Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers head into the 2026 season without a significant number of their national championship-winning players, especially quarterback Fernando Mendoza. As they prepare new quarterback Josh Hoover to replicate his predecessor’s Heisman Trophy-winning performance, Cignetti has outlined his thoughts on the new reality for the Hoosiers.

“Well, I don’t think we can answer that question yet,” Cignetti said on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams. “We’re fixing to find out, but you know, our last five or six quarterbacks have all been player of the year in the league offensively, except Curtis Rourke, our first year here, because Dillon Gabriel went to the Heisman, but Rourke led the country in QBR. So, we got Josh Hoover, and then he started a lot of games, threw for a lot of yards, a lot of touchdown passes, and won a lot of games. And it’s a process.”

Cignetti had Mendoza for just one year after he transferred from Cal for the 2025 season. That sole campaign surpassed everything Indiana had achieved in its 139-year history. The Hoosiers won the Big Ten Championship and the national championship after an undefeated season. Both the QB and the head coach also bagged individual honors.

Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy, and Cignetti won the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year award, the Associated Press Coach of the Year award, among many others. Ultimately, the QB left the program after entering the NFL Draft, where the Raiders selected him with the No. 1 overall pick.

However, during fall camp last year, Cignetti had similar thoughts about Mendoza as he does about Hoover these days. In August 2025, a few weeks before Indiana started its season, the head coach described the QB development as a work in progress. He admitted to there being bad plays in Mendoza’s learning curve.

Even the QB recently admitted the same. In his appearance on fellow Raider Maxx Crosby’s podcast, Mendoza discussed how Cignetti would find flaws in his tape during the fall camp. And there were moments when that process irked him. However, the focus on correcting the fundamentals is what ultimately helped him during the season.

During the 2025 season, Mendoza threw for 3,535 yards, 41 touchdowns, and six interceptions, with a 72% pass completion rate. He also added 284 rushing yards and six touchdowns. He ensured he maintained his historic run until the very end. In the national championship game, Mendoza saved the day with a 12-yard rushing touchdown on a daring fourth-down scramble that helped Indiana to a 27-21 victory over Miami.

Fernando Mendoza has been replaced by Josh Hoover, who transferred from TCU. Though Hoover comes with some asterisks because of his high turnover rate, his production is elite. In 2025, Hoover threw for 3,472 yards, 29 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions in four fewer games than Mendoza. He also had a 65.9% passing percentage.

The Indiana coaching staff liked what they saw from Hoover in the spring practice, and now they’ll have the entire fall camp to work with the QB.