been better if he had better players around him.

“Yeah, we’re still learning about him. You know, a couple different things there,” Cignetti admitted there is room for improvement. “We’d like to see him play a little faster, practice with a little more urgency. Drive every ball, I don’t know what was asked of him where he came from in terms of practice, but no plays are like a throw off. You know, even walk through. We get on wide receivers for running half speed. Well, you know, we want him to drive every ball.”

At the time, Dykes threw shade at Josh Hoover. He was simply asked about J.W. Wilson, the Frogs’ new offensive coordinator, who was with the UConn Huskies last season. It was in talking about what Wilson brings to the team that he made Hoover his scapegoat.

“Look: numbers are numbers and stats are stats. For us: I think Josh started 31 games here as a quarterback, and we turned the over 40 — he-turned the ball over 42 times in those 31 starts.

“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.”

Sonny Dykes is disrespecting Josh Hoover once more

Sonny Dykes was not just one-sided in his response; he sounded so unappreciative of Josh Hoover, who holds the quarterback record at TCU. Even with the 33 interceptions and nine fumbles Dykes complained about, Hoover had a 64.8% pass completion range, ranking him second in TCU history. 

Hoover spent four seasons with the Frogs and was QB1 for the last three years, completing a single-season program record of 3,949 passing yards in his sophomore year, and ranking third in completions with 771 and fourth in career passing yards with the Frogs. He is easily a program legend already. But Dykes has not treated him as one.

When asked about the team’s Alamo Bowl win over USC, Dykes had earlier fired subtle shots at Hoover, as Hoover was the player who opted out of the bowl game.

“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.”