For the second straight season, Indiana football will enter fall camp with its starting quarterback yet to be determined.
Redshirt freshmen Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby spent the spring engaged in a competition for the starting job. While one may have a lead going into fall, the battle is far from over.
IU head coach Tom Allen and his offensive staff want to see how both players perform during fall camp and the team’s three preseason scrimmages before deciding who will throw passes for the Hoosiers against Ohio State on September 2.
“Haven’t moved the needle there on that one,” Allen said during IU’s event at Huber’s Winery in late May. “The summer, and then obviously fall camp, are going to be the deciding factor. Once we get into, we call them three preseason games — the first two are full pads, the third one is really more of a mock game. We’ll make a decision, I’m assuming, after the second scrimmage. That will be the progression, I would assume. We’ll stick with that.”
Both Sorsby and Jackson enter this season with very limited game experience at the college level.
Jackson entered three games for Tennessee last year, all at the end of blowout victories. He completed three of his four total pass attempts for 37 yards, and tallied 10 rushing yards on four attempts with a touchdown.
Sorsby entered for a few series against Penn State after Jack Tuttle left the game with an injury. He struggled, going 3 for 6 for eight yards with an interception. But that was a difficult spot for a true freshman to enter, and he looked better during spring camp.
“We’ve got two guys, Brendan and Tayven, both young but talented. I really like what I’ve seen from those guys,” Allen said. “I’m anxious to see it because the summer shows leadership. That’s a big part of that, how they handle getting the guys together. We can only do so much with our guys. They have to do a lot more together, so I’m anxious to see that role kind of come to fruition and see how the guys respond, and hope the guys handle that.”
Williams still on the mend
Redshirt junior Dexter Williams II showed some promise last season.
He played in IU’s last four games and started the final two against Michigan State and Purdue. He looked raw in some areas, but gave the offense a clear spark it didn’t have with Connor Bazelak at the helm. But Williams suffered a brutal knee injury during the finale against Purdue, and had to spend the offseason rehabbing instead of solely focusing on his game.
Allen confirmed at Huber’s Winery that Williams will not be ready for the start of the season. But his recovery is coming along, and the timeline has become less bleak. Allen said the program will do whatever is in Williams’ best interest as he attempts to return.
“I think as everything has kind of played itself out, it’s kind of gone from, ‘Probably going to be out the whole season,’ to, ‘You might be, now, where he can be ready later in the season,’ now it’s like, ‘Maybe halfway into the season,'” Allen said. “He’s just been so disciplined in the process of rehab. If he can come back a little earlier, I think he’s the right guy to do that. We’ll see. We’ll never rush it.”
Williams’ injury was an ACL tear with impact to some other ligaments, Allen clarified. That’s part of what’s helped his outlook improve — there were initial fears he’d suffered a broken leg or worse damage to other parts of his leg or knee in addition to the ACL. When Williams was cleared of some of those things, it provided some hope he could come back at some point next season.
A midseason Williams return would create an interesting situation for the Hoosiers. Jackson and Sorsby’s battle is entirely separate from Williams’ rehab, and there’s no way to know how a healthy Williams would’ve impacted the quarterback picture heading into the season.
Either Jackson or Sorsby will start at quarterback and get a chance to continue proving themselves. But if whoever wins the job underwhelms early in the season, there could already be calls for the other quarterback to go in. And those calls would only intensify if, or when, Williams is able to return. But if Jackson or Sorsby is playing well, it’s hard to imagine the Hoosiers pulling them for Williams.
Until Williams is ready, IU has just four quarterbacks: Jackson, Sorsby, and true freshman Broc Lowry, and walk-on Blaze McKibbin.
Allen said the staff looked into some quarterbacks in the transfer portal after spring camp, but didn’t think any of the available options would’ve been the right fit.
“I would be surprised if we did add that at this point,” Allen said. “We talked about it, and I had interest in that as well, just more of an insurance policy kind of thing. But it’s not like the NFL where you just get a guy off the wire. There’s got to be a guy that fits and wants to be in that role and understands that whole situation. With how many young guys we have, we really felt like those guys that are there, that’s where our starter’s going to come from.”
