Indiana football may be in the market for a quarterback this coming offseason.
The Hoosiers have enjoyed great success at the position through two seasons under head coach Curt Cignetti, with Kurtis Rourke
guiding the offense to a 11-2 finish in 2024 and Fernando Mendoza winning the 2025 Heisman Trophy on top of the Big Ten Championship.
There’s options at the position heading into 2026 with Alberto Mendoza waiting in the wings, Tyler Cherry’s return from injury and potential additions through the transfer portal. We’ll be going through several candidates that Indiana could look at.
Indiana football transfer targets: Quarterback
- Josh Hoover, TCU
- Brendan Sorsby, Cincinnati
- Beau Pribula, Missouri
Dylan Raiola, Nebraska
Dylan Raiola, who’s made headlines for his resemblance to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, entered the transfer portal after two seasons at Nebraska.
Raiola was one of the top quarterbacks in the high school class of 2024 and committed to Ohio State and Georgia before Nebraska where his father, Dominic Raiola, was an All-American center. As stated above, the conversation around him has been dominated by the Mahomes comparisons, but let’s just talk production/fit. His stats are as follows:
- 2024: 2,819 passing yards, 13 passing touchdowns, 11 interceptions. Completed 67.1% of his passing attempts.
- 2025: 2,000 passing yards, 18 passing touchdowns, 6 interceptions. Completed 72.4% of his passing attempts.*
*2025 season cut short by an injury suffered against USC in November.
Raiola brings two seasons of starting experience to the portal and, one way or another, the stats speak for himself. He was a true freshman in 2024 and had to adjust to the college level before showing progress as a sophomore in 2025.
Highlights include his completion percentage, experience and overall talent. He has a pretty strong arm but lacks mobility, which wouldn’t necessarily be a problem because Indiana builds its offenses around its quarterbacks. The concerns with Raiola are his relatively middle of the road production and injury recovery. He’ll likely be ready by the time the 2026 season kicks off, but the more availability the better.
Overall, given the options that are available, Raiola would feel like a bit more of a reach. He’s not bad, by any means, but he feels like a guy who’d be further down on Indiana’s list rather than a top target. Indiana got a look at him when the Cornhuskers traveled to Bloomington in 2024 and he largely underwhelmed but, again, was a true freshman.
