Oh. My bad. I thought we were talking about the Indiana Hoosiers, who have won a total of three games in the Big 10 over the last three years and have only been to two bowl games in the last 20 years.
If you are bringing ~25 kids into a football program every year, eventually a couple of them will end up being OK. There are also noteworthy NFL players that played FCS football, and even DII football. So throwing out the name of two (admittedly good) NFL players that went to IU doesn't make it some sort of glamour program that recruits are lining up to go to.
To me, the #1 QB in his class going to a perennial doormat in a top-heavy, mediocre conference is strange. I take it as a sign that he is scared of competition.
I agree with the first sentence, disagree with the second one. The fact is he is considering Alabama, Oklahoma, and Michigan means that is not a concern. At Michigan he will have to beat out Devin Gardner AND Shane Morris after Denard graduates. That's an insane amount of competition. Similar situations exist at OU and 'Bama.
Yes, IU SUCKS at football. But he could go there because it's close, family connections, to build a program, etc. You see Blue Chip QBs do this all of the time.
Andrew Luck went to a Stanford program that was WAY worse than IU in the years before he got there. Blaine Gabbert went to a middling Missouri team. Jake Locker went to a really bad Washington. Sometimes, the "fit" of the school, academics, etc. win out over the desire to win a National Championship. I don't think it necessarily means someone is afraid of competition.
QBs have a little primadonna in them. But if a kid chooses to go play football at Indiana for any reason other than "it was the only FBS school that offered me a scholarship" then I write the kid off has not having the "it" factor I would want from my QB. So, for that reason, I say good luck and good riddance if he does choose to play at IU.
