‘Feel good about moving forward with him’: Indiana football sticking with Brendan Sorsby at quarterback

Following his first start since week one, Indiana football quarterback Brendan Sorsby received a vote of confidence and confirmation that he would be the starting quarterback moving forward.

After Tayven Jackson started each of the last six games, Tom Allen and the rest of the Indiana football coaching staff went back to the drawing board to re-asses the quarterback position. After evaluating each quarterback last week, it was Sorsby who got the nod against Rutgers.

Sorsby finiished 15-of-31 for 126 yards and had one passing and one rushing touchdown. Indiana, however, fell 31-14 and dropped to 2-5 on the season and 0-4 in Big Ten play.

Following another day to watch film and assess his performance, Allen and the staff feel good about moving forward with Sorsby under center.

“I thought he played tough. I thought he played gritty. I thought he competed. Just continue to grow and develop. I think he’s got to continue to speed up some of his reads, but that’s part of the process of growing and developing as a player,” Allen told reporters on Monday. ” … Felt like after watching the film and meeting as a staff, feel good about moving forward with him.”

Indiana’s offense, however, continued its ineffectiveness. IU finished with 279 total yards and was just 2-of-11 on third downs. Rutgers had 37:38 minutes of possession while Indiana had just 22:22.

Related: Tom Allen assesses play of Brendan Sorsby after naming him Indiana football starting QB

Sorsby led Indiana to a first-series touchdown following a 35 yard touchdown pass on fourth down. The next two drives went for 13 yards total on eight plays.

Indiana’s fifth drive was a short field, and the Hoosiers went on to score their final points of the game — a rushing touchdown from Sorsby.

“I thought he did some really good things in terms of helping us move the football. Obviously got to continue to grow and develop as a decision maker in both throwing and running, but the throw game, as well, we’ve got to do a better job of making some of those contested catches,” Allen said. I think that will be a huge plus for him. But also just kind of speeding up those reads. I think he’ll get the ball out a little quicker as he continues to grow and develop.”

“Nobody on offense played good enough to win, I think that was obvious. But as it pertains to Brendan in particular, I certainly think he played his rear end off,” Indiana offensive coordinator Rod Carey said. “He played physical, used his feet, but still wasn’t in that category of good enough to win and he recognized that when we were talking … There isn’t a ton of blatantly big things (he needs to work on). Some of the young quarterback things we have to work through but we aren’t young anymore in game eight coming up here now … for him, first full time, so you have a little more leeway on that. But there are little fundamental things, like some high throws to guys who were open that we have to clean up now that he knows how his body will react in those situations.”

Sorsby has thrown for 420 yards on the season and has a 51.1 completion percentage. He has three passing touchdowns and zero interceptions. He also has 130 yards rushing with one touchdown.

Sorsby and Indiana head on the road to take on No. 10 Penn State this weekend.