Allen Looking at Friday's Scrimmage for Telling Insight into IU's Quarterback Battle

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Indiana head coach Tom Allen and offensive coordinator Walt Bell spent some time on Tuesday talking about IU’s quarterback battle. The winner of that competition will not likely be announced until the opener against Illinois. Why would it be? Everything is under wraps at IU’s fall camp. However, Friday’s scrimmage will give the staff their first look at what the coaches want to see.

“We have our first scrimmage coming up on Friday and I think that will be pretty telling for us to get the feedback we’re trying to get. On a daily basis, we're trying to install our system on both sides and so that process continues.” Allen said.

The competition is between incoming transfer redshirt junior Connor Bazelak who was the 2020 SEC Freshman of the Year and redshirt senior Jack Tuttle. Tuttle has been in the program for three years already and has gained the trust of his teammates. Injuries have robbed Tuttle of gaining any traction as a starter.

Allen told reporters on Tuesday that Tuttle is “just so competitive and such a great preparer and is just really doing a good job of just learning; where to get his eyes, where to make the throws, running the system from the wholistic perspective is where I'm seeing growth there, which is what you want. Being able to move the football down the field as we move through camp we get more and more, what we call move the ball periods which is just playing real football, it's not scripted.”

Bazelak’s arm talent has stood out to Allen as well.

“With Connor [Bazelak], just the quick release ability. You're seeing the growth in the mastery of the system because he hasn't been here as long as Jack, but bottom line is throwing catchable balls. One thing that sticks out to me about Connor is that he can throw a catchable ball and that is really the key. The completions are what you're looking for.” Allen said of the transfer.

This will be both players’ first year under Walt Bell, which should help even out the competition.

“From an overall system knowledge, we're so much further along. As elementary as this sounds, you kind of talk about the A, B, Cs of certain concepts, and then eventually through repetition you start to learn some D, E, Fs. To be able to start with the D, E, Fs, as we're on our way to the X, Y, Zs is a nice thing.” Bell said. “They both have done a really nice job, they're both handling this competition incredibly well. They both help each other, they're always good teammates because they're both good human beings on top of being really good football players.”

Bell went out of his way to complement IU’s suspected third string quarterback Dexter Williams, who missed last season due to an ACL injury.

“The other guy that's done an incredible job is Dexter Williams II. Dexter is going to be a really good player someday. I'm really impressed with the improvement that Dexter has made between spring and now.”

Through seven practices, Allen and Bell have liked what they have seen from the group. However, the first test comes on Friday during the scrimmage.

“When you have a competition like this, you don't have one guy that is always addressing the team, they're both doing that in their settings and when practice is over and that's a good balance there. Guys are looking to see to those guys to be those leaders in those situations. I see progress without question but am really anxious to see the first scrimmage. That is to me really where you'll get the most reps of just pure playing football.” Allen said.