Injuries lead to extensive playing time for true freshman Tre Roberson

Against Virginia, sophomore quarterback Edward Wright-Baker led a fourth quarter IU surge that fell short.

Two weeks later against North Texas, it was fellow sophomore quarterback Dusty Kiel who led an ultimately failed comeback attempt.

On Saturday, yet another two weeks later, it was true freshman quarterback Tre Roberson’s turn to lead the Hoosier offense as it tried to dig itself out of a hole.

Roberson scored on a two-yard run with 5:29 remaining, pulling the Hoosiers within two scores with all their timeouts still available.

Alas, it was once again a Hoosier comeback that was not to be. The Fighting Illini scored again to pull away and time ran out on the Hoosiers, leaving them with a 1-5 record and, once again, a lack of clarity at quarterback.

Wright-Baker, the starter through the first four games, was in uniform and looked set to return. He missed IU’s conference opener against Penn State because of an ankle injury.

However, he never entered the game.

“Ed did practice, probably could have went, but we think he’s 90, 95 (percent), and we knew we’d have to scramble - run around a lot - so our thought was ‘we’re going to go with Dusty,’” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said.

As a result, Kiel, the near-hero against North Texas and older brother of vaunted IU quarterback recruit Gunner Kiel, started for the second consecutive game.

For the day, he was 6-for-19 for 71 yards. However, 48 of those yards came on a single play when Kiel, while falling to the ground from a hit, managed to put the ball in the hands of sophomore running back Stephen Houston, who ran all the way to the Illini 30-yard line.

“It was a dig route, and I just took my drop and was stepping up,” Kiel said. “We had a little pressure on the outside. I was getting hit and I was just looking for the   checkdowns from there. I just threw it before I fell to the ground.”

However, on that same play, Kiel sustained an ankle injury of his own.

“On that pass I had to Stephen, I just kind of got rolled up,” Kiel said. “We went in the locker and came out, and it was kind of stiff. I just couldn’t take a drop. I couldn’t really push off.”

He continued playing but split time with Roberson in the third quarter. The freshman then took every snap for IU in the fourth quarter.

“We used Tre a little, went with Tre at the end,” Wilson said. “It wasn’t a battlefield demotion. I think Dusty was a little nicked and couldn’t put some mustard on the ball. It was nice to see Tre make some plays.”

Roberson finished 11-for-17 for 148 yards and another 36 yards on the ground.

“I managed the game well,” Roberson said. “I need to improve on just learning the game from Coach Smith and Coach Wilson and completing my passes. At the college level, it’s all mental. I’ve got to get the mental aspect of it right.”

Wilson said he has wanted to give Roberson playing time for several weeks but was unable to because of close games. This week, though, with injuries to Wright-Baker and Kiel, he had no choice.

“We decided this week to play him some,” Wilson said. “When Dusty tweaked his ankle, we had already kind of decided, as the game started, unless something major happened, we were going to save Ed for one more week. That’s why Tre played so much down the stretch.”