FOOTBALL

Indiana Football Stock Report Week 12: Who’s trending up? Who’s trending down?

Published

6 months ago

November 15, 2023

Indiana football quarterback Brendan Sorsby

Taking a look at who from the Indiana football program has raised their stock and lowered their stock heading into week 12. (Ron Johnson-USA TODAY Sports)

The Indiana football program is coming off of a really deflating overtime loss to Illinois on Saturday.

Indiana is now 3-7 on the season and 1-6 in Big Ten play. It welcomes in the only other one-win Big Ten team in a struggling Michigan State program.

So, after week 11 of the season for Indiana football, who is trending up? Who’s trending down? We take a look at some coaches, players and position groups here.

TRENDING UP

Brendan Sorsby: This goes without saying, but it now appears the Indiana football program has found its future quarterback. Sorsby has been getting better every week since taking over the starting duties just four weeks go and it was highlighted by his performance against Illinois. He threw for a career-high 289 yards on 22-of-33 passing and had three passing touchdowns (one interception). He also ran for 53 yards and two additional touchdowns — a five touchdown performance.

But, it was when Indiana needed him most that he stepped up in a huge way. Indiana needed eight points to tie the game with just 1:37 left in regulation. They had to go 85 yards to do so, however. Sorsby put together a terrific two-minute drive and tied the game up — with 28 seconds remaining.

“The hardest situation to put a young quarterback in is a live two-minute drill,” Indiana football offensive coordinator Rod Carey said of Sorsby. “For him — there’s a lot on him in that moment. There’s not much help, we have to go fast so he has to make all the decisions out there once the play call is delivered. He executed at a high level in that scenario.”

The more impressive part for Carey is the way in which Sorsby has played the last two weeks and his understanding of what type of game is needed from him.

“He understood what type of game he was in. Understanding the difference in the two types of games and his ability to do that has been good … there has been a lot of improvement in that,” Carey said. “Sometimes that can happen quick for young guys — that incline goes up because those game reps. I always say, a game rep is like two or three practice reps. So he’s doing more of those things.”

Sorsby is up to 1,164 yards with a 57.9 completion percentage. He also has 10 touchdowns to just two interceptions and four additional rushing touchdowns. He is ranked fifth in total QBR in the Big Ten this season.

Rod Carey: Going hand-in-hand with Sorsby is Rod Carey. Since he took over the offense following Indiana’s bye week, the week-to-week improvement by the Indiana football offense is evident. It hit the season peak last week — totaling 451 yards of offense, 29 first downs, 7-of-13 on third downs and 5-of-5 in the red zone. It was far and away the most impressive offensive performance from Indiana this season. It was also the best offensive performance since Indiana’s loss to Ohio State in 2020.

Indiana has upped its scoring average from 20.8 points per game in the first five games of the season, to 22.0 points per game in the last five. The one asterisk? Indiana scored 41 points against FCS opponent Indiana State in week two. Take that out and Indiana averaged just 15.7 points per game against FBS opponents the first half of the year.

That growth is shown in the last five results: 7 points against Michigan, 14 points against Rutgers, 24 points against Penn State, 20 against Wisconsin and then last week.

Indiana’s 45 points were more than the Hoosiers scored combined in the first three games this season against power-five opponents.

“Probably the gradual improvement … we have made gradual improvement, found what’s working and doing more of that has been good,” Said Carey of his assessment. “But the challenge this week is, get back on the horse and continue to see that improvement. We have a long way to go yet for the entire offense, and they know that too.

Indiana has consistently put a good offensive unit on the field over the last five weeks and have kept getting better with every week. Indiana definitely looks to have found its offensive coordinator after a few years of very poor play and decision making from that unit and OC.

Donaven McCulley: The Indiana football program has a star in wideout Donaven McCulley and it has shown over the last few weeks — especially last Saturday. McCulley caught 11 passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns. That was his first-career 100-yard receiving game. Over the last three weeks, McCulley has averaged 100 yards per game on 6.7 receptions per game. He also has four receiving touchdowns over that span.

A lot has been made over the course of the last year about McCulley’s transition from quarterback to wide receiver — and it has started to pay off this season. He’s now up to 40 receptions for 524 yards and five touchdowns.

The combination of his size — at 6-foot-5 — hands, physicality and IQ makes him an extremely difficult cover. No point made that better than the five defensive pass interference penalties he drew on Saturday.

“The way he played on Saturday is the way I envisioned him playing, being a guy that is a very difficult match-up, very big, strong and tough to defend,” Indiana football head coach Tom Allen said on Monday. ” He’s worked extremely hard. He’s very coachable, very humble in regards to whoever he’s with. He doesn’t have some big it’s-all-about-me ego. It’s not that at all. He just works hard. Whoever the quarterback is, it’s just, give me the ball, give me a chance to make a play.”

It’s clear that McCulley is emerging as one of the top wideouts in the Big Ten over the last few weeks.

TRENDING DOWN

Defense: It was not only the worst defensive performance this season, but it was the worst defensive performance in Tom Allen’s tenure at Indiana. The Hoosiers gave up 662 total yards of offense to Illinois and allowed backup quarterback and Ball State transfer John Paddock to throw for 507 yards — the second-most in Illinois program history. llinois would score on 9-of-13 possessions — one that didn’t turn into points was right before the end of the game, with just 30 seconds left.

Three Illinois wideouts had career days as well. Isaiah Williams had nine receptions for a career-high 200 yards and two touchdowns. Pat Bryant had five receptions for a career-high 131 yards and one touchdown and Casey Washington finished with five receptions for a career-high 99 yards and the first receiving touchdown in his career.

Paddock had a 21.1 yard-per-completion average on the afternoon.

“We tried everything that we have in our arsenal right now in this game plan and it wasn’t good enough. Just really frustrating game defensively,” Allen said postgame. ” … To me, to be able to make sure the things we’re trying to do, that our guys can do them. If there is a guy someone is struggling with, we gotta be able to have answers for that. But to me there were a lot of breakdowns with executions of our calls where it just didn’t happen … it just can not happen this time of year.”

“It’s on me,” Said Allen on Monday of the defensive failures. “It’s my responsibility. Take full responsibility for that as head coach, and that side of the football must play better and really just didn’t get the job done.”

Tom Allen: Unfortunately this has been the case most of the season and it was even more evident on Saturday. Despite two good performances heading into the Illinois matchup, it was another deflating and disappointing loss — that needs to be put squarely on Allen’s shoulders.

“I didn’t see this one coming,” Allen said. “I didn’t. There’s been a couple weeks where I was concerned about our focus, maybe collectively going into a certain game. But not the case this week. Just really hard to pinpoint for sure the reasons for some of the things.

“It’s been very frustrating without question, and at the same time, I’m responsible. I’m in charge. It’s our program. I’ve been put in position to lead it, and when you don’t get the results you want, it’s on me … it’s been hard, to be real honest with you. We’ve got to adapt and adjust to the new world that we’re in, and it’s different. There’s no question about it, with the changing of rosters and the different things that go with that.”

Indiana football is 3-22 in the last 25 Big Ten games, spanning the last three years.

Indiana has won just nine games over the last three years.