Indiana football QBs Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sosrby: ‘It would not surprise me down the line if both had a chance to play in the NFL someday.’

While Brendan Sorsby was named the week 1 starter vs No. 3 Ohio State, Indiana football fans got to see both him and Tayven Jackson take snaps on the field this past Saturday.

Going into the week two against the Indiana State Sycamores, it is still not clear as to who Indiana is going to run with in the long term of this season. We do know, however, that Tayven Jackson will get the start at quarterback this time around as Tom Allen made it clear that the plan was to start and play both quarterbacks each of the first two weeks before leaning towards a clear No. 1 for the remaining part of the season.

In Saturday’s 23-3 loss to No. 3 Ohio State, Allen and Indiana football executed that plan which resulted in Sorsby going 8-of-16 for 58 yards while Jackson was 1-of-5 for 24 yards and had three carries for 11 yards.

“Our decision was to play ’em both in the first two games,” Indiana football head coach Tom Allen said postgame when discussing the evaluation process of the quarterback position. “So Sorsby started this week. Tayven starts next week. The guys know that. They knew that ahead of time.” We just said whoever starts week one, the other is going to start week two. That’s how we set it up. So it gives us a chance to be able to, after the first two games, be able to evaluate where we’re at, where they’re at and what we need to be able to do moving forward.”

More: Indiana Football Notebook: Final thoughts, takeaways from week one

The battle at the quarterback position is due to the fact that both Sorsby and Jackson are talented and bring high potential on the football field. With that reason, along with neither separating themselves, it is hard to justify exactly who Tom Allen and the Indiana offense should roll with long term.

Sorsby, a Dallas native, was the 101st ranked QB in the 2022 recruiting class whereas Jackson, and Indiana native, came into college as a four-star quarterback at Tennessee before transferring to Indiana.

The Indiana football starting quarterback battle aside, due to both players talented level and what they can do on the football, a chance to play at the pro-level in the NFL is not out of the question.

“The biggest thing us for us was both had pretty good football games, they are both really good football players. It would not supersize me down the line if both had a chance to play in the NFL someday,” said Indiana football offensive coordinator Walt Bell when speaking to the media on Monday afternoon. “I know that is a heaping amount of praise, both they are both really talented. It just happens that we have them both at the same time and the same page.”

As it was in week one, expect to see both Jackson and Sorsby get around the same number of snaps on the field this Friday.

Indiana (0-1) hosts Indiana State (0-1) on Friday with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 PM ET on BTN.