Randle El looks to the future

Antwaan Randle El hasn't lined up under center except for a few times this spring. He's played strictly receiver for the first three weeks of spring practice and finally took some snaps last week.\nIs he rusty?\nNowhere near it.\nIn Saturday's Red-White Spring Game, two defenders for the white team jump offsides, busting through the line almost before Randle El takes the snap. He spins left, circles right and leaves the two men in white grasping air, the distance between them and him growing. "'Twaan," as many call him, nears the line of scrimmage, still running to his right, and fires a pass back toward the middle of field.\nIt finds David Lewis wide open. Touchdown red team.\nCoach Cam Cameron bends the rules a bit, this being the spring game, and gives the ball back to the red team so it can practice the two-minute drill.\nRandle El, a senior next fall, has the ball, and 2 minutes, 37 seconds to go 70 yards. His team trails 21-14.\nHe gains 17 yards with his feet on the first play, then throws for 14 more two plays later. With 17 seconds left, Randle El has run three times for 34 yards and the score is tied, 21-21.\nSo no, Antwaan Randle El is not rusty. He's still capable of playing quarterback.\nHe also still insists he's not the starter.\n"It's probably going to be Tommy (starting the first game)," says Randle El, signing anything a fan hands him after the spring game. "More than likely it's going to be Tommy. I'll play some quarterback during that game and throughout the season, like we've been planning."\nRandle El and Cameron devised the plan, which would move Randle El to wide receiver and shuffle quarterbacks, in part to prepare Randle El for the NFL and in part to fill holes in the offense. \n"I think this thing's going to work," Randle El said. "I take that back. I know it's going to work. We just have to continue working at it."\nTo go, or not to go\nRandle El got tired of losing last season.\nThe Hoosiers lost eight games and won three, good for Randle El's third losing season in as many years as starting quarterback. IU allowed more than 40 points in seven of the losses, more than 50 in two and lost the first two games of the season in the final minute.\nThe frustration perhaps pushed to the forefront an already pressing issue: Should Randle El forgo his final year of eligibility and enter the NFL draft?\nRandle El gave that question much thought. He talked to NFL players, executives and coaches. He talked to friends and family. He talked to Cameron.\nAfter talking to everybody, Randle El had a fair idea of where he stood. The draft advisory committee, Cameron said, informed Randle El he would be taken in the upper part of the draft.\nHe was also being projected at a position other than quarterback.\nAt 5-foot-10, Randle El doesn't have the size of the typical NFL quarterback. His height parallels that of San Diego quarterback Doug Flutie, who made it as an NFL quarterback only after spending the majority of his career in the Canadian Football League.\nBut not many quarterbacks can run like Randle El can.\nThat alone makes Randle El feel he can play quarterback at the professional level -- especially in an era when players like Joe Montana and Dan Marino have been replaced by the likes of Daunte Culpepper and Donovan McNabb.\n"I've always said that I'm a quarterback until somebody tells me different," said Randle El, who led all Division I quarterbacks in rushing yards last season. "And that's what I'm sticking with. They look and say, 'You're short.' And I say, 'Look at the film.' ... But they see you making plays like that, it kind of, not puts them in a bind, but opens their eyes a little bit."\nRandle El's eyes might have opened some, too, after talking with the NFL folks.\nHe announced Jan. 12 that he would stay for his final season.\n"I think he made a good decision," Cameron said. "This gives us an opportunity and gives him an opportunity to do some things other than play quarterback in college. I think it was, at this point, a wise decision."\nOn the opposite end\nRandle El met with Cameron the morning after Randle El announced his decision to stay at IU.\nAt the meeting, Randle El made a proposal: Give him a shot at receiver.\nThe two exchanged ideas and came out of the meeting with a plan.\nRandle El would start at wide receiver and either Tommy Jones or Gibran Hamdan at quarterback. Randle El would play quarterback at times, keeping opposing team's defenses guessing; Randle El also would return punts.