Dave Portnoy puts Indiana loss on Nick Marsh, not Hoover

Dave Portnoy was already down on Josh Hoover before the final whistle. Halfway through the afternoon in Bloomington, he was bringing up the guy Hoover replaced.

Dave Portnoy

@stoolpresidente

Remember when people tried to say Josh Hoover was as good or close to as good as Mendoza? That there wouldnt be a huge drop off at the QB position. Woof

That's the Mendoza comparison, and it has followed Hoover since he showed up from TCU. The 22-game win streak Indiana brought into Saturday started in Week 1 of 2025, so Hoover took over a machine built with Mendoza under center. The job was simple: don't be the guy who breaks it. For most of the day the offense looked like it missed him. Hoover finished 20-of-40 for 296 yards, and a team that once went 1,437 straight offensive plays without a fumble put the ball on the ground on back-to-back second-half possessions.

Then came the play everyone will be arguing about until Thanksgiving. Indiana trailed 19-15 after a 2-point conversion, it was 4th-and-4 with 1:02 left, and Hoover found Marsh behind the Ohio State secondary with nobody near him.

Big Cat

@BarstoolBigCat

No one close

Nobody was close, and that's the problem. Marsh's left foot came down just out of bounds, the catch was ruled incomplete, and Ohio State took over and ran out the clock. That was Indiana's first loss since 2024 and Curt Cignetti's first home loss in 20 games across 3 seasons. Plenty of people blamed the throw for making Marsh reach for the sideline. Portnoy blamed the receiver.

Dave Portnoy

@stoolpresidente

People think that’s on Hoover? I think that’s on Marsh. Not a great throw by any stretch but gotta get your foot in. By the wa Ive never thought Hoover was that great so wasnt shocked by his performance. But still gotta get your foot in.

Dave Portnoy@stoolpresidente

Unbelievable. You can take the player out of Michigan State but you cant take the Michigan State outta the player. Couldn’t have been an easier TD. Wow

Look closely and that's 2 takes in 1 tweet. On the play itself he's sticking up for Hoover: not a great ball, but a wide-open receiver in the end zone has to get a foot down. On the quarterback in general, he's still not sold. It's a fair split. Hoover put up 296 yards on a defense that spent all day making Indiana's life hard, and still lost the game on a ball that landed a few inches too far toward the sideline.

Portnoy watching an Ohio State game this closely is nothing new. He's a Michigan guy who has spent the whole fall going back and forth with Columbus, and on Wake Up Barstool earlier this month he explained what the beef is to him.

Wake Up Barstool

@wakeupbarstool

“It's a rivalry, you talk crap back and forth.” – Dave Portnoy

0:44

So Indiana had the shot at knocking off the Buckeyes that he was rooting for, and it came down to a toe. Ohio State didn't leave clean either: Julian Sayin left in the 4th quarter with a right arm injury, freshman Luke Fahey finished the game, and Ryan Day said Sayin will probably miss several weeks. For Indiana, the streak is over and the Hoover-vs.-Mendoza argument is going to get louder. Until Hoover wins a game like this one, every miss gets held up next to Mendoza.