Sonny Dykes believes Josh Hoover throws the ball 'as well as any quarterback I've coached'

TCU quarterback Josh Hoover exploded for the Horned Frogs last season, passing for a program record 3,949 yards with 27 touchdowns (T-4th most in a season in program history). He led TCU to a 9-4 record and a 34-3 drumming of Louisiana in the New Mexico Bowl.

Head coach Sonny Dykes, who has coached many great quarterbacks in his 14 seasons at Louisiana Tech, California, SMU and TCU, made a bold claim about Hoover at this week’s Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, TX.

“Like I said earlier, when you sit down and you say what makes a quarterback a great quarterback, I’m not so sure that the most important quality isn’t an innate ability to just make people around you better,” Dykes said. “And I think that’s what Josh does better than anything. Now look, he throws the ball as well as any quarterback I’ve coached and I’ve been fortunate to coach some good ones. No. 1 pick overall, Super Bowl MVP, guys like that that have gone on and had success at the next level. He’s right there in terms of his ability to throw the football. But his most important and best characteristic is just who he is.”

The Heath, TX native hit the 300 passing yard mark in six games last season, including a stellar 402 yard and four touchdown performance in a 35-34 loss to UCF. Hoover returns his second-leading receiver from last season Eric McAllister (762 yards and five touchdowns), as he looks to lead the Frogs to their ninth 10-win season since 2008.

“As I said, he brings out the best in people,” Dykes continued. “He’s incredibly unselfish. The guys love him and respond to him. They know that he cares more about them than he does himself, and that’s pretty special at that position. In today’s world, quarterbacks sometimes can be a handful to deal with and he’s not that way at all. He’s just such a good teammate. But I think he’s gonna have a big year, I really do. I think the thing that is gonna make him even more successful is that I think he believes in his supporting cast and he believes in what we’re doing from a scheme standpoint.”

“I know he believes that we’ll be better defensively and that takes a lot of pressure off of him to go out there and have to score 40 or 50 points to win. We’re not gonna have to do that. So he can go out there and check the ball down and make the routine plays and that’s gonna be good enough to give us a chance to win on Saturday’s. When you know that as a quarterback, it takes a lot of pressure off of you to go out and perform and do your job and not try to do too much.”

“So I think he’ll take a big step and continue to progress and I think he’ll be one of the elite quarterbacks in college football.”

Hoover and TCU opens the 2025 season at North Carolina on September 1.