We’ve all seen what a season without Nate Sudfeld looks like.
One win, one passing touchdown and 515 passing yards in six games following his exit game against Iowa on Oct. 11, 2014.
The senior quarterback was named to the Maxwell Award watch list, which honors the best player in college football, on Tuesday, highlighting one important fact.
I don’t know if he is kind. I don’t know if he is smart. But Nate Sudfeld is irrefutably ?important.
More than this, he is the lynchpin of the 2015 IU football season. Let’s look at what the Hoosiers have to overcome this fall.
The offense can no longer be carried by Tevin Coleman’s prolific running game of 2014, and the team’s defensive momentum has been stunted by the dismissal of its leading tackler on drug-related charges.
The pass attack was perfunctory last season even when Sudfeld was healthy — he still threw for 1,151 yards and six touchdowns in less than six games in 2014 — attributable in part to a young receiving corps that was significantly over-hyped.
In 2015, the wide outs will be more experienced. The defense will have more practice running second-year defensive coordinator Brian Knorr’s three-four scheme.
The run game will at least be satisfactory — possibly more so — with the addition of former University of Alabama-Birmingham 1,500-yard back Jordan Howard.
But so far, with Coleman and Shane Wynn — the team’s leading rusher and wide out, respectively, in 2014 — gone to the NFL, and Howard and fellow UAB transfer wide receiver Marqui Hawkins sitting out the Cream & Crimson Spring Game, Sudfeld is the only proven offensive ?weapon.
And that means the weight falls primarily on Sudfeld’s shoulders.
Shoulders which cannot be injured for the Hoosiers to have a shot at a bowl game, to break through the ceiling that hasn’t been brushed ?since 2007.
We missed Sudfeld so much last season, we forget he is still vying for a full season at the helm since he first played a starting role in 2013, when he split time with Tre Roberson in a shaky two-quarterback system.
The woes of last IU football season were never about how great Sudfeld was, but rather the insufficiency of his backups and IU’s ill-preparedness to cope with injury.
That has the chance to change this year.
As IU Coach Kevin Wilson tweeted in celebration of his quarterback’s appointment to the watch list, Sudfeld is the leader of this team — now more than ever.
No, we shouldn’t bloviate the significance of Sudfeld being named to a watch list of 80 players and 33 quarterbacks, three of whom play for Ohio State.
But there is potential with a capital ‘P,’ potential unfulfilled from last season, and those in the Bloomington area aren’t the only ones to recognize it.
I hope surgery and rehab have strengthened Sudfeld’s shoulders. Because a lot is riding on them this season.
