College football: Indiana ‘unsettled’ again at QB

By Andy Proffet Post-Tribune correspondent July 24, 2013 8:10PM

Updated: July 25, 2013 2:03AM

CHICAGO ? Kevin Wilson?s third season as Indiana coach begins with a familiar storyline: quarterback battle.

Just like last year, it?s Tre Roberson, Cam Coffman and Nate Sudfeld battling for the starting job. And just like last year, no one?s distanced himself from the pack, either positively or negatively.

?We?re unsettled at quarterback. Got three guys in a dead heat,? Wilson said Wednesday at Big Ten media days. ?I think they?re all capable of winning.?

Roberson won the battle last year thanks in part to his combination of passing and running ability. He passed for 368 yards and ran for 133 more in just over five quarters of work before his season ended thanks to a broken leg against UMass.

Coffman took over and threw for 2,734 yards. But as Wilson pointed out Wednesday, the Hoosiers lost five straight after Roberson?s injury.

?A good football team needs to play with more than one running back and we need to have more than one capable quarterback,? Wilson said.

?And this year we will see if we can because our quarterbacks are talented, but we haven?t proven we?re going to win a whole lot.

?We need someone that?s going to be a difference maker, be dynamic and help us win.?

Wilson wants two things most of all ? a higher completion percentage and, more importantly, more points.

?You have got to throw the ball at 67, 70, 72 percent (completion rate),? said Wilson, whose Hoosiers completed 61.3 percent of their passes last season. ?(And) our offense moves the ball but we don?t score points proportional to moving the ball.

?When you score points, you win games. You don?t win games by getting yards.?

Not that the Hoosiers had a lot of problems scoring points last season, at least at times. IU scored 49 against Ohio State, 45 against UMass, 39 against Ball State and 35 against Purdue.

But three of those four games were losses, as the Boilermakers scored 56, the Buckeyes had 52 and the Cardinals scored 41.

Bottom line, and this is another familiar story for the Hoosiers: the defense must improve.

?We have to make significant strides defensively,? Wilson said. ?Quite honestly, it?s been embarrassing about how we played in our first two years. So our effort, our toughness, need to be better.

?I think that?s going to increase because we did recruit some quality young players. ? I think some of those young D-linemen are going to give us competition and depth. And I think the linebackers ? are going to give us competition.?

Source: http://posttrib.suntimes.com/sports/21515863-556/college-football-indiana-unsettled-again-at-qb.html

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