Olaf Growald
Well, the Dear John letter on Instagram we’ve all been dreading dropped on Thursday.
“First, I want to thank God for the opportunities that he has blessed me with to play this game. I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to represent TCU for an incredible 4 years. It has been a dream to be able to play and graduate from this university and I will forever be grateful for that.”
But — there’s always a “but” — TCU quarterback Josh Hoover continued, “I will be entering the transfer portal.”
So, there it is. Well, hell. This one hurts because Hoover represented stability in a volatile era of name, image, and likeness, and the specter of the transfer portal. He was “our guy” in a sports culture where “our guy” barely exists anymore.
But alas … .
Josh Hoover is a fantastic person. We wish him the best.
Olaf Growald
Our man Ken Seals of Azle and then Weatherford High, who traveled back here by way of Vanderbilt, is presumably the starter for TCU’s Alamo Bowl game against Southern Cal. (Everybody remembers the last time TCU lost its starting quarterback right before the Alamo Bowl. It was epic.)
Thankfully, Kansas — the band, that is — taught us all about transience in 1977. Nothing lasts forever, especially in today’s college athletics’ revenue sports. Once upon a time, our guys stayed with us until the eligibility ran out. Today, our college athletes more resemble Mickey Rooney or Jennifer Lopez. (Can you believe that Mickey Rooney found eight wives?)
It’s TCU one day. Indiana the next?
The clickbaiting stations got on this immediately: Where will Josh Hoover land?
Miami, Oregon, Texas Tech. No, Lord, no … not Texas Tech!
The leader in the clubhouse appears to be Indiana, once a hotbed of college basketball. Bob Knight is somewhere beside himself — that is, red-faced and expressing his emotions, shall we say, with the harshest language ever known to man — that the Indiana football program is, one, No. 1 in the country; and, two, that the football coach there is making something like $93 million over eight years.
However, Curt Cignetti has made the Hoosier State a destination for football transfers.
Indiana is also the school Hoover initially committed to as a senior at Rockwall Heath. He had been lightly recruited with only two major suitors — SMU and Indiana. At the helm at SMU at the time was, of course, Sonny Dykes. When Dykes took the TCU job he reached back out to Hoover, who jumped at the chance to come to Fort Worth. He recalled to us in September that on his recruiting visit he “loved it here.”
Things are different at Indiana since Hoover’s change of direction. Different coach and drastically different direction.
Just last year, Hoover turned down a lucrative offer to go to Tennessee. He declined it, he said, because he had already committed to returning to TCU. And the pull of money isn’t the only reason he’s leaving. With one year of eligibility remaining, he likely wants to polish his NFL prospects by playing in bigger games.
That’s not to say that can’t or won’t happen here. But a place like Indiana — whose quarterback this season just won the Heisman Trophy — is likely to open the year in the top 10, playing in the media-darling Big Ten Conference.
Suffice to say, Hoover will be an attractive option for a lot of programs.
His 9,629 passing yards and 71 touchdown passes will likely be the most of any QB in the portal. In 2024, he set a school record with 3,949 passing yards. Hoover also has 17 wins over the past two seasons.
“I want to Thank Coach Dykes for giving me the opportunity to play at TCU. I want to thank Coach Briles and the rest of the coaching staff for pushing me to be my best on and off the field.
“Lastly, I want to thank my teammates for all of the memories that we’ve shared together. This place has allowed me to meet some of my best friends, and I will always be grateful for that. I’ve prayed about this and decided that I will be entering the transfer portal.
“God Bless & Thank you TCU”
We’ll shed a tear, take a sip, and move on. It’s the only option.
So long, farewell, Josh Hoover.
Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye.
