4 Star QB Jack Tuttle transferring to IU (IMMEDIATELY ELIGIBLE)

[mamasa 15,306]

1 hour ago, LamarCheeks said:

Call me crazy (you probably will), but I think we'll be OK with Tuttle. Penix was billed as a dual-threat QB when he backed out of his Tennessee commitment and came to B-town. And as a freshman, he did run some -- and was somewhat effective. Until he got hurt. But this year, he didn't run. He didn't roll out. He barely even scrambled. I'm guessing the plan was to protect him and keep him safe -- for painfully obvious reasons. But we had a dual-threat QB who only posed one threat -- passing. And for the most part, he was good. But Tuttle was a four-star, pro-style QB out of high school. With a few exceptions, our offense so far as been run the ball up the gut or drop back and pass. No QB runs. Very few rollouts. This might suit Tuttle to a T. He doesn't have any experience, which is a concern, and probably doesn't have the arm strength of Penix, but he might end up even a better option than Ramsey. He just hasn't had the chance yet. 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it! (Besides, everybody else is being a Negative Nellie -- expecting us to falter; somebody's gotta be Suzie Sunshine!)

Besides, remember what happened at Dillon High when Jason Street got paralyzed? Matt Saracen stepped right in and did the job! 
 

 

Sunshine pumpers rule!!

 

[HoosierAloha 30,068]

Here's the keys Tuttle.  Don't wreck!!

This is a huge opportunity for Tuttle and the team to respond to more adversity.  Hopefully, he gives Whop and Fryfogle chances to make big plays over the remainder of the season.

[LamarCheeks 18,943]

Our new starting QB ... 
 

 

[johnsoniu 6,423]

14 minutes ago, LamarCheeks said:

Our new starting QB ... 
 

 

Business

[Stuhoo 80,877]

 

^^Wow...the video is a must watch.^^

He sure as hell doesn't act like a high school phenom deer in the headlights kid. He acts like a grown-@$$ man. Serious, funny, well-spoken, confident, humble, believes in preparation, his team, and his coaching staff.

If he can play as well as he projects on a personal level? That'd be extraordinary. 

 

[Magnanimous 4,603]

He has a quintessential early 90s quarterback name. I’m excited to see what he can do. Season is not lost by any means.

[WayneFleekHoosier 48,386]

Agree with above. Impressive interview. He gets it.  
 

now if that translates to a win against a strong Wisconsin team that’s another question. 

[Hoosierfan2017 21,432]

I hope they let him go out and play his game instead of playing it safe and conservative. 

[rcbowla 7,125]

I hope this kid goes out and lights it up. Honestly I think the system that Penix was running suits his talents. We'll see but I kind of think we'll be alright. I just wish it was maybe Rutgers that he got his first start against rather than Wisconsin.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

[Josh 12,644]

2 hours ago, rcs29 said:

I hope this kid goes out and lights it up. Honestly I think the system that Penix was running suits his talents. We'll see but I kind of think we'll be alright. I just wish it was maybe Rutgers that he got his first start against rather than Wisconsin.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk
 

Or even worse than Rutgers...Purdoo

I like him

[KzooHoosier82 972]

6 hours ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

I hope they let him go out and play his game instead of playing it safe and conservative. 

Agreed but I wouldn’t count on it. I see very conservative play calls for Saturday. If it were up to me I’d let him loose. We’re playing with house money against Wisky and I wanna see what he can do for the bucket game. 

[Naturalhoosier 15,434]

Says all the right things. Seems like a great head on his shoulders. Excited to see how that manifests on the field. 

[Stuhoo 80,877]

This Tuttle article is too good to link. I'm gonna print it:

TUTTLE THE EPITOME OF AN ENTHUSIASTIC, DO-IT-ALL SIGNAL CALLER
December 4, 2020 Jon Blau 
The coaches at Mission Hills High School will confirm, there was very little Jack Tuttle couldn’t do at quarterback. Challenge him to hit an upright from 50 yards away, he would launch footballs straight at it. Ask him to drop one in a bucket from 40 yards out, and that pigskin plunked in. Send him out onto the field to win a game, just a few minutes remaining, Tuttle would find the goal line.

That’s why he was recruited by Alabama, LSU, USC, and the like. That’s how he threw for 41 touchdowns and just four interceptions as a senior at Mission Hills. He did it all.

