Upon Further Review: Indiana Used Wrong Process to Make Right Choice at Quarterback

Coach Tom Allen said Monday that Tayven Jackson will be the starting quarterback for the Indiana Hoosiers moving forward. Picking Jackson over Brendan Sorsby was the right choice, but the path Allen took to reach that answer is questionable.

Daniel Olinger | Sep 12, 2023

Upon Further Review: Indiana Used Wrong Process to Make Right Choice at Quarterback /

In this story:

Indiana Hoosiers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana got the right answer at quarterback.

At least, that's what it seems like from the outside.

Tayven Jackon is a former four-star recruit from Center Grove High School in Indiana, as well as the younger brother of IU basketball superstar Trayce Jackson-Davis. It's natural that many Hoosiers wanted him to be the starting quarterback.

Those Indiana fans got their wish on Monday when coach Tom Allen named Jackson the team's starter for the game against Louisville in Week 3.

Indiana has its QB1 #iufb https://t.co/HgQWiRDTxD
— Dan Olinger (@dan_olinger) September 11, 2023

It makes sense. Jackson completed 18-of-21 passes for 236 yards on Friday night against Indiana State. The Hoosiers scored three touchdowns on three drives in the first quarter with him quarterbacking the offense, and all five touchdown drives in the game were Jackson-led drives. Brendan Sorsby's stat line of 9-for-16 for 108 yards wasn't horrific, but he just didn't show the same reliable production.

If Allen decided he needed to scrap the two-man rotation at quarterback entering Week 3, then declaring Jackson the full-time starter was the clear choice.

It's the right decision, but the process behind that decision is lacking.

Indiana did not choose to play Ohio State in Week 1. That matchup was handed down to the Hoosiers from the Big Ten, and there's little they can do about such unfortunate scheduling. If you ranked IU's 12 opponents on a difficulty scale from 1-10, with 1 being a push over and 10 being a guaranteed loss, the Buckeyes are a 10 every time.

Indiana State, meanwhile, is the most 1 to ever 1. That was not just an FCS team, that was a very bad FCS team. The Sycamores are two weeks into their 2023 season, and their offense has not yet scored a point. Their two quarterbacks are a combined 16-for-37 on passes and have thrown five interceptions. Aside from the 75-yard fumble return, the Indiana State defenders were just traffic cones out there against the Indiana offense.

Jackson did exactly what a good quarterback should do against a terrible team — dice them to pieces without making mistakes. But almost anybody Indiana threw out there to take snaps was going to have success on Friday. Even Blaze McKibbin might have cracked 200 yards on the night if you gave him six drives.

This was always the glaring problem behind Allen's two-quarterback approach to the start of the season. Indiana can't help that its first two games happened to be on the polar ends of the competitive spectrum, but that's the way it shook out. Jackson and Sorsby were both going to look bad against Ohio State, and they were both guaranteed to look far better against Indiana State.

Essentially nothing has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt aside from the fact that Indiana State would lose to the Buckeyes by roughly 70 points.

Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby, the two quarterbacks Indiana was deciding between in its first two games of the 2023 season. — Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby, the two quarterbacks Indiana was deciding between in its first two games of the 2023 season :: Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

Perhaps Allen and his staff always preferred Jackson over Sorsby. They approached the Ohio State game simply trying to run the option and keep it close (that specific game plan itself deserves its own criticism). Against Indiana State, they could oscillate between Jackson and Sorsby without worrying it might cost them a win.

It might have been 60-40 in favor of Jackson, but the staff at least wanted to see if Sorsby would blow them away in a game before fully handing the starting job to Jackson.

If that's the case — great. There's still some things to quibble with there, but there would be a logic behind how Indiana got from Point A to Point B. Jackson was always ahead in the race, but the staff wanted to give Sorsby one last chance to make his case. Jackson still looked better, and that was the end of it. Totally fine.

The problem is if this internal quarterback battle was actually what Allen and Co. said to the public during the first two weeks — a 50-50, neck-and-neck race. If it was that close, then why are you using the Ohio State and Indiana State games as your two test cases? Of all 12 games on your schedule, those were the two you were going to learn the least from. You shouldn't take away season-changing lessons from beating up on Indiana State.

Imagine that choosing a season-long starting quarterback was a short-answer question on an exam. This question also includes one of those very annoying "explain your reasoning" caveats at the end.

When Allen hands in his test, his reasoning behind choosing Jackson should be that he looked better than Sorsby in offseason and fall camp, and Sorsby did nothing to disprove that in the first two weeks when given the opportunity. It should not be, "I picked Tayven solely because he looked better against an awful Indiana State team."

None of this will likely have any impact on Indiana's wins and losses in the 2023 season. Allen probably picked the right quarterback, and no IU fan seems upset that Jackson was the answer.

But good programs don't judge everything by just wins and losses, and they certainly don't make decisions based off wins against Indiana State. Good process matters in the long run, and using your two most different games of the season to decide who your starting quarterback should be for the next 10 does not scream smart decision-making.

Indiana might have used the wrong process to get the right answer. It won't hurt them in 2023, but that approach will cost you over time.

Related Stories on Indiana Football: