My Two Cents: It's Peyton Ramsey's Team Now, and Everyone is Good With That
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A quarterback carousel and a four-game winning streak rarely go hand in hand, but circumstances are very different at Indiana this season There's no doubt that the Hoosiers are one of the few teams in the country that have TWO starting quarterbacks.
In a very competitive quarterback battle in fall camp, it was Penix, the dynamic redshirt freshman from Tampa, Fla., who beat out junior Peyton Ramsey, the incumbent. Ramsey was good all fall — very good, in fact — but Penix was better.
When he's had the chance to play, Penix has been one of the best quarterbacks in the country this year. But he's been hurt three times, and the latest, a clavicle injury that required surgery, has knocked him out for the season.
Ramsey has come in every time and performed well, and the new Indiana offense under Kalen DeBoer — which is averaging 34 points and 446 yards per game, fifth-best in the Big Ten — has continued to hum right along.
Having Ramsey start at quarterback isn't an issue around this program. Everyone, from head coach Tom Allen on down, has faith that he can win big games for this team. He's done it already this season — he's 2-1 as a starter, and also finished off three other wins brilliantly — and the plan is for him to continue to do so.
That plan starts with Ramsey. He's never once looked at himself as a backup all year. And he will go to Penn State Saturday fully expecting to lead Indiana to a victory, even if they are two-touchdown underdogs to the 8-1 Nittany Lions and have NEVER won a game in Happy Valley.
"I don't think its added responsibility. I just go out and continue to do what I've been doing all year, and prepare the same way,'' Ramsey said Monday about his role with Penix now out. "I try not to change a whole lot, and keep that same mindset.''
But being 'the guy' is different
Ramsey, a junior from Cincinnati who played for his father Doug at Elder High School, has been around this program a long time. In his three years, he's played 27 games already, and Saturday at Penn State will be No. 28. It will be the third time he's faced the Nittany Lions.
He is, make no mistake, a good college quarterback. His teammates have plenty of faith in him. And sliding into the No. 1 role again these past two weeks has been seamless.
"It was really helpful just being able to throw with all the No. 1 guys,'' Ramsey said Monday. "It was good getting on the same page with them, and working on our timing throughout the course of the bye week, and then into game week. It was really helpful.''
Offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer has said before that he never had separate playbooks for Penix and Ramsey, but he's also very good at knowing what each guy did best. That's what has made him so good as a play-caller, because he has a great feel for what works best with Ramsey.
"I try to get a feel for our guys and what they're capable of,'' DeBoer said Monday. "There's not a magic formula, but there are things we do that guys believe in. And they believe in the adjustments we can make from week to week.
"Every week we bring different wrinkles to the table, and we'll continue to do that. It's a positive for us, too (knowing that Ramsey will start). He knows how to prepare. He's been in this position before, and he'll be ready to go on Saturday.''
Ramsey: He's smart, and he's tough
Ramsey is a cerebral quarterback and he's been dramatically better himself in DeBoer's offense. He knows where the ball should go, and he's been great at getting it there, completing 72 percent of his passes this season, which ranks No. 5 in the country.
But he's also a tough kid who doesn't mind running the ball to get a first down, even if there's a big hit waiting for him at the end of the run. Keeping him healthy is important, but DeBoer said he also doesn't want to change the way Ramsey plays.
"I think it's in the back of your mind, but some of the hits were when he was stationary back in the pocket throwing the football, too,'' DeBoer said. "That's his style of play, he's a very tough kid, and it's who we are, but we still have to be careful. We'll have to keep our quarterback carries minimal. Not much changes, but you certainly have to be conscious of that.''
For Ramsey, he now has a chance to help carry the Hoosiers to unprecedented heights. They are 7-2 right now and nationally ranked for the first time in 25-plus years. They have a chance to win their fifth-straight Big Ten game at Penn State, and that's something that has happened only once EVER in school history, during the 1967 season when Indiana won the Big Ten and went to the Rose Bowl.
With winning comes confidence, and this team has it.
"I think we are a better team, so there clearly is a difference in the way he talks to us, in the way that he's truthful with us,'' Ramsey says of his head coach. "We have more experience, and we have a lot more depth than we've had in the past. You can see the confidence in Coach Allen, and that's worked its way through the entire team.''