There was one thing, however, his high school coaches didn’t necessarily want. But it’s one thing that probably best explains what made Tuttle the quarterback he is. “Why are you 30 yards down the field blocking a safety?” Mission Hills quarterback coach DJ Zapata would have to ask his star pupil, who most definitely shouldn’t have been putting his body on the line that way. “Carry out the fake. Keep yourself protected.” Tuttle just couldn’t abide. He was too competitive. So competitive, it’s safe to assume the former Elite 11 quarterback was never totally content being the backup at Indiana. But his downfield blocks help explain why Tuttle would be anything but a grumpy second-stringer. He could do almost anything with the ball in his hands at Mission Hills. But when it was out of his hands, he didn’t just quit. He would end up 30 yards downfield, blocking a safety, and then explaining himself to Zapata. “No, I want my teammates to score,” Tuttle would say. “I want them to know how important it is to me that they are successful, too.”

It sounds almost too virtuous to be true, but Tuttle said something similar a few days ago, when asked about his habit of arriving first to IU walkthroughs, even when he wasn’t in line to start or play. “For me,” he said, “it’s just I want to do every single thing I can for my team. I care about them so much.”

Now, IU is Tuttle’s team. He takes over in the middle of a dream season, but not necessarily in an ideal scenario. Michael Penix Jr. is out for the year with a torn ACL. The next opponent is No. 18 Wisconsin, on the road. The question of how Tuttle will respond on the field is an open one, because he’s yet to start a game at this level. But those who last saw him in action, the coaches at Mission Hills, have little doubt about how he will approach this opportunity. With a cannon arm, yes. With supreme confidence, absolutely. But he will also bring unrivaled enthusiasm.

Almost too much sometimes. “Jack’s enthusiasm for the game of football is what drives him,” Zapata said. “If he needs to flip the switch and be more calm, he can. But if he needs to be enthusiastic and put a block on somebody 30 yards downfield, he will.”

Mission Hills head coach Chris Hauser will recall his weekly offseason film sessions with a young quarterback, taken aback by the words escaping Tuttle’s mouth. One time, Hauser sought to engage Tuttle’s mind with clips of NFL passers like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers. “Tell me about this guy? What do you like about this guy?” Hauser asked. With Rodgers, for example, Tuttle had an insightful enough answer for a teen. “Coach, I love his quick release,” Tuttle said, “and he does a great job of extending plays, and keeping eyes upfield.” “Oh,” Hauser thought. “He knows who he is.” Hauser calls Tuttle an “AP,” or advanced placement, quarterback. Asked to go to a whiteboard and draw up routes versus a zone, he broke it down. Asked to describe a great NFL quarterback, he found the essence.

He did it all. But there were other things Tuttle said at an early age that truly stunned Hauser. “His sophomore year, he flat out told us, ‘Coach, I’m going to be your starting quarterback. I’m going to be your guy,'” Hauser said. A couple of years removed from puberty, Tuttle wanted to be the man. He said it, confidently, to Hauser’s face. He wanted to start for Mission Hills, a school with more than 2,500 kids, about a half-hour north of San Diego. Mission Hill doesn’t have a long history, opening its doors in 2004, but that just set Tuttle up to be the first varsity freshman in the program’s history. He threw for about 500 yards as the No. 2 QB. Once he got that small taste of varsity snaps, Tuttle was coming for the rest. In those offseason meetings, he was adamant about it. “Hearing that from a 14- and 15-year-old that early on in their high school playing career, with an incumbent who was a very talented quarterback in front of him, he had that level of confidence that he’s going to outwork anyone and he was going to be more prepared than anybody and it was going to be difficult or impossible for us to say anyone was more ready to play,” Zapata said. “You see it in movies, you see it on Sundays, ‘I’m the guy, it’s my job … I take ownership of everything.’ You don’t hear that all the time from a 15-year-old, and you don’t always believe it. When Jack says it, you believe it.”

Words turned into action. If his rollout passes were a hair off in practice, he’d grab a receiver, stand him at the route’s finishing point, and fire 15 or 20 more. His work ethic was infectious. One receiver would stay after practice, and then it was two or three, then five or six. Then the Mission Hills linemen were staying post-practice to get in some pass protection sets. By his sophomore season, there was no doubt who Mission Hills’ quarterback was. Tuttle was tossing post patterns 40 yards downfield with magnificent arc and precision. His first offer came from San Diego State that year, and they just continued to pour in. “I remember when we got the Alabama offer, and I put him on the phone, he had a gigantic smile, and he’s extremely happy, and he says ‘Let’s get back to work, coach,'” Hauser said. “His teammates come up to him, say congrats. He tells them ‘You’re a big reason why this is happening,’ and then he wanted to get back out there and throw the ball around.”

