The Indiana football program held the first of two fall camp scrimmages on Saturday morning. While it was closed to the public and there was limited video shown, the Hoosiers did have visitors from the Big Ten Network in attendance.
Big Ten Network continued their Big Ten tour with a stop in Bloomington. The crew came away impressed with a few aspects of the program, but one that didn’t leave a great impression was at the quarterback position.
The biggest question going into Saturday was the play at quarterback for Indiana. Redshirt freshmen Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby have been competing for the starting spot since spring practice but at this point, there has been no clear separation.
And, that was still the case post-scrimmage.
“Tough to separate out the QB’s today – Tayven Jackson & Brendan Sorsby both had ok days – the kind of ups and downs you’d expect from Inexperienced guys,” analyst Dave Revsine said. “Gets interesting w Dexter Williams – ahead of schedule in rehab – Tom Allen absolutely expects to have him back at some point.”
The Indiana football program has gone through seven practices in fall camp. Up to this point, both Jackson and Sorsby have received equal reps with the ones. On Saturday, both players were going to be splitting snaps once again — as the only two quarterbacks to receive snaps.
“The goal for today is to go 50-50 between the two quarterbacks,” Indiana head coach Tom Allen said on Saturday. “It’s purely the ones going the same number of times, the two going the same number of times. They’re the only two guys who are going to take snaps today. We want to get as many game-like situations as we can.”
Going into Saturday, there was no expectation that a starter would be named following the scrimmage.
While the quarterback competition will remain ongoing, offensive coordinator Walt Bell reiterated the fact that the pair of players competing are still much further along and making good progress each day.
“(We’re) Much further past what you would consider the ABCs and now we’re on to the DEFs … Both of them have done a great job,” Bell added on Thursday. “They’re both really physically talented. In these first six days, you had some really, really, really good moments and special moments. Some average moments. And, below average moments. Two young guys that have a lot of physical talent. They’re competing really well.”
More must-reads: