There was one player IU Coach Kevin Wilson told to fall on the sword at the end of IU’s victory against Purdue — one player to run the ball backwards 27 yards and take a safety in an attempt to run out the clock.
That player was junior backup quarterback Zander Diamont.
He scrambled toward the endzone and was nearly caught by a defender before he crossed the line, draining 11 of the 12 seconds left on the clock to help seal IU’s fourth consecutive win against Purdue, 26-24.
Diamont was part of three of those Old Oaken Bucket wins.
However, just a week before Wilson called upon the veteran to close out the game, Diamont had told him he was walking away from the game after the season.
“I was going to give 100 percent to the game and respect the game and play the way I wanted to and go out the way I wanted to,” Diamont said about his decision. “I think for my safety and for my future — I’m not going to the NFL — I need my brain.”
Diamont doesn’t slide before he’s tackled like many quarterbacks, and he doesn’t step out of bounds. Instead, he goes for the extra yards.
That playing style is something he said would never change.
With the junior’s size — 6-foot-1 and a listed 174 pounds — he and Wilson knew that style couldn’t be sustained.
It was a decision Diamont and his family had been discussing for a while, Wilson said, and Wilson asked the junior after the regular season finale Saturday if he was sure about the decision.
“He said, ‘Yeah, I took a few hits out there today, Coach,’” Wilson said. “He’s a small guy, and he plays with a lot of heart and a lot of courage.”
Diamont was nearly an instant celebrity. Not for his passing — he boasted a 49-percent completion percentage and 837 passing yards in 14 games — but for his running, his distinctiveness, his passion.
The Los Angeles native was a model in high school, and his dad was a soap opera star in the early 1990s.
Despite his small frame, he played as if he were 10 feet tall.
He jumped up to jaw with linebackers after a 4-yard gain. He laughed at potential NFL player and current Florida International tight end Jonnu Smith when Smith dropped a wide- open pass.
He nearly broke IU’s 20-plus-year losing streak to Ohio State twice, once in 2014 and again in 2015, when he recorded the longest run by an IU quarterback in program history in the fourth quarter.
As a freshman in 2014, he scored the last-minute, game-winning touchdown against Purdue to cap off a season in which Hoosier fans had few things to cheer for — Tevin Coleman reached 2,000 yards rushing and wins against Missouri and Purdue.
His picture with the Old Oaken Bucket and a cigar between his teeth became the symbol for higher expectations during the 2015 offseason.
Diamont was just grateful to be a part of the program, he said after the win against Purdue. He knew he wouldn’t start this season with junior transfer Richard Lagow coming to Bloomington. He didn’t even know if he would see the field.
He didn’t transfer. In fact he drew up a play that scored a touchdown against Michigan State, prepared the first-team defense against quarterbacks like Ohio State’s JT Barrett and Nebraska’s Tommy Armstrong and ran the Big Bacon package with 275-pound freshman running back Tyler Natee.
The concussions in high school and the hits in college just started to add up and he wants to walk away from the game on his own terms, Diamont said.
“It’s brutal,” Diamont said. “I’ve worked my entire life to play this game — be successful playing this game. It obviously hasn’t always been that way. It’s really hard to walk away.”
