Kellen Lewis recalls 1st game

Last season when the Hoosiers took on Ball State, it was the dawning of a new day for the team – the Kellen Lewis era. \nIn just the second game of the year, IU was without injured starting quarterback Blake Powers. Early in the game, backup Graeme McFarland also took a shot that knocked him out for the game. The Hoosiers were down two touchdowns early, on the road and without their first-and second-string quarterbacks. The predicament forced them to turn to their inexperienced, little-known third-string quarterback – Kellen Lewis.\nIU coach Bill Lynch, an assistant coach at the time, said Lewis was the spark that turned the game around for the Hoosiers. \n“It was such a strange set of events,” Lynch said at his weekly press conference. “Blake was injured and couldn’t play. Graeme McFarland was the starter, and then he separated his shoulder in the second series. It was really early in the game, and all of a sudden Kellen went in; and Kellen just added something at that time that we really needed in that game.”\nLewis rallied IU from a 17-point deficit on a drizzly September night. IU won the game 24-23, and Lewis has been the starter for the Hoosiers ever since.\nLewis said he remembers being nervous when late IU coach Terry Hoeppner told him to start warming up.\n“I thought I was going to throw up,” Lewis said. “At the time, I knew Blake was injured, but I thought they would put him in if Graeme went down. But Coach Hep told me to warm up and before I knew it, I was in the game.”\nThe quarterback switch surprised more people than just Lewis. Junior wide receiver James Hardy – who Lewis has connected with for 11 touchdowns so far this season – admitted that he didn’t know much at all about the Jacksonville, Fla., native before he went into the game that night.\n“No one expected (Lewis) to do the things that he did,” Hardy said\nAs he prepares to face the Cardinals this weekend, the expectations for Lewis are much higher than when he was a third-string quarterback. Lewis has become the focal point for the potent Hoosier offense. Using both his arm and his legs, Lewis has accounted for 24 touchdowns through nine games and leads the team in passing and rushing.\nDespite establishing himself as a dynamic quarterback, Lewis said he still feels the queasiness that he felt that night in Muncie when his career started.\n“I’m still just as nervous as I was the first game,” Lewis said. “I am better at knowing my reads (this season). A lot of stuff I did last year was all off athleticism.”\nPlaying against Ball State couldn’t come at a better time for Lewis. In the past two weeks, he’s thrown two interceptions and lost four fumbles. Last week against Wisconsin was the first time this season Lewis was unable to find the end zone.\nLynch said bad games are something young quarterbacks like Lewis will experience over the course of a season. \n“You’ll see senior quarterbacks out there that don’t have perfect games every week, let alone a sophomore,” Lynch said. “There are some things that you’re going to have – bumps in the road as you go along.” \nHardy agreed with Lynch and said the team has never lost confidence in its quarterback. But perhaps more importantly, Hardy said Lewis has yet to lose confidence in his own abilities. \n“You’ve seen him grow; mentally, physically and just have more confidence in himself,” Hardy said. “When he starts having fun and he’s out here running like he’s in a backyard, I think that’s what benefits us as an offensive unit. When you have a quarterback that has confidence in himself, the sky’s the limit.”