Tuttle’s prep journey is almost too polished, like it belongs on the Disney Channel. But it’s true. He wasn’t just an AP-level quarterback. He was in AP classes. He didn’t just hang out with other star athletes. He was a member of the ping pong club, which Zapata ran. There was a set of twins who ruled the table, but Zapata recalls an ultra-competitive Tuttle trying his best. “He was an above-average ping pong player,” Zapata said. “I’m sure he would tell you he’s the greatest ever.”

Zapata and Hauser found ways to harness Tuttle’s competitiveness. He was so efficient getting out of the training room before practice, he would arrive early for competitions, warming up by trying to hit an upright from the 30-yard line, far hash. He had to hit it twice, while Zapata, a former Mission Hills QB, had to hit it once. That’s the only way Zapata could win. “He’d drop it in a bucket from 40 yards, he’d hit the upright from a hash, on the run, all those things,” Zapata said. “He was not afraid to call me out for cheating in any of those drills, either.”

There was another competition Zapata and Tuttle loved: destroying receivers’ gloves. “Jack and I’s goal was ‘How many gloves are we going to rip today?'” Zapata said. “How hard are you going to spin it today that those kids that just spent $30, $40 on a new pair of gloves, I’m going to rip a hitch at you from five yards, and I’m doing everything I can? “His spin was unreal.” Zapata, also a math teacher, wishes he had the tools to measure Tuttle’s spin rate. But the two would talk about the physics of that spiral in class. Tuttle’s ball doesn’t have as much of a “U” shape or a parabola. It’s a tight-spinning, far-floating football, sent into space by Tuttle’s violent finishing motion. His deep ball was such a magnificent spectacle, Hauser still gets goosebumps thinking about post patterns from Tuttle’s sophomore year. “It was exciting,” Hauser said. “Get under center, play-fake, a post by an outside receiver, 40 yards over the top. That’s a thing of beauty. That’s fun.”

By the time Tuttle was a senior, he was a 6-foot-4, 195-pound specimen bound for Utah. He had already thrown so many deep bombs, but when he was paired with Ohio State recruit Chris Olave in his final season, it was a blitzkrieg. Tuttle just always wanted more. Zapata and Tuttle would talk about NFL quarterbacks who were “spied” by opposing defenses. Aaron Rodgers always had a spy watching him. Phillip Rivers, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, they didn’t. Tuttle wanted a spy. He wanted defenses to know he could run. Tuttle recently declined to answer a question about his running ability heading into the Wisconsin game. He wanted to keep that a “secret.” Zapata heard that and cracked up laughing. “Of course Jack said that,” Zapata said. “People saw the frame and saw what we did with him as far as being in the pocket and getting the ball out quick, but he always, always, always was adamant about his dual-threat ability. “When you have a special talent like that, there’s no need to run between the tackles all the time. He was always adamant about wanting more designed quarterback runs.” His coaches didn’t want it, though. As Hauser put it, “I don’t have another Jack Tuttle standing next to me on the sideline.” So even with the dawn of zone-read and RPO offenses, Mission Hills didn’t ask Tuttle to run often. If they did, he was smart — usually — and avoided hits. But just calling a handoff came with risk. “He does a zone read on the d-end, and now suddenly he’s blocking the d-end 15 yards down the field because he just wants to be involved,” Zapata said. “Enthusiastic is just how I would describe Jack.”

Biding his time Nearly three years removed from Mission Hills, another coach is now concerned about Tuttle’s well-being. Because of, again, his boundless enthusiasm. But for IU coach Tom Allen, he wasn’t thinking about quarterback runs. He was thinking about Tuttle just watching too much film of Wisconsin. “Our concern was that he was not going to get any sleep. He was going to study so much film, he wasn’t going to get any rest,” Allen said this week on his radio show. “But that’s just what kind of kid he is.” He just cares so much. Because he cares, Allen knows it wasn’t easy for Tuttle to be a backup at IU. After things didn’t work out at Utah, he transferred to the Hoosiers’ program right after the 2018 season, fully embracing a chance to compete with an incumbent starter, Peyton Ramsey, and another highly touted recruit in his class, Michael Penix Jr. Tuttle competed. He didn’t win. Allen had to have a tough conversation with Ramsey when he lost his job to Penix, an up-and-coming star in his own right. Allen has had to have conversations with Tuttle, too, from last year to this year. “In this day and age, it’s hard,” Allen said. “You see a lot of places where quarterbacks, if they are not getting to play for a year or so, they go somewhere else. That’s a tribute to him, a testament to his perseverance and character, and just saying, ‘Hey, I want to stay here, and I want to develop here, and I want to help this team in any way possible.'”

