2/14/2017 football Edit

Nick Sheridan Ready For The Test As Indiana's New Quarterback Coach

Nick Sheridan speaks to the media as he's introduced at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. He'll be the new quarterbacks coach at Indiana. (TheHoosier.com)

Sam Beishuizen • TheHoosier

Staff Writer

Nick Sheridan knows what it means to coach quarterbacks under Mike DeBord's guidance from experience.

That's both as a player and graduate assistant.

Sheridan backed up Chad Henne at Michigan a decade ago as a player while DeBord was offensive coordinator and spent the last two seasons working with quarterbacks as a graduate assistant at Tennessee where DeBord was also the offensive coordinator.

Now Sheridan, 28, follows DeBord to Bloomington where he'll coach quarterbacks in a full-time position for head coach Tom Allen.

"When Tom and I first talked about me coming here, Nick was one of the first guys I talked to him about and all the things that he would bring," DeBord said. "I'm really excited to have him here."

Sheridan replaces Shawn Watson as the lead quarterback coach. Watson left Indiana to take the offensive coordinator job at Pitt after working as IU's quarterbacks coach for about a month.

That left the door open for Sheridan to leave his first job at Central Michigan as the running backs coach before even coaching a practice.

"When this opportunity presented itself, I sprinted to Bloomington," Sheridan said.

While Sheridan may have only been a graduate assistant at Tennessee last season, DeBord made it clear his role wasn't quite as dry as some other graduate assistant coaches. He was thrown right into the fire, practically serving as the Volunteers' quarterback coach himself.

Josh Dobbs was Sheridan's lead quarterback. He was a second-team All-SEC selection a season ago and set program records in career rushing yards by a quarterback (2,160) while his 3,781 yards of total offense a season ago ranked second in Tennessee history, trailing only Peyton Manning's 3,789 in 1997.

"Nick took over the quarterbacks," DeBord said. "He had them at meetings. He had them at game preparation. He had them at practice. Then he was there with me when I was calling the games on game day in a very critical role. So he actually was the quarterback (coach) at Tennessee these last two years."

Sheridan may be young and inexperienced as a coach but is no stranger to doing his homework to learn from veterans in the profession. He grew up in a football family while father Bill was a coach.

Bill is currently the linebackers coach with the Detroit Lions.

Former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr has also been one of the many coaches to influence Sheridan's coaching philosophy, he said.

Carr once told Sheridan: "Knowledge is out there. You've just got to go get it and ask for it."

Sheridan has since taken that to heart.

"That's something that always stuck with me," he said. "I try on a yearly basis to reach out to people who I think are doing it well, and I try to find out how they're doing it."

Sheridan inherits a quarterback room that will return fifth-year senior Richard Lagow as the starting quarterback. Lagow threw for 3,362 yards and 19 touchdowns against 17 interceptions in his first year in Bloomington after transferring from the JUCO ranks.

Indiana also returns redshirt junior Danny Cameron, redshirt sophomores Austin King and Mike Fiacable, redshirt freshman Peyton Ramsey and will be bringing in true freshman Nick Tronti after he graduates high school this spring.

Sheridan and his wife have already gone around and introduced themselves to the quarterbacks to break the ice. They'll have plenty of more days ahead to get to know one another better.

"We're trying to catch up the best we can in developing the relationships with the kids," Sheridan said. "That's the most exciting part. I enjoy people. I enjoy getting to know peoples' stories. That's been a lot of fun to me."

Sheridan says his vision for the quarterback position aligns with Allen's in it that they're looking for winners who are accurate and have a sense of escapability about them. Some of that already exists in the current players, some of it can be developed and a majority of it can be recruited.

"I think when you go across the National Football League and across college football, the sizes and shapes of quarterbacks and the skillsets are different," Sheridan said. "But when you really put those three things together — winning, accuracy and escapability — I think you can put a really quality product on the field."

The accuracy piece might be the most important bit. Lagow struggled with his own accuracy a season ago which led to his 17 interceptions. That can oftentimes be the difference in a game.

Sheridan said the quarterback is the "caretaker of the ball for the entire team, the entire university and the entire state." With that in mind, it'll be prioritized whether it be through reminders or actual playcalling to give the quarterback plenty of chances to throw the ball away.

All of that will get put into place over the coming weeks and months. Spring practice will be a critical time for Sheridan to get to know his quarterbacks and move forward with them in DeBord and Allen's new offense.

It's a daunting task, especially for a new coach, but Sheridan said he's ready.

"I couldn’t be more excited about it and humbled and honored to have this opportunity," he said.