What really pisses me off....
- Thread starter ribbont
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This one I knew from living in Pittsburgh - the cradle of quarterbacks:
Quarterbacks that played high school football within 40 miles of Pittsburgh: George Blanda, Johnny Unitas, Jim Kelly, Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Joe Montana
Quarterbacks that played high school football within 40 miles of Pittsburgh: George Blanda, Johnny Unitas, Jim Kelly, Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Joe Montana
Blair Kiel, Jay Cutler, Joey Elliott, Curtis Painter and Brady Allen were all Southern Indiana kids (we offered all of them except Cutler) we missed on, in addition to Phipps, Griese and Grossman, each of whom we offered and did not get. We also didn’t offer Jerry Sichting, who would’ve come on a hoops scholarship and we wanted him.
That said, you lost me at “If so,” this “so” we’ll never know ‘cause Tommy ain’t talk ‘in.
Hermann never considered us, Kiel picked ND over us (his future wife was an IU freshman and LC thought we had him at one point). Rick Mirer visited but was always ND bound, and Cam was a good quarterback from Terre haute who never developed at the BT level. Tim Wilbur and Steve Risley were both really good quarterbacks who came to Bloomington, however.
Thought about that, but that's sort of how we got Allen.
I think we might be snake-bit with that approach.
I like Carey at OC right now. That may be his strength and not at HC.
I missed it. His older brother, Danny, was a good QB for IU and in the same class as me, that of ‘73.
Schnell, from Elkhart, was also a very long time ago. I guess my point remains that IU has had only a very small handful of home grown kids play quarterback for our Hoosiers since the 1950s when I began to pay attention. So when Jackson became available, we jumped on him. I get that but Sorsby seems better. Was Allen figuring that Tennessee saw something in Jackson that he did not see? Yes, Purdue has grabbed some good QBs from Hoosierland but give me the Texas kid all day over the Indy kids. We are talking about very different levels of high school football.
That Bree kid from Texas did okay for himself.
The painful part is that Cutler would’ve accepted an offer but we didn’t want him (neither did Illinois or Purdue, the other two Big Ten schools who took a hard look at him). Elliott should’ve been a Hoosier, too, but I’ll let that one lay.
You are correct and I am corrected. Also, Rex is Dan's son, not his brother so I am to be double-corrected. It's unusual for an All-State QB to play LB in college but IU had All-American Ted McNulty from Columbus, OH that Grossman had to contend with, Ohio's best QB his senior year. McNulty went on to play in the NFL and was tragically killed in a Napa Valley auto accident at the age of 30.
Rex's grandfather, Dan's father, played for IU, too. It's too bad Rex went to the Florida Gators, instead of being a third generation legacy. Cam Cameron was our first year head coach Rex's senior year of HS and we had the services of Antwaan Randle El at the time. Such is the (un)luck of IU's timing.
I didn't realize Cutler (Vanderbilt) was from little ole Santa Claus, IN, nor that Elliot from Evansville played for PU. I remember a lot of PU QB's but that one is a vague memory of my diminishing brain cells.
That was a weird time for PU QBs. Painter started his RS-Fr year as the backup but ended up supplanting the starter whose name escapes me at the moment. I believe he led the B1G in passing his junior year, and then ended up getting passed over by Joey his senior year when I think Joey was a RS-Fr. The circle of life I guess.
EDIT: And you'll need to go find the clips of Heritage Hills in the 2000 state finals. They played Zionsville before that school's population blew up and they ended up in the big class of football. At any rate, Cutler's Patriots had a big lead, Zionsville came back, and the game went into OT.
I think Zionsville scored a FG or something in their turn with the ball. When HH had the ball, Cutler swung it out to his Sophomore RB (Cole Sefrieg, had a schollie to PU but ended up in baseball with the Marlins) who turned and passed it back to Cutler who walked it in to walk-off with the 3A title.
Pretty sure JE waited a long time before he started at Purdue, but I could be wrong. He should’ve been a Hoosier . . . We messed that one up. Cam and Tiller both said no to Cutler, while Illinois said yes (according to JC) and then no, which put in motion the final process that led him to Vandy. That’s two NFL starters that the Illini blew off (see Aaron Rodgers) . . .
You're correct!
I just checked it out on college football reference. I was WAY off on the Curtis-->Joey transition. Looks like Joey hardly played at all until his Sr. year when Painter had graduated.
And it was Brandon Kirsch who was a senior painter's freshman year. Although it apparently took longer for Painter to take over for Kirsch than I recall.
ANOTHER EDIT:
Upon further review, it was Justin Siller who took over when Painter was benched a few games his senior year.
I don’t think Joey started until his redshirt senior season. Like I said, we messed that one up.
Who was that celebrated QB out of Martinsville who became a bust for us? Maybe he transferred or something.
Earl Hanniford. He stayed at IU the whole time, and graduated.
Danny wanted no part of Cameron for Rex plus he was lightly recruited by the self proclaimed guru
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Until more recently, it wasn't unsual at all to find an all-state QB playing a position like LB or DB in college.... Both are positions that require a high degree of athletisism and nine times out of ten the QB will be a high school teams best player and best athlete...
Here are a few IU guys who I remember being all-state QB's.
Don Casselman was All-State QB at Plainfield in 1968 and he threw a TD pass in the state all-star game, but he was a LB for IU.
Scott Tegarden was an All-State QB at Indy Arlington but played DB at IU
and, Jay Mathias was an All-State QB at Chesterton but also played DB at IU.
I know there are more but I can't think of them right now....
Anyway, I agree that in today's world you'd be hard pressed to find an all-state QB ending up at LB
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Tim Wilbur was a very good quarterback at Ben Davis who was an ABT corner at IU, and Steve Risley was a LC quarterback who played some really good basketball for us. Quinn Buckner took high school snaps, too.
Mirer was very interested in us and Florida State. Mirer was disappointed that Mallory backed off thinking it was a wasted effort with ND in the running.
We had one guy, Chris Dyer, who started IU at QB but ended up being a damn good Safety.
And then the IU leader in INTs (or tied, I think), Tim Wilbur, who was a QB at Ben Davis and then a Safety(? or CB?) at IU.
The Mighty Quinn was a 2nd Team All Big Ten Safety and ARE played a year on the IU BB team.
I think he was interested but we backed off because he gave us some very clear reasons to do so. Jeff George visited and then pretty quickly did the same, though he and his parents weren’t quite so pleasant. I know Mirer had a bunch of friends at IU and that had some appeal for him, but BK’s girlfriend was already in Bloomington and that wasn’t enough to sway him, either. Hard for kids to say no to ND, especially when the coach is good (as was the case with both BK and RM).
Well, and he was pretty clear to our coaches that ND was his strong preference. Nothing wrong with that. Again, JG didn’t so much get medicate a preference for another school so much as he basically said he didn’t want to play in our offense. We said thanks and quickly moved on.
He returned punts and kickoffs and would’ve been an excellent wildcat quarterback had that been part of offenses in the late 70s and early 80s. A very good athlete and instinctive player who played a ton as a true freshman.
I don't know about how good an athlete he was, but he definitely was one of the best instinctive players I've ever seen play.
He was disappointed that we didn't pursue further, at least according to his father.
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