Indiana

Indiana Quarterback Competition: Connor Bazelak’s Fresh Start

Published

2 years ago

August 13, 2022

Indiana Quarterback Competition: Connor Bazelak’s Fresh Start

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Connor Bazelak started his 2021 marketing campaign at Missouri in a groove, tossing 9 landing passes in comparison with only one interception throughout the primary three video games.

However the Tigers would lose three of their subsequent 4 video games, and Bazelak’s scorching begin took a flip for the more serious with three touchdowns and 6 interceptions on this stretch. After an up and down begin, Missouri approached an important highway journey to Vanderbilt on Oct. 30 with a 3-4 document.

Bazelak rolled to his left on an choice play halfway by means of the fourth quarter, however the Vanderbilt defensive entrance burst by means of the road, taking away each the working again pitch and quarterback run. Bazelak hit the bottom arduous for a loss, hobbling off the sphere beneath his personal energy.

His 2021 marketing campaign had already been something however constant, and the grade two and a half hamstring harm Bazelak simply suffered was about to complicate issues much more.

“Could not run, however no one cares,” Bazelak stated. “You go on the market and you bought to win video games. That is what they need.”

Bazelak was dominated out the next week towards No. 1 Georgia, however returned to motion at house towards South Carolina because the Tigers pushed for bowl eligibility. He accomplished 15-of-23 passes for 180 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. With Bazelak clearly not one hundred pc, the Tigers leaned on working again Tyler Badie to hold the load, speeding 34 occasions for 209 yards and a landing in Missouri’s 31-28 win.

Missouri eked out a 24-23 win towards Florida to turn into bowl-eligible, as Bazelak related on 57.7 p.c of passes for 165 yards and one rating. On Nov. 26 at Arkansas, Bazelak went 10-for-26 for simply 65 yards and an interception. Badie’s 41 carries, 219 yards and a landing weren’t sufficient both, as Missouri fell 34-17.

This turned out to be Bazelak’s ultimate recreation at Missouri as Brady Prepare dinner was named the starter for the Armed Forces Bowl towards Military. Bazelak introduced his intentions to switch the day after Missouri’s 24-22 loss to Military, and dedicated to Indiana on Jan. 6.

It is an opportunity for a recent begin for Bazelak after three years at Missouri, which included SEC Co-Freshman of the 12 months honors in 2020. Bazelak arrived in Bloomington final spring, and he is within the midst of a quarterback competitors with Jack Tuttle, who has three years of expertise at Indiana. To this point, Bazelak is having fun with his new house.

“I like it right here,” Bazelak stated. “The gamers have been superior, tremendous welcoming this spring, and might’t say sufficient about coach Allen. He is an unbelievable coach, man and chief, and coach [Walt] Bell has been nice. Simply the hospitality has been superior, and I believe it has been an amazing match for me.”

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As for the hamstring harm that he battled by means of in 2021, Bazelak stated it is all healed and he feels nice now. Whereas Indiana will not have many designed quarterback runs beneath new offensive coordinator Walt Bell, Bazelak stated his capability to create performs when the pocket breaks is an underrated a part of his recreation.

Like Tuttle, Bazelak is studying a brand new offense for the third time in his faculty profession. He agrees with Tuttle, saying prior expertise working an offense and commanding the huddle makes this course of simpler every time. Bazelak continues to be working to completely grasp the offense, however studying beneath Bell has made for a easy transition to date.

“Coach Bell simply being so open to having us come into the workplace and instructing us something in regards to the offense,” Bazelak stated. “No matter we would like, he is there for us. He is been nice.”

Bazelak was completely happy to see the return of broad receiver D.J. Matthews, who began training with the workforce throughout fall camp after recovering from an ACL tear final season. Bazelak stated he hit Matthews with two deep throws of their first follow collectively.

“‘I am like, ‘Wow, this man can play,” Bazelak stated. “I did not get to see that within the spring so it is sort of a reduction to have [Matthews] again.”

Indiana had its first scrimmage of fall camp on Friday, and Bazelak likes the place is recreation is at roughly three weeks earlier than the season. He stated he seems like he is throwing the ball effectively, mixing in deep pictures whereas additionally checking the ball down when he feels strain. Indiana returns three defensive backs with All-Massive Ten accolades, who’ve challenged Bazelak this fall.

“Tiawan [Mullen] and Jaylin Williams make it extremely arduous to throw the ball exterior, they’re actually good corners,” Bazelak stated. “Tremendous disciplined in every little thing they do and it makes it arduous on us, however it is going to make it simpler on us in relation to recreation time.”

Indiana coach Tom Allen stated three predominant standards can be thought-about within the means of naming the starter: command of the offense, defending the soccer and successful the workforce over.

Indiana had its first scrimmage of the autumn on Friday, and Allen stated he wish to select a beginning quarterback after the workforce’s second scrimmage. In the end, the choice will not be introduced to the general public till kickoff towards Illinois on Sept. 2.

“The underside line is we’ll know, he’ll know and the workforce will know as a result of recreation one is Massive Ten soccer proper out of the gate,” Allen stated. “Everyone knows that and perceive what’s at stake.”

