What Josh Hoover said about his Indiana wide receivers following spring practice

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana‘s offensive transition from 2025 to 2026 is notable. Not only will there be a new center and quarterback, but the top projected receivers on this roster will be stepping into new roles for the Hoosiers.

Indiana watched Omar Cooper Jr selected in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, and Elijah Sarratt in the fourth round, leaving big shoes to fill this season. Indiana returns just one of its top seven pass catchers from a season ago, so the offense will bring in an entirely new look this fall.

Indiana’s key returner is Charlie Becker. Becker, who had 34 receptions for 679 yards and four touchdowns last year, will now be 1A for the Indiana offense. After just seven receptions in the first nine games of the year, Becker broke out. He was one of the stars of the second half of the season, and postseason play.

Now, he’s likely to be tabbed as one of college football’s breakout players in 2026.

“Charlie, first thing I notice is he’s got a catch radius, and he can fly,” Indiana QB transfer Josh Hoover said after IU’s spring game last week. “He’s one of the hardest working receivers I’ve ever been around, period. And I’ve been around some hard workers who played in the league, and Charlie is one of those guys.

“He’s there every single day, wants to throw, wants to catch, wants to get the extra work in, and as a quarterback, we love that.”

Becker is joined by Nick Marsh — one of the most sought-out receiver transfers this offseason. He arrives in Bloomington after two successful seasons at Michigan State.

He had 59 receptions for 662 yards and six touchdowns in 2025, which followed up a 41-catch and 649-yard freshman season. He’s projected to be that 1B option for Indiana’s offense this season and has unlimited potential.

“Nick, I mean, he’s the same way, just a freak athlete. Unbelievable guy, just super good, super good guy, and love being around him. So I have great expectations for both of them.

“They’re great people, great players, and I’m looking forward to working with them.”

‘That’s an elite combo’: Indiana rushing attack looks to mirror success from first two seasons yet again in 2026

One of the more underrated ‘additions’ to Indiana’s offense this year will be Tyler Morris. The Michigan transfer missed the 2025 season at Indiana with an ACL injury but was the star of the spring game.

He will return to the field this fall for Indiana and is projected to be the starting slot wideout — a position he was expected to play for Indiana last year before the injury.

“T-Mo’s unbelievable,” Hoover said. “He’s got great feel. He’s played a lot of football, played at Michigan, and unfortunately missed last year with an injury.

“But he’s got a lot of feel, a lot of experience. And so someone like that is always really good to have around. He’s a playmaker, makes plays on the ball, catches it well. I’m definitely looking forward to just developing that chemistry with him and all those guys in that room.”

Hoover will be taking over an Indiana offense that has been one of the most explosive groups for two straight seasons. Under Curt Cignetti, Mike Shanahan and Tino Sunseri in 2024, Indiana set program records in numerous categories offensively. In 2025, with Cignetti, Shanahan and Chandler Whitmer, nearly every program record was broken yet again — headlined by having the Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, Fernando Mendoza.

Now to this fall, it’s Cignetti, Shanahan and Sunseri once again who look to build off of two record-breaking seasons — this time with Josh Hoover.

Hoover threw for 3,472 yards and 29 touchdowns a season ago, and a career total of 9,627 yards and 71 touchdowns. He’s completed 65.2 percent of his passes as a three-year starter at TCU.

“Anytime you get a new offense, the first step is learning what it is, learning what you do, what they want, what their idea, what their picture is for the plays and how they run this offense,” Hoover said on Thursday. “As spring went on, it just got better and better as far as knowing what they wanted and marrying up footwork and reads and seeing coverage, seeing defense.

“It’s just a day-by-day process and you gotta go to work and attack it every day and that’s what we’re gonna do. So I’m excited about it.”

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