Indiana football received some grim news today
Indiana football coach Tom Allen announced today that his star quarterback, Michael Penix Jr. suffered a torn ACL and will be out for the season. Penix Jr. sustained the injury in the Hoosiers’ Saturday game against Maryland. It was initially thought to be an ankle injury, but MRIs indicated it was a knee injury instead.
No one can question the talent of Penix Jr. The sophomore quarterback out of Tampa, Florida has been one of the best passers in the Big Ten for the past two seasons. He is an NFL-caliber talent by almost everyone’s standards.
The one knock on Penix is his durability. Penix had several injuries in his campaign last season and was eventually ruled out for the season after hurting his right sternoclavicular joint.
Everyone knew the young quarterback would come back this season as one of the most talented signal-callers in all of college football. The only question was if he would be able to pitch a complete game by being available the whole season. Unfortunately, that ended up not being the outcome.
While Penix is on the mend, sophomore Jack Tuttle will be the starter for the Hoosiers. Tuttle transferred from Utah in 2019 and has only thrown 16 passes in his college career.
Tuttle does not lack for talent. He was a four-star recruit in high school and competed in the elite 11 quarterback competition in high school. Although Penix Jr. going down is a huge blow, the Hoosiers are in capable hands the rest of the way.
Tuttle will have to lead the Hoosiers past Wisconsin this week and Purdue next week. Hope is far from lost for Indiana, as they still have a great candidacy to get an awesome bowl matchup. Coach Allen is going to have his team prepared to take on this adversity. We will see how they respond.