Roberson makes history

On a day when all the buzz surrounded a young quarterback not wearing an IU uniform, Tre Roberson made Hoosier fans notice one that was.

Roberson became the first true freshman to start at quarterback in school history Saturday afternoon.

Though the result for IU (1-7, 0-4) was a 45-24 loss to Iowa (5-2, 2-1), Roberson was 16-for-24 for 197 yards with a touchdown through the air. He ran the ball 16 times for 84 yards and another score.

“He did fantastic,” sophomore wide receiver Kofi Hughes said. “I think he did great, especially for a first start, to have no turnovers or anything like that.”

While the news of Roberson’s start broke hours before Saturday’s game, he said he had known since Monday.

IU Coach Kevin Wilson said the decision to start Roberson was one he knew wouldn’t overwhelm the true freshman.

“He definitely showed a calmness in games,” Wilson said. “It looked like the more he has played in the last two weeks, the better he has practiced.”

Roberson showed that calmness early with the Hoosiers already facing a 7-0 deficit after the Hawkeyes scored on their opening drive.

The reigning Indiana Mr. Football led IU on a 12-play, 88-yard drive that concluded with his first career touchdown pass to true freshman wide receiver Cody Latimer.

During an opening scoring drive in which Roberson converted twice on third down and completed all four pass attempts, the true freshman said he got the boost he needed.

“It gave me a lot of confidence, knowing that I could do this, and I could do this over and over again,” Roberson said. “That’s what I feel like in my mind that as a team, we can keep on scoring over and over.”

IU kept that mantra on its next drive after another Iowa score.

Down 14-7, Roberson marched the Hoosiers down the field again, converting third down after third down.

This time, the 13-play, 73-yard drive ended with sophomore running back Stephen Houston punching it in from a yard out to even it up at 14-14. By day’s end, IU would rack up four drives of at least 70 yards, an accomplishment it had yet to achieve this
season.

“That’s really important,” Roberson said. “That just gives our team more confidence, knowing that we can start from way down and make it to the other side of the 50 pretty much any time we want.”

Though IU didn’t continue to match Iowa’s offense, Roberson didn’t throw an incompletion until the beginning of the third quarter.

Roberson connected with nine different IU receivers and led the Hoosiers to 414 yards of total offense, their highest output since a 38-21 win against South Carolina State on Sept. 17.

“I’ve seen leadership out of him,” Latimer said. “He ran the offense well. He looked for everybody, threw some great passes and played hard.”

Hughes said there was a reason Roberson looked as prepared as he was on
Saturday.

“He has been upstairs in that film room a lot,” Hughes said. “That’s a big thing. Tre is always with the coaches, always studying film and always getting better.

“Tre is very humble where he can listen to a lot of different people, and he’s trying to do everything right. He’s not cocky at all, and I think that’s what makes Tre great, is that he’s open to learning and open to do more things.”

Whether or not Roberson will be the quarterback of the future has yet to be determined. But for a kid who celebrated his 19th birthday Saturday, Roberson might have been the one who gave the Hoosiers a gift.

“We only expect that when it’s everyone’s time to go out there that they do their job the right way,” Hughes said. “Tre was definitely above
expectations.”