‘Big Drop-off From Fernando (Mendoza),’ ‘Aidan Chiles Outplayed Josh Hoover’ — CFB Fans Unimpressed by Indiana QB After Northwestern Escape
· Yahoo Sports
The Indiana Hoosiers put another win in the left column, but nobody is putting Josh Hoover’s Friday night tape in the Louvre.
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No. 5 Indiana escaped the Northwestern Wildcats 29-23 in its Big Ten opener, but the quarterback comparison was not especially flattering. Hoover finished 19-of-29 for 201 yards, one passing touchdown and no interceptions, while Aidan Chiles threw for 293 yards and two scores and added a fourth-quarter touchdown run.
For a fan base that spent 2025 watching Fernando Mendoza win the Heisman Trophy and a national championship, that was more than enough to reopen the comparison department.
Josh Hoover Gets the Fernando Mendoza Treatment
TheMendoza comparison was always waiting for Hoover the first time Indiana looked mortal. Friday provided the opening.
One fanwrote simply, “Aiden Chiles outplayed Josh Hoover #comebackfernando”
Anotherput it bluntly: “Hoover is Fernando Mendoza one play and Will Levis on the next”
That is a pretty brutal spectrum. At one end is the reigning Heisman winner. At the other is a quarterback comparison no college passer is exactly framing for the family room.
One fanwent bigger: “Ohio State will smoke Indiana this year. Hoover ain’t no Mendoza”
The “big drop-off from Fernando (Mendoza)” frustration came from another fan, whowrote bluntly, “Still accurate. Big drop-off from Fernando to Hoover”
CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli was hardly ready to bury Indiana after one conference game, but he landed in the same neighborhood. Fornelliwrote afterward, “It’s just the first game of the Big Ten schedule, but Josh Hoover ain’t Fernando Mendoza.”
The funny part is that Hoover did not actually implode. He did not throw an interception, scored on a one-yard keeper with two minutes left, and helped Indiana survive the kind of game it spent most of last season making look suspiciously easy.
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Indiana Survives While Aidan Chiles Wins the Box Score
The real problem for Hoover’s approval rating was Chiles. Northwestern’s quarterback completed 22 of 29 passes for 293 yards, threw two touchdowns and ran for another. Hoover, meanwhile, leaned heavily on an Indiana rushing attack that produced 272 yards, including 203 from Lee Beebe Jr.
One uncomfortable Friday night hardly turns this into a quarterback emergency.
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It is, however, the first real postgame argument Hoover has invited in Bloomington.
Northwestern forced Indiana to actually sweat, and Chiles made the quarterback comparison look uncomfortable for long stretches.
Indiana is 4-0, Hoover still has not thrown a pick, and the Hoosiers escaped with the result that mattered. The internet’s grading scale is a little harsher: when the last guy won a Heisman and a national title, 19-for-29 apparently counts as a crisis.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.