Indiana Football Hopes to Land Veteran Quarterback in Transfer Portal

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Questions surround the Indiana quarterback room a month into the offseason. 

Quarterback Dexter Williams II showed potential when he led Indiana to a 39-31 win at Michigan State in his first-career start. His ability to run, coupled with true freshman running back Jaylin Lucas' game-breaking speed kept the Spartans' defense off balance. 

With steady improvement by Williams as a passer in the offseason, he and Lucas looked like a young and exciting offensive duo to build around. But midway through the first quarter against Purdue on No. 26 – with Indiana driving and leading 7-3 on a 71-yard Lucas read-option touchdown – Williams went down with a non-contact knee injury.

He suffered "a knee dislocation with significant structural damage to his knee" and underwent surgery with an indefinite timetable to return. Indiana ended the 2022 season with a 4-8 record, and quarterbacks Connor Bazelak, Jack Tuttle and Grant Gremel entered transfer portal. This left an injured Williams, true freshman Brendan Sorsby and incoming freshman Broc Lowry as Indiana's only scholarship quarterbacks heading into the spring semester.

But coach Tom Allen is looking to change that. 

"The goal is to add an additional [quarterback], an older one would be ideal," Allen said on Dec. 21. 

"So that's the plan in terms of being able to have four guys on scholarship in that room and especially with Dexter's status. We're just working through that process every single day. It's neverending. It will continue these next several weeks, and the goal is to have the guy in place here for second semester."

Indiana has time and options to add a veteran signal-caller, but it has to happen relatively soon. The first transfer portal window spans from Dec. 5 to Jan. 18, and the 2023 Indiana University spring semester begins on Jan. 9. There's a second transfer window from May 1 to May 15, but Allen wants to bring in a new quarterback well before then. 

Following Indiana's season-finale loss to Purdue, Allen was asked if the flashes of success with Williams showed him that Indiana needs to revise the offense around a mobile quarterback.

"Yes, absolutely without question. That's what I know we need to do," Allen said. "That allows us the chance to be able to do the things we need to do to be able to blend and different things, yes, but with the idea of the tempo that we used and the quarterback run game and throw game combination to me is really what I want us to be able to do, and want to build off that, absolutely, without question."

Here are some of the top remaining quarterbacks in the transfer portal.