\nCameron and Randle El both said the plan will do several things. It gives Randle El experience catching balls and returning punts, two things he might do in the NFL. It puts IU's best 11 players on the field. And it gives the Hoosiers a boost at receiver, a position at which the team lacks experience.\nThe team took a big hit with the loss of wide receivers Versie Gaddis, Jerry Dorsey and Derin Graham. IU's returning receivers accounted for only 71 yards last season. Gaddis, Dorsey and Graham accounted for 1,353. That left a void at receiver that Randle El hopes to fill.\nBut just as Randle El isn't the typical quarterback, he isn't the ideal receiver either. His height might hinder his productivity, and he doesn't have experience at the position.\nCameron said a long list of positives outweighs those negatives.\n"Ideally, you want a big receiver," he said. "But there's a lot of things that Antwaan brings that you can't measure -- his work ethic, his energy, his attitude, his heart, his toughness, his hands."\nAnd his moves. Randle El makes people miss, and he does so consistently.\n"You've seen what he does when the ball's in his hands," said Henry Frazier, a senior receiver. "He's a great runner, great passer, and, now that he's a receiver, once he gets the ball in the open field, it's over. His strength is just making people miss. That's what he's always been good at. That's what he's good at now."\nRandle El plans on continuing to make people miss at his new position, and he knows he'll have to be more deft than ever. As a receiver, he won't start each play with the ball in his hands.\nHe won't have the luxury of turning a busted play into a first down.\n"I'm not going to say I'm not going to have the ball as much," he said. "I won't have the ball in my hands as much to start with. I've just got to know when I do get the ball, something big has to come out of it.\n"I feel like if I can get the ball in space, or just get the ball period in my hands, I can make plays. And going back and forth from receiver to quarterback could really tear some defenses up."\nThe catch\nMany good plans have a catch, this one does as well.\nThe entire plan to move Randle El to wide receiver can happen only if Jones or Hamdan proves his worth as a starting quarterback.\nThat's a big "if," considering that the two were a combined 8-of-21 in limited action last season.\n"This past week, we've played (Randle El) some more at quarterback, because we're going to play him some quarterback this fall," Cameron said. "And if one of those other quarterbacks gets hurt, he's going to play quarterback all the time.\n"The keys to this whole thing are Tommy Jones and Gibran Hamdan, not Antwaan Randle El. How well can those guys play?"\nJones made a case for himself Saturday, completing 15-of-25 passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns in the spring game. Hamdan, who also plays baseball, didn't play.\nWhile Jones can't create plays as well as Randle El, he can throw the ball.\nOn a 4th-and-7 late in the game, Jones eluded several defenders, scrambled out of the pocket and floated a pass down the sideline to L.J. Parker. The play -- good for 20 yards and a first down -- was perhaps the best play any quarterback made Saturday.\nIt impressed Randle El.\n"Tommy looked good, especially throwing the ball and making plays down the stretch," Randle El said. "That fourth-down play, that was a busted play. He got out of the pocket and made a play, and that's what we need him to do during the season."\nJones seems confident he's up to the challenge, and he agrees with Cameron and Randle El that the change gets the team's top 11 on the field. He hopes his performance Saturday got others thinking along the same lines.\n"I started opening some eyes, I think," he said. "People are going to be able to see I can go out there and lead, and I can go out there and help us win. I don't know how everybody else feels, but I think I got a little more trust (Saturday) from the players and from everybody else."\nJones, or Hamdan, has four months to gain even more trust, to solidify his status as starter.\nShould Jones or Hamdan be the starter, Randle El has lofty goals for himself as a receiver. He has equally high standards for his team.\n"My personal goal is to be the best wideout in the country," he said. "My biggest goal is just to lead this team, playing receiver or playing quarterback, to the Big Ten title and to a bowl game. That's something I've been focusing on for three years, and it's kind of time to make it come true.\n"It's the best shot (I've had)…The last shot"