Peegs.com (Andy Romey) and Hoosier Scoop (Doug Wilson) report that fifth year senior Blake Powers, the starting quarterback in 2005 (when he set a school record with 22 touchdown passes) and at the beginning of 2006, is now back on the quarterback depth chart. It's unclear whether Powers will be #2 or #3 on the depth chart (ahead or behind redshirt freshman Ben Chappell), but both he and Chappell took reps with the second unit during Saturday's open scrimmage, per Doug. It's difficult to say what led to this move, absent any more detailed commentary than the "good for the team" statement Lynch provided. Powers, the son of a former IU football player, is a Hoosier through and through. Many guys (such as Jay Rodgers, who transferred to Southwest Missouri State, if I recall correctly) might have considered transferring to a I-AA school to get one more year of playing time, and such a move would have been perfectly understandable. Powers decided to stay and try to earn some playing time at tight end. Tight end is not exactly a high profile position in the current regime's offense, at least for catching passes: IU completed 232 passes last season, but not one of those completions was caught by a tight end. Likely starter Nick Sexton played in 11 games last season and started two, yet did not catch a pass (he did, however, catch two passes in 2005, both for touchdowns, I'm guessing in short-yardage situations). The point, of course, is that if Blake isn't going to start at tight end, backing up Kellen Lewis is probably his best opportunity to get any meaningful playing time. Lewis does run quite a bit, which increases the possibility of injury, so it probably makes sense for IU to have its most experienced quarterback on the QB depth chart. Hopefully it doesn't say anything about the development of Chappell.
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