FOOTBALL

Indiana Football Week 11 Stock Report: Who’s trending up? Who’s trending down?

Published

6 months ago

November 9, 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 11. (Indiana Athletics)

The Indiana football program is coming off of its first Big Ten win against Wisconsin and has put together back-to-back strong performances.

Indiana is now 3-6 on the season and 1-5 in Big Ten play. It heads on the road against an inconsistent Illinois program.

So, after week 10 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: It was another very strong building block for Sorsby and this Indiana offense in general. It was the third-straight start after getting the starting nod against Michigan a few weeks ago and this was another good outing for the redshirt freshman. He was 19-of-31 for 186 yards and two total touchdowns (one rushing) but it was another performance without turning the ball over — a major key for him and this Indiana football team.

Sorsby started things off with an eight-yard rushing touchdown on the first drive of the game. He would go on to lead Indiana to drives that crossed the 50 into Wisconsin territory in four of six first-half possessions. Another drive went up to IU’s 47 before having to punt — so moving the ball in the first half was not an issue.

The second half was a much slower offensive performance, punting it on their first four possessions before getting a game-sealing field goal on its final drive.

Overall, it was another gutsy performance from Sorsby who was listed as questionable coming in with a shoulder injury that he suffered against No. 10 Penn State.

“I thought it was a whale of a game by him, all things considered. It was certainly not perfect. We certainly have a long way to go. He knows that. I know that. We know that as an offense too. But I would certainly put that up there as one of the better performances I’ve seen, given all of the circumstances involved,” Indiana football offensive coordinator Rod Carey said this week. “The number one place that I think he has grown quickly is game management. I mean that of understanding where you are on the field, what’s the game situation and what really needs to be accomplished.”

“Just poise, confidence in himself, only grows over time, and you’re seeing that from him every game he plays,” IU head coach Tom Allen added. “Every snap he gets is important, and as is the case for all young players. I just think his natural talent is kind of starting to come out, and as he gets more comfortable with what we’re doing and what he’s seeing and how he’s able to distribute the ball at critical times.

EJ Williams: Williams — a former high-end four-star recruit — went down with a wrist injury just midway into the first half in game two this season. The result? Being on the sidelines for the next five weeks. But, he’s returning just in time for Indiana and had a terrific performance last week.

Williams — who played his first significant role for Indiana in last week’s 20-14 win over Wisconsin — finished with four receptions for 48 yards. That included a big 21-yarder on a key third down early in the game. Indiana would capitalize just two plays later on an eight-yard touchdown run. Three of Williams’ four receptions resulted in a first down — two of them went for more than 12 yards. Two of the three first down receptions also came on third down.

At 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, Williams brings tremendous size, in addition to his quickness, to an Indiana football offense that has lacked explosive plays from its wideouts until recently. Adding Williams in time for the last push towards a bowl game is exactly what makes this coaching staff even more confident in the product that will hit the field this weekend.

“The thing about E.J. is that you can see that because of the time that he missed, his body is rested and he’s ready to go,” Carey said this week. “He’s playing at a good speed right now and his confidence is growing. You can tell every time his confidence is growing every time he’s out there. He’s growing with the offense and the speed of the game. It’s really good to have E.J (back).”

“Going to need him to continue to elevate and continue to be a guy on the rise, which we’re seeing right now from him, so really proud of him,” Allen said. ” … Big expectations for EJ in these next few weeks.”

Donaven McCulley: McCulley has consistently been trending up over the last few weeks and he did so again with another terrific performance on Saturday. Not only was he consistent throughout the game, he made some big time plays that Indiana has really lacked in the passing attack this year.

He started with a 32-yard catch and run that showed his IQ. Following the catch, McCulley fell to the ground but landed on a defender, keep him off the ground. He jumped up immediately and took off, getting Indiana into Wisconsin territory.

The second major play came just four plays later when the 6-foot-5 wideout had a one-handed touchdown grab in the back corner of the end zone. He finished with five receptions for 67 yards and that seven yard touchdown.

“D Mac to me is a guy I’ve always challenged.,” Indiana head coach Tom Allen said postgame.“I’ve always felt like that he was a guy that should have the mindset that ‘they just can’t guard me. If the ball is anywhere near me, I’ll going to come down with it. They’re going to have to grab me, hold me, interfere with me in order to make a play’. If that continues, it becomes very dangerous. You have the chance to come down with a ball if you seek and do that, but also a chance to create a penalty, which gives us first downs in that situation. Huge weapon for us. Continues to develop and continues to elevate his play.”

Through nine games this year, McCulley leads Indiana in receptions (29), receiving yards (387) and receiving touchdowns (3). After having zero games last year with more than three receptions, he’s totaled five such games this season. He also only had one game of 30+ yards last season. This year, he has five.

