When senior quarterback Nate Sudfeld stayed on the sidelines on the trainer’s table with seven minutes left in the third quarter because of an ankle injury, IU lost its leader.
Down 13-10, sophomore quarterback Zander Diamont trotted onto the field, into the Hoosier huddle, with all 59,200 eyes on his No. 12 jersey.
“I’ve been ready to go,” Diamont said. “I’ve felt confident since training camp coming off of last season. I think the experience from last season really helped me prepare for this kind of situation.”
The situation was similar to one during the 2014 season: Sudfeld went down, and Diamont came in.
On the flip side of an offseason that began with Diamont leading the Hoosiers to a victory against the Purdue Boilermakers in 2014’s season finale, Diamont’s 1-5 record as a starter followed him onto the field against the defending champions.
“Zander’s gotten so much stronger this offseason,” IU offensive coordinator Kevin Johns said. “He understands the offense way more than he did a year ago. He runs around a lot more than Nate does, but other than that, I don’t think the offense changes that much.”
Sudfeld said that he suffered a minor injury to his ankle during the Hoosiers’ road victory against Wake Forest but played through the pain to lead IU to its first 4-0 start since 1990. He also said when he re-aggravated the ankle in the third quarter, it began to affect his throws. One in particular fell to the ground before reaching his intended receiver.
IU Coach Kevin Wilson said if Sudfeld is able to play and protect himself, by the weekend, the senior will play. Sudfeld said he hopes to play Saturday against Penn State.
But with Wilson not committing to a set timeline for either Sudfeld or Howard, Wilson said he and the coaching staff are confident sending the LA-product sophomore under center.
“That’s why we have 85 scholarships and 120 on the team,” Wilson said. “We practice those guys hard. Next guy is going to have to come in and play. It can be a loss, but all it is is an opportunity. We’ve shown guys can step up. Saw Zander come up the other night and just got to keep playing. It’s different. We’ll see.”
In his first drive on the field, Diamont led the Hoosiers to a three-and-out, but on his second drive, the sophomore took the team 55 yards down the field for an 11-yard rushing touchdown from sophomore running back Devine Redding, featuring a 28-yard pass to sophomore receiver Simmie Cobbs.
The Hoosiers took the lead from the Buckeyes, a lead that would change three more times throughout the half, and Diamont would later break a designed quarterback draw for a 79-yard touchdown, the longest run of the day for either team.
His 184 total yards would not be enough to complete the upset, though, and the Hoosiers would lose to the Buckeyes, 34-27.
“Saturday, when (the trainers) said that Nate couldn’t go and we put Diamont in, we didn’t blink an eye,” Johns said. “We needed a spark, and that kid gave us a spark.”