Tuttle may have spent his formative years in California, but he was born in Indianapolis. He’s the son of a former IU walk-on kicker, Jay, who taught him how to hate Purdue. Now he’s a major in supply chain management at IU’s prestigious Kelley School of Business. Eventually, Tuttle could be IU’s starting quarterback. He just had to wait, which Zapata knows wouldn’t be easy. Not for a QB who at 14 and 15 years old was telling coaches at Missions Hills that he’d be the man. “While it would be difficult, it would probably eat at him a little, I think he’d always put the team first,” Zapata said. “If the coaches believe the guy in front of him is the starter, he’ll bide his time, make sure he’s prepared, but also be the best teammate he can be.”

On a moment’s notice, Tuttle went into last Saturday’s game with Maryland. He hit all five of his passes. Six if you count his first one, a two-point conversion throw to his tight end on a quick out. He was ready. Is he now ready to be the guy, keeping the Hoosiers’ offense humming, on the road, at Wisconsin? The faith Penix inspired in his teammates in late-game situations, can Tuttle create that same belief? Ask Zapata about Tuttle in the clutch, and he can pull out a memory. It’s from a rivalry game with San Marcos, Tuttle’s senior year. Mission Hills called max protection — because, of course, they wanted Tuttle in that pocket — with Olave cutting across the field on a deep “sail” route, aiming for the end zone’s opposite pylon. Olave was one-on-one. Tuttle’s fast-spinning ball zipped through the air. The defense had no chance. “There was no doubt that Jack was going to do what it took to get us down the field, whenever we needed him to,” Zapata said. “Multiple times in his career, he looked down the barrel of the gun, completed the tight pass, fell forward for that extra yard. He always did that. “There was never a doubt, when we had the ball, four or three minutes left in the game, down four points, we’re going to make it down the field if Jack is in the game.”

Now, Jack is in the game for IU.  “Obviously wants to play, like everyone who comes here,” Allen said. “There’s a level of patience you have to have, and there’s also a level of perseverance and persistence when you never know when you might get that opportunity. “When it comes, you gotta seize it.”

[Class of '66 Old Fart 84,773]

Let's not ask him to block DE's or safeties 30-yards downfield please.  Not sure what we've got left in the tank if he should go down.

[Stuhoo 80,877]

1 hour ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Let's not ask him to block DE's or safeties 30-yards downfield please.  Not sure what we've got left in the tank if he should go down.

This guy still has one year of eligibility left!

[LamarCheeks 18,943]

1 hour ago, Stuhoo said:

Tuttle may have spent his formative years in California, but he was born in Indianapolis. He’s the son of a former IU walk-on kicker, Jay, who taught him how to hate Purdue. Now he’s a major in supply chain management at IU’s prestigious Kelley School of Business. Eventually, Tuttle could be IU’s starting quarterback. He just had to wait, which Zapata knows wouldn’t be easy. Not for a QB who at 14 and 15 years old was telling coaches at Missions Hills that he’d be the man. “While it would be difficult, it would probably eat at him a little, I think he’d always put the team first,” Zapata said. “If the coaches believe the guy in front of him is the starter, he’ll bide his time, make sure he’s prepared, but also be the best teammate he can be.”

 

Lots to like here, but this might be my favorite! 

I still remember when his dad was the backup to Pete Stoyanovich. When I was a freshman, in a really bizarre, tragic story, Pete's father, who had mental issues, killed his wife (Pete's mother). Pete had to leave to go back home and missed the Ohio State game. Jay played and missed two FGs -- we lost 24-22. If not for those misses, we could've beaten OSU three years in a row. I think that was the only game Jay played at IU. 

[LamarCheeks 18,943]

26 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

This guy still has one year of eligibility left!

Ah yes -- I remember ol' Zander. ... He could almost throw the ball 25 yards down field! 

[Naturalhoosier 15,434]

1 hour ago, LamarCheeks said:

Ah yes -- I remember ol' Zander. ... He could almost throw the ball 25 yards down field! 

He had a solid 40 yard arm. The problem is that the diameter of the destination area widened by a yard for every yard it was thrown is all. 

[Brass Cannon 24,809]

So Purdue had 8 players who are done with the season so that’s a good thing for Tuttle 

[323SGrant 1,176]

Lots to like here, but this might be my favorite! 

I still remember when his dad was the backup to Pete Stoyanovich. When I was a freshman, in a really bizarre, tragic story, Pete's father, who had mental issues, killed his wife (Pete's mother). Pete had to leave to go back home and missed the Ohio State game. Jay played and missed two FGs -- we lost 24-22. If not for those misses, we could've beaten OSU three years in a row. I think that was the only game Jay played at IU. 

I remember Stoyanovich. Excellent kicker at IU and in the NFL IIRC. Didn’t know the sad story about his parents.


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