It’s midway through October and the Indiana football program is still looking for a starting quarterback. Following Saturday’s 52-7 blowout loss to Michigan, the biggest question about the team was who would be playing quarterback in week eight … and for the rest of the season.
After naming Tayven Jackson the starting quarterback heading into week three, Indiana football head coach Tom Allen benched him after halftime in Indiana’s loss to Maryland two weeks again. Following the bye week, Allen emphasized that Jackson was still the starting quarterback.
He was on Saturday but after two drives, he was pulled for Brendan Sorsby. It was the plan heading into the game.
“Yeah that was the plan. We were going to play Tayven the first two series then play Brendan the third and fourth series and that’s what we did,” Allen said postgame. “Then just kinda see who had the hot hand and see who was playing best.”
Neither quarterback played well. Jackson was 7-of-13 for 52 yards and two interceptions and one lost fumble. Sorsby was 6-of-14 for 44 yards and one lost fumble.
And now, it’s back to square one for the quarterback room.
“We’ll make a decision (this week), and just bottom line is, as you go through and you look at the changes we wanted to make on offense — obviously made a major change a week ago with our staff — and just want to be able to do a great job of moving us down the field, scoring points. And that continues to be the goal,” Allen said on Monday. “Obviously did some good things. Both of them did good things on Saturday. Both of them made some mistakes. But it’s about protecting the football. It’s about running the offense and being able to be effective with that.
“So we’ll make a decision. When we make this decision this week, that person will be the guy. So I’m not going to rotate back and forth.”
After what looked like a building block performance in his first start as the official starter against Louisville, Jackson has struggled since. He threw for 299 yards with one touchdown and one interception against the Cardinals and led a significant second-half comeback that fell just short. He had a 70.6 completion percentage. Since, he has struggled with accuracy, with completion percentages of 42.3, 58.6 and then 53.8 in the last three games.
In total this season, Jackson is 78-of-128 for 914 yards with two touchdowns and five interceptions.
Sorsby hasn’t shown much more in his limited action either. He is 30-of-57 for 294 yards and two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
The biggest difference are the turnovers. Jackson has seven turnovers while Sorsby has one.
“Bottom line is we definitely want to be able to have some continuity there,” Allen said. “I know we’ve obviously had some back and forth with that throughout the course of the season as we have two young guys that we know are trying to grow and develop. And as we figure out what their strengths are as well. We just want to see them play consistently and build it around them … I think there’s no question. Both have positive traits and you just want to see more consistency. I think that’s the key, for us to be able to do that as a staff to help them with that in both the game plan and the calls and the way they’re going to operate.”
The Indiana football offense finished with 232 yards and an average of just 3.7 yards per play against Michigan. Indiana out gained Michigan in the first quarter 141 to 17. In the second half, the IU offense averaged just 2.2 yards per play.
“If you could take the first quarter and bottle it up with both of them … we just can’t turn the ball over at quarterback,” Offensive coordinator Rod Carey said on Monday. ” … I’m not up here trying to say we’re something we’re not, but it’s about focusing on the glimpses.”
“That’s going to be the real goal this week is that consistency and to begin to narrow things down to the areas where they can — they’ve shown, we’ve got enough on film now to know that we can do well,” Allen added. “Just gotta continue to improve, gotta throw the football better, continue to run the football better. Did a little bit of both of those things on Saturday. Not consistently enough to be able to get where we want to be.”
More: Indiana Football Notebook: Final thoughts, takeaways from week seven
Indiana ranks 14th in the Big Ten in scoring offense, averaging just 18.5 points per game.
In the last two games, the Indiana football program has been outscored 96-24. In three Big Ten games this season, Indiana has scored three touchdowns. Two of which game against Maryland when the Hoosiers were down 37-3 in the fourth quarter.
“I think the goal would be, obviously, you pick a guy and every game he just continues to improve and grow. So obviously at every position if you have a guy that is continuing to do that, then that progresses the way you would like for it to be. If it’s not, you make a change,” Allen said. “So bottom line is, that position, I get that there’s a little more to it. There’s a lot of pressure on it, a lot of expectations. And that person is different than every other spot, I understand.
“But everybody has to perform as well. So whoever that is, I want those guys to know that, there’s no doubt they feel that pressure. And you don’t want any guy in a position to look over your shoulder. But you also have to look forward and make plays and be a guy that’s doing the things you need to do, for whatever the position is.”
Indiana faces Rutgers on Saturday and then at Penn State next weekend. Those are two of the top defenses in the Big Ten.
Indiana is 2-19 in the last 21 Big Ten games, with an average loss of 23.9 points.
“Whoever the guy is and however that moves itself forward is the fact we want to make sure those guys understand the game plan, execute the game plan and put the team, as a coach does and as a player does, in that position that has to be able to rise up and take on that responsibility.
“We spend a lot of time with those guys and I feel like they’re mentally in a good place, but at the same time you want to make sure that they continue to play better each week and that’s the goal for that position and all positions.”
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