Jack Tuttle's public Indiana debut will be put on hold.
IU head coach Tom Allen on Saturday announced the redshirt freshman quarterback will miss the rest of the spring - including Friday's game - due to illness.
"He has a short-term sickness that he'll be 100 percent able to recover from, but he'll be done the rest of the spring," Allen said.
The absence of Tuttle, who was ruled immediately eligible for the fall by the NCAA on Wednesday, will subsequently modify the format of the April 12 spring game.
With redshirt freshman Michael Penix Jr.'s reps limited this spring due to recovery from a torn ACL suffered last October, redshirt junior Peyton Ramsey is the only full healthy scholarship quarterback on the Hoosiers' roster heading into next week.
“What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna still have the spring game, as always," Allen said. "Probably the format might change a little bit in regards to the offense vs. the defense, and the ones and the twos — that kind of thing like we’ve done in the past. We’ll have to evaluate that. We’re still looking through all the options for it. We’ll still have a full-bore, live spring game."
Even with Penix limited, Allen indicated the coaching staff would look for sensible ways to include him in the game.
“We’re gonna do some creative things to get Michael Penix out there,” Allen said. “Got him involved (during Saturday’s practice) in some team periods, which is real important for him. We’ll just adapt and press on. That’s what you got to do.”
In previous years, the program used a free agency or draft setup to construct the spring game teams, but that has now been scrapped with other skill players such as wide receivers Nick Westbrook and Whop Philyor, along with running back Stevie Scott, expected to be held out for preventative reasons.
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