Media Monday: Allen and DeBord Talk About a QB Change and More

Redshirt freshman Peyton Ramsey is now QB1 in Bloomington Image: Sammy Jacobs Hoosier Huddle)

By David Sugarman (@David_Sugarman2)

Players of the Week:

Offense: None

Defense: Tegray Scales

Special Teams: None

Scout Team Offense: Nick Tronti, Alex Rodriguez 

Scout Team Defense: Thomas Allen 

Injury News:

Right tackle Brandon Knight is expected to play after missing the second half of the Penn State game.

J-Shun Harris is being labeled as probable for this week.

Morgan Ellison is also listed as probable.

Mike Majette is expected to be back after missing the last two games.

Marcelino Ball and Ashon Riggins are listed as doubtful.

Notes:

Peyton Ramsey will be the starting quarterback going forward.

Quotes:

TOM ALLEN:

The biggest news of the day is Tom Allen announcing that Peyton Ramsey will be the starting quarterback going forward and there will be no more quarterback juggling.

“That's not the plan. To me -- I like that. I wanted to see what they could do. I wanted to see what each one of them could do when they were out there and not just bring Peyton in when maybe things weren't going good or whatever just to have it scripted and go from there. But that gave me a chance to see, you know, in a pretty objective way who's able to move the ball. And so -- and we did not do a good job in the second half, obviously, as a team, scoring points. And so we've got to build what we do from day one around the strengths of what Peyton brings. So yeah, it's not going to be a rotating and he's now just a starter and rotating back. It's going to be I believe that we just need -- as we move the stage of our season we need to be able -- now, he's gotta be ready to go. There's no question. That's the role of a person in his position, and that's what he'll do. But you know, Peyton is going to be the starter.”

Allen was asked wether Whitehead had an off day or if they were looking to punt away from the Penn State returners.

“We were concerned about three. He's the No. 2 returner in the Big 10, and then after what happened in the -- the plan was to either kick it outside of numbers or out of bounds. Because my whole thing was -- I'll take a 40-yard kick out of bounds or a 38-yard kick out of bounds than the threat of a return for sure.”

Allen was asked if it was anything in particular on Saturday that let him know Ramsey was ready to be the starter going forward, but there wasn’t exactly an ah-ha moment.

“I think more just collective. It would be collective. It really wasn't even just this game. It was just the buildup over time and just other things that you see from both situations. And so it's just -- I've already commented previously, love both guys, awesome people. I do think Peyton has that look in his eye about him that's different from in terms of just as a team member, not even just -- I'm not comparing -- I'm talking about he's -- there's a grit to him. There's a toughness to him that he's got a linebacker mentality in how he works and how he handles adversity and all that. I've noticed that since he's been here, you know, in our leadership training. So those are the kind of things that I always saw that he had in him. So those need to come to the forefront. That's what leaders do.”

Allen touched on Charleston Southern’s offense.

“It's really -- it's Georgia Southern's offense. It's triple option all from the gun. So very, very similar. So challenging, once again. Assignment football. The last two weeks they've put up a lot of points and yards. So it's your typical run the football, run the football, run the football and then play action passes off of that. And so it will force us to be very, very assignment sound, extremely fundamental. We're hoping that the benefit of playing Georgia Southern a couple weeks ago will be very helpful schematically in terms of not having to go through and do things that we haven't seen, the techniques that you have to teach.”

MIKE DEBORD:

DeBord touched on how while he hasn’t done it much in the game they’ll look to take more deep shots with Ramsey going forward.

"We’ll look to do that. We’re gonna have to do that. He’s done it in practice.”

DeBord also mentioned how much Ramsey helps the run game.
"Every time he’s gone in the game, the run game has opened up more, and that helps you control the ball more."