No one can question Josh Hoover’s commitment — he literally bled for Indiana on Saturday.
The Hoosiers quarterback had his face mask yanked in a nasty manner in the second quarter of the season opener against North Texas and then began bleeding from the bridge of his nose. It dripped onto his face, chin strap and uniform.
But did that stop him? Not really.
The senior quarterback, playing in his first game with Indiana, fired a 9-yard touchdown to wide receiver Charlie Becker, giving the Hoosiers their third touchdown of the first half.
The wild sequence started on the third play of an Indiana drive with a little over eight minutes to play in the second quarter.
North Texas defensive lineman Udoka Ezeani went all-out to try to sack Hoover, who tried to dive underneath the tackle and avoid the hit. Instead, Ezeani grabbed a whole lot of face mask, leading to Hoover’s helmet twisting around before falling off completely.
The 15-yard penalty set up Indiana in the red zone and three plays later, Hoover, blood and all, had his second touchdown pass of the afternoon.
Hoover arrived in Bloomington with big shoes to fill, as he takes the spot under center that was occupied last year by Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza, who led Indiana to an undefeated season and national championship.
Mendoza even had a similar moment in the national title game last year, as he was bloodied in the win over Miami.
The new signal-caller comes in with pretty strong bona fides after throwing 56 touchdowns and over 7,000 yards over the last two years with TCU.
Horned Frogs head coach Sonny Dykes did say Hoover had a turnover issue (24 interceptions over the last two years). Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said in April it was apparent Hoover would have more at Indiana to help in this area.
“I’m excited about Josh, first of all, and he’s got a body of work in terms of winning football games, passing yards, touchdown passes,” Cignetti said. “We’ve got to clean up some of the turnovers, obviously, which coach Dykes made light of.
“But when Josh got here, he met his two new best friends: a great defense and a really good run game. And he was never the same after that.”
Hoover finished the first half with a nearly spotless line — 7-for-8 with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
