Indiana football’s 2026 spring practices are set to begin this week with the program looking to build off of its national championship run in 2025. We’re looking to break down where the Hoosiers’ spring roster stands at various positions as the 2026 team takes greater shape over the course of the next few weeks ahead of the spring game in April.
First up, quarterbacks.
Quarterbacks
R-Sr Josh Hoover
- Role: Starter
Hoover originally committed to Indiana out of Rockwall-Heath High School in Heath, Texas as a member of the class of 2022 when the program
was still led by Tom Allen before flipping to in-state TCU. He’s spent the past four seasons with the Horned Frogs, redshirting in 2022 before starting the next three. He’s passed for 9,629 yards, 71 touchdowns and 33 interceptions in his career, completing 65.2% of his attempts through the air.
Given his experience relative to the rest of the room, Hoover enters spring as the pretty clear starter. Indiana needed an experienced hand to help guide the program through the next stage of its new era and found that in Hoover, who’s played as much college football as anyone in the sport.
R-Sr+ Grant Wilson
- Role: 2nd/3rd string
Wilson, the oldest member of the room, spent the 2025 season as the Hoosiers’ third string quarterback behind Fernando and Alberto Mendoza after transferring in from Old Dominion. He’d spent two seasons with Old Dominion in 2023 and 2024 after spending the first three seasons of his career with Fordham.
He’ll be competing with Tyler Cherry for the second string role behind Hoover while using the knowledge he’s gained during his college football journey to serve as a second position coach alongside Tino Sunseri. Even if Wilson loses out on the backup gig he’ll still have plenty to fall back on in his pursuit of coaching in his post playing career.
R-Fr Tyler Cherry
- Role: 2nd/3rd string
Cherry returns to Indiana’s official roster after spending the 2025 season as a student coach while rehabbing from a knee injury he suffered late in the 2024 season as a true freshman. That season was his redshirt year spent as the Hoosiers’ third string behind starter Kurtis Rourke and second string Tayven Jackson.
He was one of the first high school prospects to commit to Cignetti, having flipped from a pledge to Duke out of in-state Center Grove High School in Greenwood after then-Blue Devils head coach Mike Elko left for the Texas A&M job. A former 4-star prospect in the class of 2024, Cherry’s development is a story to watch as the Hoosiers look for a long-term answer at the position after one year stints from Rourke, Mendoza and now Hoover.
R-Fr Jacob Bell
- Role: 4th string
Bell committed to Indiana out of Naperville North High School in Naperville, Illinois, as a member of the class of 2025, flipping from a pledge to Ball State on Christmas Day in 2024. He spent the 2025 season as a redshirt behind the Mendozas and Wilson.
He was the program’s lone quarterback signing in the class and gave the Hoosiers an extra arm to look to develop for the future.
