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Olaf Growald
As the years blur, I had all but forgotten that the paths of college quarterbacks Quinn Ewers and Josh Hoover nearly intersected in Fort Worth, Texas.
Ewers, the top quarterback in the country in his high school recruiting class, was looking to transfer from Ohio State. Hoover, lightly recruited in comparison, out of Rockwall Heath High School, had two offers — SMU and Indiana, which he had committed to but was rethinking after a coaching change.
He also had a new suitor: TCU, freshly under head coach Sonny Dykes — the same coach who once courted him at SMU. Hoover liked the SMU staff but never felt fully sold on SMU the place. Now that Dykes and his staff had made the jump to Fort Worth, they picked up the phone and called him again.
Hoover said, “heck, yeah” to an invitation to visit TCU.
“TCU never recruited me [before Dykes],” Hoover says. “I wasn’t a big-time recruit at all. SMU and Indiana were my two biggest offers. On the visit, TCU offered me [a scholarship], and I loved it here.”
Perhaps trying to be cagey, perhaps being surprised, or perhaps something else altogether, Hoover told the coaches he wanted to sleep on it.
Says Hoover: “I remember saying to my parents, ‘I better go ahead and just tell ‘em I’m coming. I really like it. I don’t want them to take somebody else. So about 10 minutes down the road, I called Coach Dykes and said, ‘Hey, I’m coming.’”
Ewers was scheduled to come in the very next day. Ewers wound up at Texas.
Oddly, the careers of the two are today trending in opposite directions. As Ewers seeks to find himself in professional football, Hoover is on the rise with NFL scouts and talent evaluators.
Hoover is living his dream of playing at TCU, and he’s making the very best of his opportunity.
After starting six games as a redshirt freshman in 2023, Hoover, a team captain, set TCU’s season passing record with 3,949 yards last season, eclipsing Trevone Boykin’s mark of 3,901 in 2014.
Entering this season, former Alabama coach Nick Saban called him the “most under-the-radar quarterback in the country.”
Hoover has been off the radar as QBs like Arch Manning at Texas and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier have generated much of the buzz, but this season got off to a rollicking start with the figurative beheading of Bill Belichick’s North Carolina. Hoover’s performance on Labor Day night was a national eye-opener, passing for 284 yards and two touchdowns in a 48-14 shellacking of the Tar Heels in front of a national audience on ESPN.
He has darted up the Davey O’Brien Watch List and been mentioned as a Heisman dark horse.
“I try not to pay too much attention to that,” he says. “My focus is just being the best I can be for TCU on the field, off the field, and just doing my job, and whatever comes of that — great.”
Hoover is an outdoorsman who enjoys a round of golf and is even in the cattle business with an old classmate from Heath.
Faith is also a defining part. How else to explain turning down the treasure of millions of dollars to transfer to Tennessee during the off-season? He probably best explained the reason in a first-person article for TCU.
“Every morning when I walk into the facility, it’s still dark outside. I like to stop and look at the field and think about how blessed I am to be here. The goodness of God just blows me away.”
BY THE WAY...
Josh Hoover’s Favorite QBs
Olaf Growald
The TCU QB’s most-admired list growing up, “in no particular order.”
1. Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions/LA Rams
2. Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts/Denver Broncos
3. Drew Brees, San Diego Chargers/New Orleans Saints
4. Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys
5. Tom Brady, New England Patriots/Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Honorable mention: Aaron Rodgers, Packers/Jets/Steelers
FROM THE FEED
1. Hoover is on the Davey O’Brien Watch List.
2. A good day hunting with buddies, including Cade Sharp, a good friend and now a partner in the cattle business.
3. Before he left Rockwall Heath for TCU, Hoover helped his old high school win a UIL Class 6A state baseball championship.
4. Running onto the field on gameday at home will never get old.
5. Here’s a catch worthy of showing to the masses.
6. Josh Hoover is a spokesman for Raising Cane’s.
7. With former TCU teammate Jack Bech, now a member of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.
