Penix and Tuttle Throwing at Practice as Hoosier Offense Desperate to Find Something to Build On

Written by Matt Smith

Indiana’s offense had another tough game on the road against Michigan over the weekend. The offense only scored one touchdown in the first half and was shut out and struggled for the entire second half.

The Hoosiers quarterback room has been a big question throughout the entire season as both Michael Penix and Jack Tuttle have been out with injuries. Both players have been throwing at practice however.

“I think it’ll be fluid and see how those guys are able to operate and move around,” offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan said during his Monday press conference. “We’ll take it day by day with that.”

As of right now the only healthy scholarship quarterback on the team is true freshman Donaven McCulley, who has had many ups and downs throughout his first career college starts.

“We’re trying to coach Donaven into making quick decisions both in the running game and in the passing game,” Sheridan said. “In order to play quarterback at a high level, you have to be decisive, know when to throw it and know when to run it.”

Much of the focus for the offense and Sheridan throughout the past couple of weeks was preparing McCulley and making sure he felt comfortable in the pocket as well.

All three quarterbacks could be healthy soon, and Sheridan is unsure what direction the offense will go at quarterback to end the season. They will look at the availability of the guys and who can give them the best chance to win.

As far as looking at last week, Sheridan said they had too many three and outs, and didn’t convert on third down enough, and the offense wasn’t good enough against Michigan. 

However, there were some positive things that McCulley did throughout the game including an impressive 20 yard scramble that led to a score.

Indiana’s offense has been struggling all season, including last week against Michigan. Sheridan attributed that to the lack of execution on third down.

On Saturday there were only two catches made by wide receivers. 

“I think we got to do a better job and that’s not on them,” Sheridan said. “We need to get those guys more involved, they need to touch the ball more, they’re very good players.”

This included Ty Fryfolge, who has not lived up to the excellent season he had last year. Sheridan said Fryfogle needs to be a focal point, and was not targeted enough in the last couple of games.

Some of that struggle can be attributed to the lack of chemistry with the constant quarterback change.

“You look at your offense and you try to have enough scheme to be able to adjust to who's playing, but at the same time the only way you get good at anything is you do it over and over again,” Sheridan said.