After redshirt junior quarterback Peyton Ramsey became the full-time starter after a season-ending injury to redshirt freshman Mike Penix and senior left tackle Coy Cronk went down with a season-ending ankle injury, Ramsey was named a team captain for the remainder of the 2019 season.
But talks about his captainship began before Penix was ruled out for the season.
When the Indiana football team made its way through votes for team captain, redshirt junior quarterback Peyton Ramsey was the last one out. Linebacker Reakwon Jones, wide receiver Nick Westbrook, guard Simon Stepaniak and tackle Coy Cronk were all selected captains.
Ramsey had just lost his starting job to redshirt freshman Mike Penix and, what has been well-documented while he has bailed the Hoosiers out at the quarterback position week after week, could have entered his name into the transfer portal. But he didn’t, and now, he is having the best season of his career, spotting Penix throughout a few injuries until eventually being named the starter after the freshman’s season-ending surgery Nov. 4.
On Thursday, Indiana head coach Tom Allen announced that Ramsey has now been named a team captain for the remainder of the 2019 season.
“We really felt like Peyton Ramsey deserved to be one of our captains,” Allen said. “With Coy (Cronk) going down, we kind of lost that fourth guy on the field. I actually met with him before we found out Mike was going to be out."
It was the Maryland game that sparked the discussions about naming Ramsey a captain. After a couple strong offensive drives by Penix, Ramsey entered the game after Penix was tackled awkwardly by a Maryland linebacker. He went 20-for-27 for 193 yards and a touchdown, pushing the Hoosiers toward a 34-28 win on the road.
Allen said he wanted four captains on the field, and the season-ending injury to left tackle Coy Cronk had left a spot open. While his teammates carried Cronk’s jersey to the coin toss at Michigan State and Cronk scootered his way to midfield against Rutgers and Maryland, Allen wanted to honor the work Ramsey had continued to give the team without knowing if he would play on a week-to-week basis.
Penix had been labeled a “game-time decision” on five different occasions this season and only finished two entire games healthfully. Ramsey filled in the gaps, including leading Indiana to a historic road win at Nebraska to achieve bowl eligibility, despite splitting practice reps with Penix and developing a gameplan that was not tailored directly to his skillset.
The coaching staff, Tom Allen and offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer primarily, has raved about the level of preparation and focus Ramsey brings to practice without knowing whether he will see the field on Saturdays.
“Leaders are leaders,” Allen said. “If you’re a leader, you have influence. And he has influence whether or not he wears that title. This is just indicative of what he continues to mean to our program.”
The praise for Ramsey within the program has almost been off the charts this season. Indiana athletic performance coach Matt Rhea tweeted a sentiment about Ramsey earlier this week that nearly claimed Ramsey as a son.
Allen said he told Ramsey that when he announced Ramsey’s captainship to the team, he’d get a standing ovation, and sure enough, Allen said, the team was up immediately when the announcement was made.
Both junior guard Harry Crider and sophomore running back Stevie Scott were asked about Ramsey on Indiana’s weekly radio show Wednesday, and, like everyone on the team who has been asked about Ramsey, they had positive things to say. Crider even turned to absolutes to describe his quarterback.
"When it comes to Peyton, there's no one that better represents our program,” he said.
None of that praise is meant to take anything away from Penix, who remains the most exciting quarterback Indiana fans have seen since Antwaan Randle-El and is poised to be the future of the IU offense.
Allen said he expects Penix to be back to “full bore” by the spring after he underwent an exploratory surgery to repair an injury to his sternoclavicular joint – a joint that represents just three percent of shoulder injuries in football.
Allen said that Penix will make the trip to Penn State to keep him around his teammates as much as possible and that he had a one-on-one conversation with him about trials faced not only in football but in life.
No second surgery was needed after the issue was addressed in the initial exploratory surgery, so Penix is now in the healing phase of recovery.
“Now, it's just a matter of sitting down – we have a whole book on a very comprehensive plan of how to get him rehabbing and recovered and also developed,” Allen said. “We have to get ourselves to where we’re not just healing but also get stronger and bigger.”
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