IU Coach Kevin Wilson said he and his staff weren’t going to make the quarterback competition fair.
It’s important to have multiple quarterbacks ready for each game, but the days of 2012 — when the Hoosiers split time between Cameron Coffman, Tre Roberson and Nate Sudfeld — are gone.
Wilson said he wanted his quarterback.
And it only took seven practices to decide junior transfer Richard Lagow was that quarterback.
“He’s kind of been the one,” Wilson said. “It wasn’t a formal announcement needed to be made. The team has been practicing and knows it. The timing has been there.”
The discussion of a high-profile JUCO quarterback out of Cisco (Texas) Community College was a mere rumor during the 2015 season, as former Hoosier and current Washington Redskins quarterback Sudfeld was entering his final season without another quarterback finding a grip on 2016’s reigns.
The panic in the fan base became more evident as Sudfeld played his way to a season of 3,573 passing yards on 60-percent completion, 27 touchdowns and only seven interceptions.
No one knew how the Hoosiers planned to replace that kind of production.
But those JUCO rumors came to fruition as Lagow visited campus Nov. 13 and received an offer from IU the next day. Gaining offers from Memphis and Colorado State, Lagow said in a press conference after his commitment his eyes were always on IU.
A 3-star quarterback according to 247Sports, the 6-foot-6, 237-pound pocket passer committed to IU on Dec. 7 and found himself taking snaps for the Hoosiers and heralded as Sudfeld’s replacement by the fan base.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Johns stressed Lagow doesn’t need to be Sudfeld — a pro-level quarterback. He just needs to be Richard Lagow and prove himself capable of leading the offense.
That’s what he’s done this offseason.
“His teammates recognize how hard he’s worked since he’s been here,” Johns said. “And since he’s been here, that hard work that he’s done has really taken that leadership role — just the execution of our offense when we’re on the field. More importantly to me though is that he’s done nothing but get better every single time we’ve gone out to practice.”
The result of a four-way competition for the starting job between Lagow, junior Zander Diamont, sophomore Danny Cameron and freshman Austin King, the decision wasn’t a knock on any of the other quarterbacks, Johns and Wilson said.
Throughout the competition, all four quarterbacks received high praise from all of their teammates, including senior receiver Mitchell Paige, who said passes from all four quarterbacks are nearly identical.
Diamont had made a name for himself in replacing Sudfeld for the second half of the 2014 season after Sudfeld fell to a shoulder injury, and then again when Sudfeld had a minor foot injury in 2015.
When Diamont went down with an injury in 2015, though, it was Cameron — son of NFL coach and former IU coach Cam Cameron — that stepped into the position for the Hoosiers’ road game against Penn State. He threw 6-for-16 for 65 yards and an interception in the 29-7 loss but commanded the offense with a confidence Wilson commended after the game.
As for King, a redshirt freshman out of Georgia, Wilson said he might have more talent than any quarterback in the competition.
“Zander can make some plays and Danny’s matching and moving the team as well as any of those guys,” Wilson said. “Missing Austin King, who is doing awesome and will be traveling and is more talented than maybe the first three guys I just said. He’s had a great camp.”
With such high praise of all the quarterbacks in the offseason, it’s been a common occurrence for Wilson to be asked about creating packages to get more than one involved in the game.
Wilson said he doesn’t like playing more than one quarterback and especially dislikes putting two on the field at the same time. But he also said it’s hard to keep Diamont’s athleticism on the sidelines when he has seen so much progression from the junior in what Wilson called Diamont’s best summer of his IU career.
Last season, Diamont appeared in two games and collected 152 rushing yards and two touchdowns, including a 79-yard touchdown run. In 2014, he ran the ball 55 times in six games for 282 yards — the third-most rushing yards on the team.
Wilson doesn’t like the transparency of a wildcat formation, but he said Diamont could be a change-of-pace quarterback if the opportunity arose during the season.
“Zander gives you the dynamic, and if there’s a need to play that during the game — even early in the game with Zander being a third-year player now — you need to take advantage of some tools,” Wilson said. “He gives you a skillset, and quite honestly, it’s probably an offense as good as anyone besides Richard.”
Without seeing Lagow in a Division-I game yet, it’s hard to know for sure if he will have the effect his teammates and coaches are hoping for, but his teammates are excited to take the field with him at the helm.
Senior wide receiver Ricky Jones praised all of the quarterbacks when asked about the competition Friday but gave a little extra praise when it came to his new starting quarterback.
“Rich is killing it right now. He’s doing big-time things,” Jones said. “Time reveals everything, and Rich is doing great so far. Now we’ll see what he does against actual pressure and not just our defense that we’ve seen all spring.”