His confidence continues to grow.

“Now, I’m a real wide receiver who is athletic,” McCulley said. ” … I’ve always felt like, ‘Go out there every play and just tell yourself you’re unguardable’. Just try to impose your will. I’m 6-foot-5, 210 (pounds) and I feel like I need to impose my will on almost every play. That’s a big thing for me, just being a dawg.”

Aaron Casey: It’s hard to say that Casey is truly trending up because he was never down, but Saturday’s performance was a standalone outing. He finished with nine total tackles with four tackles for loss and two sacks. He — at times — single-handedly dominated the entire Wisconsin offense.

His performance gave him Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors.

Casey ranks fourth in the Big Ten with 78 total tackles. He also ranks fourth with 5.5 sacks and leads the conference with 13.5 tackles for loss.

“He was very, very impactful in that game, as we all saw, and it just kind of — I think it kind of willed us to win that game because we obviously had to have those stops, and he tackled extremely well, which is what we expect him to do. He’s one of our best tacklers in space,” Allen said.

Jordan Shaw: Shaw is a true freshman who had a standout performance in his first real extended action of the season. The defensive back played extended snaps due to some injuries to key members of the secondary and emerged as someone who should expect to remain on the field the rest of the season.

Shaw had nine tackles and one pass deflection.

“Definitely put a lot on his plate pretty quickly, but he responded well. I think he’ll continue to grow and develop, and he’s just a tough kid,” Allen said. “He’s got a really good football IQ, and as you mentioned, we had high hopes for him, expectation for him coming out of high school, and he’s proven to be a guy that’s going to be a great future here.”

“He’s put the work in. He’s learned our system. He’s able to play multiple positions. I’m really proud of his development,” Indiana football defensive coordinator Matt Guerrieri said. “What makes him unique as a young player is his mentality. I know I’ve said it a lot, but to me is, “How does a young guy step onto the field?” All of these guys are talented, but if you have that kind of mentality to step up in a big spot, not panic, perform at a high level, that to me is what separates Jordan. He’s put the work in and earned that opportunity.”

TRENDING DOWN

Cam Camper: Unfortunately this has not been the season that Camper had hoped for. After tearing his ACL midway through the season last year, he came back fully prepared to have a big second season in Bloomington. But, injuries have held him out of a large portion of the season. And this week, Tom Allen announced that Camper would miss the remainder of the season.

“Had a procedure done over the weekend, and just to try and help him for his long-term, and excited about the procedure going well and getting him 100 percent healthy for the future, and be able to help them in that regard,” Allen said. ” … It’s just kind of a chance to really kind of get it cleaned up and help him have a really, really 100 percent clean future.”

Camper ends this season with 17 receptions for 285 yards and one touchdown.

Offensive Line: It has been a much better season from this unit but Saturday was a step back, especially in the second half. Indiana moved the ball at will before halftime but really struggled to gain any momentum after halftime. A large reason for that was the inability to win the line of scrimmage.

“We lost some one-on-ones,” Allen said. “We had a mistake up front on one of the pressures, which really hurt us in a critical situation where we felt like we had a chance to get a big 1st down and we did not and you have to punt. That obviously changes, kills momentum at that point. Just felt like that when Kahlil went down, I think that hurt us, too. He’s one of our better players.

“Just felt like we didn’t play as well. We didn’t execute as well up front. Had some mistakes with our guys, and like you said, lost some one-on-one battles, and got to get better. They’ve made a lot of progress, done a lot of good things, but in that part of the game we needed them to step up, and that will be a continuing area of focus for us as we go into this week.”

Illinois ranks last in the Big Ten in sacks and has no player in the top 20 in the league in sacks or tackles for loss. This needs to be a game in which the offensive line dominates.

MOST TO PROVE

Tom Allen: It was a terrific response that Allen and his entire team had last weekend. After a good performance but some questions decisions by the staff against No. 10 Penn State The Weeknd before, IU finally finished and finished strong against Wisconsin.

“I tell you, it gives you a lot of confidence. There’s nothing like game day success,” Allen said. “I said it for the last several weeks. We need some game day success, reinforce, give them some positive energy to say, Man, if you just stay the course, you’re going to be rewarded on game day. They finally got it today.”

The next three games for Indiana: at Illinois, vs Michigan State, at Purdue.

The three programs are combined 9-18 this season and 4-14 in Big Ten play.

“The goal is to be 1-0 after each week. That’s been the focus, the playoff mentality. We know we got to win each week. We don’t talk beyond whoever is next,” Allen said. “It’s earmuffs and blinders every single week.”

Can Tom Allen get his team to show up once again and keep battling back after a tough season?