Indiana Football: Intriguing name that could get a look for IU’s head coaching opening

The Indiana football program is in the midst of its coaching search to replace Tom Allen, who was fired on Sunday after seven seasons.

While the early word is Indiana will likely look hard at names with previous head coaching experience and experience at the power five level — and the expectation should be — there is one intriguing name that has popped up.

Enter JaMarcus Shephard, the passing game coordinator and associate head coach at Washington. Why would he be someone that could get a look? Well, the connections are there.

Shephard is one of the masterminds of one of the most explosive passing attacks in the country. He’s working under former Indiana football offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer and former IU quarterback Michael Penix.

The Huskies are second in the country in passing offense, averaging 345.5 yards per game while fifth in the country in yards per completion at 14.3. Arriving at the same time as Penix, he has helped Penix throw for 8,540 yards in 25 games thus far with a completion rate of 65.4 percent.

Last season, Penix finished second in the country in passing yards at 4,641.

Nobody has had more passing yards than Washington in the 25 games that Shephard has been in charge of the passing attack. Just one year before Shephard arrived at Washington, the Huskies ranked 73rd in passing offense.

But, beyond the connections to DeBoer and Penix, he’s from Indiana. Shephard grew up in Fort Wayne and went to school and played college football at DePauw.

After college, Shephard got his coaching career started at the high school level at Northrop High School and then Broad Ripple.

After five seasons with former Purdue coach and current Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm at Western Kentucky, and one season away at Washington State, Shephard returned to Indiana as the passing game coordinator and co-offensive coordinator for Purdue.

In his second season at Purdue, he helped Rondale Moore lead the nation with 114 receptions for 1,258 yards and 12 touchdowns. He was the winner of the Paul Hornung Award as the nation’s most versatile player as Moore became the first true freshman consensus All-American in Big Ten history.

In 2019, he also helped David Bell, as a freshman, tie for the Big Ten lead with 86 receptions.

Bell and Moore won back-to-back Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors.

He helped both Moore and Bell become second and third round draft selections, respectively.

In his final season at Purdue, he helped the Boilermakers to 355.3 passing yards per game,  fifth in the country.

While it’s a name that has been floated around as someone Indiana football could look into — it’s just that at this point. But, if the Hoosiers do go down the path of a coordinator instead of a head coach, Shephard’s resume speaks for itself. Between his in-state connections to his on-the-field production, he could be an interesting candidate.