Tom Allen doesn't plan on publicly announcing starting QB before Indiana faces Ohio State

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana football coach Tom Allen is sticking the playbook he followed last year when it comes to announcing his starting quarterback.
That means fans will have to wait until the Hoosiers take the field against Ohio State on Sept. 2 to find out whether redshirt freshman Brendan Sorsby or Tennessee transfer Tayven Jackson won the job.
"I don't ever want to give our first opponent anything extra that would be beneficial...I'm not going to give anything out before I need to," Allen said, on Thursday at Big Ten Media Days.
The other bit of news Allen shared related to the quarterback competition was that neither Sorsby or Jackson will go live during fall camp, but given their inexperience — they have a combined 10 career pass attempts between them — the coaching staff is going to be more "aggressive" than in years past with allowing plays to unfold when the quarterback faces pressure or moves out of the pocket.
"We are going to do some things and for them to have to move around more and not make it to be where anybody is close to them we blow the whistle," Allen said.
Indiana had the 87th ranked passing offense in the FBS last year (217.4 yards per game) and lost much of their experience at the position to the transfer portal. Connor Bazelak, who started nine games left year, transferred to Bowling Green while Jack Tuttle is now at Michigan.
The Hoosiers brought back Sorsby along with Dexter Williams II, but Williams won't be ready for the start of the year as he recovers from a torn ACL he suffered in a season-ending loss to Purdue.
Allen told reporters back in April there wasn't a clear frontrunner in the competition and he didn't have anything to add on that front at Big Ten Media Days since quarterbacks aren't allowed to throw in front of coaches.
The focus for Allen during over the last two months was evaluating each of his quarterback's leadership qualities.
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To get a true gauge of that he met individually with every member of the team's leadership council to ask them how the summer went. It was something Allen admitted he had never done before at that time of year, a process he described as "insightful."
"Part of the variable in picking the starter is what do the other 10 guys think," Allen said. "I think that's massive."
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on Twitter @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.