Indiana redshirt junior quarterback Peyton Ramsey and offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer will compete together in what is expected to be their final game in the same program on Thursday as Indiana chases its third even nine-win season.
Indiana redshirt quarterback Peyton Ramsey has been through his share of changes in Bloomington.
He was recruited out of the Class of 2016 by former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kevin Johns and onto a roster that featured Zander Diamont, Danny Cameron and new transfer Richard Lagow. He has also seen Florida 2016 Mr. Football winner Nick Tronti come and go.
During his redshirt year in 2016, he watched as Tom Allen replaced Kevin Wilson as the head coach before Indiana’s appearance in the Foster Farms Bowl, and his only experience before 2019 was two years under former offensive coordinator Mike DeBord.
DeBord was replaced by new offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer, and suddenly the shifting sands beneath Ramsey’s feet for the last three years paid off. Now, after Thursday’s Gator Bowl, there will be more changes for Ramsey, as DeBoer moves on to Fresno State, but the coach-quarterback duo get one more ride before looking to the future.
“Coach DeBoer has been monumental in my development as a player and as a person, and to be able to have another game with him means the world,” Ramsey said after DeBoer’s coaching the Gator Bowl was confirmed. “It’s awesome. It says a lot about him that he was willing to come back and be a part of this one.”
It’s been said time and time again as the season wore on and Indiana continued to stack impressive offensive displays behind career days from Ramsey – the redshirt junior could have transferred. He could have, and no one would have blamed him.
Coming into the season, Ramsey was perceived by the majority of eyes surrounding the program as a tough quarterback who could be relied upon to not make mistakes but also a quarterback that applied shackles to the potential of the Indiana offense that featured plenty of talent in other areas. The question of whether it was Ramsey or the Mike DeBord system that limited the offense only left a residue on that perception.
That’s what made the move to redshirt freshman Mike Penix appealing, particularly when watching Penix unleash a 75-yard touchdown to Nick Westbrook in week one. Losing his job to Penix in August combined with the transfer of former four-star quarterback Jack Tuttle could have been the last change needed for Ramsey to call it quits in Bloomington.
“I think his mental toughness has been displayed through the way he handled the adversity of not being named the starter, staying the course, choosing to stay here at Indiana, and then not just choosing to stay, but choosing to be locked in,” Allen said after the Nebraska game when Ramsey threw a then-career-high 351 yards. “That is really the testament.”
There were the oft-mentioned steps Ramsey took as the backup to begin the season – preparing as if he was the starter each week, remaining the leader of the offense without seeing the field as a starter, helping lead the quarterback meetings – but DeBoer unlocked part of Ramsey’s game as well.
Ramsey mentioned being able to “understand football better” because of DeBoer and the new offensive system that allowed him to make quick, easy throws that opened up opportunities downfield, an aspect of Ramsey’s game that seemed to grow from the 2018 season too.
Eventually, once Penix, who also found plenty of success through the DeBoer system and would likely have carried that success throughout 2019, was ruled out for the season after the Northwestern game in early-November – and even shortly before, when Ramsey took over at Maryland – Ramsey played some of the most inspired football he’s shown at Indiana.
He hit 20-of-27 on the road at Maryland in a game where Indiana needed every point and still wasn’t sure exactly what the identity of the team was yet. He connected on several key downs at Nebraska and took a hard hit on a first down scramble that will highlight Indiana’s season in 2019. He even connected on 75 percent of his passes for a career-best 371 yards and no interceptions at Penn State despite the loss.
Ramsey owned the second best adjusted completion percentage (76.1) in the Big Ten, and Penix, who only recorded 165 dropbacks had the conference's best mark (79.5). The two quarterbacks, tag-teaming Indianas schedule based on Penix's health for most of the season, became known as the Big Ten's most efficient passers.
If a reality could exist where their statistics could be combined, the duo would have led the Big Ten in passing yards by 348, including the bowl games that were played before the Gator Bowl.
“The thing that Kalen does really, really well is to be able to, from a schematic and structural perspective, really maximize whatever we're seeing and empowers these guys,” Allen said about his offensive coordinator.
Penix, who was poised on the road at Michigan State during his first Big Ten road game, said he was forced into preparation by DeBoer because the quarterbacks coach would intentionally put the quarterbacks in the wrong position in practice, and they needed to identify how to adjust.
Allen said he sat in on most quarterbacks meetings and watched the quarterbacks talk their ways through film and various scenarios, and what was demanded by DeBoer is what helped bring the young Penix up to an adequate level to play in the Big Ten and the more experienced Ramsey to a more effective level of his game as well. His system, Allen said, translated complex offensive concepts into simpler terms.
That straddling of the line paid off for DeBoer, who went on to be named a semifinalist for the Broyles Award, after creating the second-most productive offense in the Big Ten in his first year in the conference, and, through that, maxed out what the Hoosier fan base knew about its redshirt junior quarterback and introduced it to its quarterback of the future.
He also paved a path ahead for the future of Indiana’s offense without him, as Allen said he’d like to maintain the same offensive system and implement an offensive coordinator who can coach it.
With little known about the endeavors ahead for Penix, Ramsey, or even Tuttle, Allen stressed whenever given the opportunity in 2019 that Penix is the starting quarterback for the team. Whether that changes or not in 2020 is yet to be seen.
With one major change left to make in the offensive coordinator position, though, Indiana can enjoy one more game between an offensive coordinator and a quarterback who lifted each other and a program to unprecedented heights, as they compete for Indiana’s third ever nine-win season.
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