My Two Cents: Silence is Deafening When it Comes to Michael Penix's Injury Situation
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana coach Tom Allen tip-toed around the status of quarterback Michael Penix Jr. at his media availability on Monday. That's not surprising, nor is it uncommon. It's company policy when it comes to injuries
But It's also troubling. Because if he was doing fine, or close to fine, we'd know that by now.
And since we don't know anything concrete after Monday's media availability, his status for Saturday's huge — make that VERY huge — game at Nebraska remains a massive question mark.
Allen didn't even bring up Penix, his starting quarterback, in his 884-word opening remarks. And when he was finally questioned about his status, he didn't have much to say.
"Right now, we do not know what his status will be. It will be a game-time decision,'' Allen said. "So the plan will be to prepare like we have every single week, to be able to have Peyton (Ramsey) ready to roll, and he'll have a great week of practice just like he did last week. And Jack (Tuttle) will be ready as well.
"So those guys in that (quarterbacks) room will be doing their best to prepare, and Michael as well, and we'll do everything we can to get him back, if at all possible. But that remains to be seen.''
Since game time isn't until 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, I wondered more about immediacy. I asked Allen if he expected Penix to practice on Tuesday.
"I'll probably know some more this afternoon about that, so then we'll just have to take it day by day and see where that leads us.
"But I don't have that answer for you right now.''
And that was the end of it.
The trouble with trying to guess about these things
Penix was hit hard on a scramble on the last play of the first quarter of Saturday's game. He looked a little wobbly when he got up, and I watched closely from the press box to see if he reached for his left shoulder. He didn't.
He walked to the bench under his own power and returned for four plays in the start of the second quarter, completing 2 of 3 passes, the last of which was tipped into the air and intercepted. On Indiana's next possession, Ramsey came in and played the rest of the way.
Penix went into the trainer's tent with Indiana's medical team and then went straight to the locker room. He never returned.
We've seen this before, of course. Penix missed two-plus games in September with a shoulder injury that was never disclosed by Allen or anyone at Indiana until he returned for the Michigan State game on Sept. 28, and even then it was by accident. Penix had been healthy since then, and has played well since his return.
Still, he's only played 15 quarters all season through Indiana's first seven games after leaving early Saturday.
Allen mentioned Saturday night that Penix's injury had nothing to do with his previous ailment, which rules out the shoulder. So, it's something else.
This is the one huge difference between the NFL and college football. In the pros, unless you're Bill Belichick messing around, when guys get hurt, they tell you what's wrong. A knee, a shoulder, head or neck, they tell you. There are protocols and rules for everything.
It's different in college. It's up to each team as to how they handle these things. Indiana chooses to keep things quiet, which is their right. Frankly, it stinks as a journalist to not be able to tell the whole story, but for the player, sometimes it's probably best that things are kept quiet.
What makes it hard is that when you don't know, people just guess or presume, and oftentimes they are wrong. Twitter was blowing up with online guesses, and that's not fair at all, to everyone involved. Not knowing stinks. And the comments about Penix being soft, or made of glass, or being too fragile and unreliable, well, that flat-out makes me angry.
What stinks the most, of course, is that Saturday's game at Nebraska is massive. This is a special season right now for Indiana, and it's trending in the right direction. The Hoosiers are 5-2 and turning the corner. Playing at Nebraska is a rare thing, the first time they've gone since the Cornhuskers entered the Big Ten. Indiana hasn't played there since 1977.
Tom Allen has never been to Lincoln. Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has never been, either, though his father, Dave, has some good Lincoln stories. Offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer, who grew up in South Dakota, has been there once as a kid, but he's never coached there.
It's all new. And all special.
So it would be nice to go at full strength, with your starting quarterback in tow. It's just too bad, you know. Heck, it's my first trip there, too.
Indiana's two quarterbacks, redshirt freshman Michael Penix Jr. (left) and junior Peyton Ramsey.
There's still a game to be won, though
If Penix can't play Saturday, then Peyton Ramsey will be ready to go. That's a given. He got the game ball Saturday for being so prepared to take on Maryland, and he played well. Allen was impressed — everyone was, really — with how well prepared Ramsey was to play, even though he knows he's not going to start each week.
"He knew every read, he knew every check,'' Indiana running back Stevie Scott said. "But that doesn't surprise us with Peyton. That's why we love him, man. He's always ready to go whenever we need him.''
After starting all of 2018 and most of 2017, Ramsey admits its been hard to lose his job. But he never thought about leaving. He knew his teammates would still need him, so he stayed.
And they really need him now. On Saturday afternoon in Lincoln.
Or at last we think they do.
"It's been hard. It's not easy to wake up every day and come in to watch film and all that stuff,'' Ramsey said Monday when talking about losing his starting job. "It's a good learning experience. It's adversity, and I told myself that I wasn't going to run from it.
"I had a feeling at some point that they were going to need me. It really has to do with having so many good people here in this locker room. I have so many good relationships here, and I'm not going to walk away from all that.''
Ramsey, if he gets the call in Lincoln, will be ready. That's who he is. His teammates, every last one of them, will have faith in his ability to help them win this game.
But there's a reason why Penix won the starting job over Ramsey in fall camp. (Indiana was quiet about that, too, right up to the very end.)
He's better. By how much? Not much, but that's not really the point.
What is good for the Hoosiers, though, is that they really do have two quarterbacks who can win games. Indiana can go to Lincoln and win with Ramsey, just like they could have with Penix. The Hoosiers are, shockingly, a 2-point favorite at the moment against the struggling 4-3 Cornhuskers.
But that's what is hard when you circle the calendar months in advance. Michael Penix. In Lincoln. Beating legendary Nebraska.
And now, all it is is a "game-time decision.''
Or worse.
