FOOTBALL

The Brendan Sorsby, Rod Carey duo and ‘gradual improvement’ provides glimmer of hope in otherwise difficult Indiana football season

Published

6 months ago

November 14, 2023

Indiana football quarterback Brendan Sorsby

The Indiana football program may have found its perfect pairing with new offensive coordinator Rod Carey and starting QB Brendan Sorsby. (Ron Johnson-USA TODAY Sports)

The Indiana football program now enters its third straight year without a bowl game — adding to the disappointment surrounding the 2023 season. Indiana (3-7; 1-6) fell to Illinois on Saturday in overtime, 48-45, ending its possibility of reaching postseason play.

Despite the loss, however, was optimism and a glimmer of hope. If nothing else comes out of the 2023 season, one thing surely does and that is Indiana’s duo of offensive coordinator Rod Carey and quarterback Brendan Sorsby.

Both entered the 2023 season in different roles than they’re in now. Neither were on the forefront of the offensive discussion just a few weeks ago. But, following a quarterback change and offensive coordinator firing midseason, the duo have found their groove.

Since Rod Carey 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.

“Yeah, I think really proud of him and the job he’s done with our offense. I think obviously Saturday was a great proof of that,” Indiana football head coach Tom Allen said of Carey. “He’s done a really good job of bringing the staff together first and then bringing the offense together and being able to just keep seeing a little bit of growth every single week.”

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.

“I just think that there’s just a lot to be said about getting everybody believing, everybody together, and just getting some more consistent execution,” Allen said. ” … Really proud of what he’s done, and you’re right, it’s not an easy situation to do that at all, but he’s come in and taken the guys that are here, both coaches and players, and got them all together and done a great job leading that group. That to me is very exciting, very encouraging, and definitely one of the huge pluses from this past weekend.”

The offense is part of a tandem, however. With Carey comes Brendan Sorsby. While Carey has grown, so has the other part of that tandem.

Sorsby has thrown eight touchdowns to just two interceptions since he was named the official starter heading into IU’s matchup with Rutgers just four weeks ago. He has thrown — in order: 126 yards, 268 yards, 186 yards and then a career-best 289 yards last week.

His efficiency is there, too. After just a completion rate of 48.4 percent against Rutgers, he has been above 61 percent in the last three starts.

“He’s made improvements in command, understanding and just playing the position,” Carey said of Sorsby. “He’s getting the rep base and some things slow down. So, some things are definitely starting to slow down for him.”

The growth was highlighted when Indiana needed a touchdown and two-point conversion to tie the game up late in the fourth quarter on Saturday. Indiana took over at its own 15 yard line with 1:37 left. Sorsby led the Hoosiers down the field with confidence and assertiveness, getting exactly what Indiana needed; eight points. He left 28 seconds on the clock.

“The hardest situation to put a young quarterback in is a live two-minute drill,” Carey said. “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.”

“That’s what you dream of,” Sorsby said of the last drive. “You dream of being in that situation. I’m confident in our guys to go make plays.”

While that performance, especially late, will be highly discussed, what impressed Carey the most of his young quarterback was the understanding from week-to-week what needs to change throughout the game.

The game against Wisconsin was more of a possession game and being a game-manager. Last week, Indiana needed Sorsby to make big plays. He did both.

“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.”

“I try to make smart decisions but have to continue to be aggressive and manage the game while being aggressive,” Sorsby said last week. ” … being in game situations as well, it just continues to help you progress.”

With Saturday’s performance, Sorsby has now moved up to fifth overall in Big Ten QBR ratings this season.

So, while there was criticism at making Carey a permanent offensive coordinator and eliminating the interim tag altogether when he was elevated to the position, it has paid off.

But the results still need to be there. Indiana is just 1-4 since Carey took over the offense. And despite the improvements, it’s a results-based industry at the end of the day. Because of that, Carey is his biggest critic.

“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.

“It’s not above the line this week (against Illinois) because we didn’t win. Starts and ends there … we didn’t hold up our end. That’s why it’s below the line. With all the good things, and there are plenty of good things and you don’t shy away from those, but in the end we didn’t (hold up our end) … I’ve never come out of a game where I’ve called plays and felt good about every single one of them.”

Indiana will try to be ‘above the line’ the next two weeks — both trophy games — against Michigan State and Purdue. Regardless of the lack of bowl opportunity at this point in the season, if that ‘gradual improvement’ continues in the final two weeks, this season could be counted as a win by finding a really good pairing in Rod Carey and Brendan Sorsby.