INDIANA QB COMPETITION: JACK TUTTLE: Indiana coach Tom Allen stated he wish to select a beginning quarterback after the workforce’s second scrimmage, but it surely will not be introduced to the general public till kickoff towards Illinois on Sept. 2. Jack Tuttle spoke to the media for the primary time this season on Friday, providing his potential on the competitors. CLICK HERE
IU SECONDARY WORKING TO REGAIN TAKEAWAY IDENTITY: Indiana’s 17 interceptions in 2020 ranked second in all of faculty soccer, powering the Hoosiers to a 6-2 document. Indiana’s defensive backfield misplaced its id and was decimated by accidents in 2021, main to simply 5 interceptions because the Hoosiers fell to a 2-10 document. The veterans who constructed Indiana’s takeaway id in 2020 have returned for one final season, wanting to reverse the momentum in 2022. CLICK HERE
FOUR INDIANA OPPONENTS RANKED IN FIRST COACHES POLL: Indiana soccer’s 2022 schedule contains 4 groups ranked within the first USA At the moment Sports activities AFCA Coaches Ballot, which was launched on Monday. CLICK HERE

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Indiana

Crews search for missing boaters near Hammond, Indiana

Published

2 hours ago

July 5, 2024

Press Room

Crews search for missing boaters near Hammond, Indiana

Rescue crews search Lake Michigan near Hammond for missing boaters

01:12

CHICAGO (CBS) — Crews were searching Lake Michigan on Friday evening for missing boaters near Hammond, Indiana.

Police marine unit officers boarded a small powerboat that had been damaged near the mouth of the Indiana Harbor near the Inland Steel plant.

Crews later started towing the boat back to shore as a U.S. Coast Guard fast rescue boat and other marine unit boats were searching the water for an unknown number of people.

Further details were not immediately available.

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Indiana

EF-0 tornado sweeps through Harrison County, Indiana

Published

7 hours ago

July 5, 2024

Press Room

EF-0 tornado sweeps through Harrison County, Indiana

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – The National Weather Service confirmed two separate tornadoes touched down in WAVE Country on Independence Day. One was an EF-1 tornado in Louisville’s Parkland neighborhood, the other an EF-0 in Harrison County, Indiana.

On Friday, residents in the area were in clean up mode after the storms rolled through. The tornado travelled on a path stretching for around a mile. Bringing winds estimated at 80 miles an hours. The storm topped trees onto driveways, a car and even a home.

One resident cleaning up on Friday was Leo Book, who’s lived in his home for over 30 years. He said this was the second worst storm in terms of damage he’s seen.

“I’ve seen them [trees] go back and forth a lot real bad, but these, some of these trees were going around and around,” Book said. “It’s the first time I had seen that.”

Some people in Harrison County were without power for about six to eight hours, according to the Harrison County Emergency Management. Now all power has been restored.

No injuries were reported from Thursday’s storms.

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What is pentobarbital? More questions than answers surround Indiana's new execution drug. • Indiana Capital Chronicle

Published

13 hours ago

July 5, 2024

Press Room

What is pentobarbital? More questions than answers surround Indiana's new execution drug. • Indiana Capital Chronicle

After state officials announced last week that Indiana will resume executions for the first time in over a decade, secrecy largely shrouds the new drug, pentobarbital, acquired for the impending lethal injections.

The one-drug method is a departure from the state’s protocol used since 1995, involving a series of three chemicals.

Although no state-level executions in Indiana have used pentobarbital before, 13 federal executions carried out at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute have been carried out with the drug. Fourteen states have used pentobarbital in executions, too.

But state and federal officials alike have remained closed-lipped about where pentobarbital is sourced from and how much it costs. Also still unknown is the amount Indiana has acquired and when the current doses expire.

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. that tracks state and federal executions, said it’s also critical for the public to know who will be administering the drug — and how — as well as what training those individuals will receive.

“These are the hard questions that have to be asked,” Maher told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “This is an official government function, and in a democracy, we value honesty and transparency in our government officials and the acts they do on our behalf. This is absolutely one of those official acts, and voters in Indiana deserve to know what their government is doing in their name.”

What is pentobarbital?

The Hoosier state has carried out 20 executions since 1981. The first three — in 1981, 1985 and 1994 — were by electrocution. The rest have been by lethal injection — which is now the only method permitted by state law.

The Indiana Code doesn’t specify what drugs are to be used for executions, saying only that the drugs must be injected intravenously in a quantity and for an amount of time sufficient to kill the inmate.

Previously, when a prisoner was executed by lethal injection in Indiana, they were strapped to a gurney, and an IV line was inserted to inject a lethal combination of three substances: a barbiturate to render the person unconscious; pancuronium bromide to paralyze voluntary and reflex muscles; and potassium chloride to stop the heart.

But after Indiana’s last execution in 2009, the state was effectively forced to pause. Increased scrutiny of lethal injection drugs led pharmaceutical companies to refuse to sell their products for use in executions. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said that made acquiring the necessary drugs “harder to get.”

It wasn’t until last week that the governor, along with Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, announced that the state’s Department of Correction has obtained the pentobarbital to carry out the death penalty.

The state is so far seeking an execution date for Joseph Corcoran, a man convicted in the killings of four people in Fort Wayne in 1997. There are currently eight men on Indiana’s death row, including Corcoran. No one has been added to the state’s death row since 2014.

In the one-drug executions, a prisoner is injected with an overdose of pentobarbital. The new drug, which Maher described as a sedative, has commonly been used to euthanize pets.

Joseph Corcoran killed four people in 1997 and was sentenced to death. (Mugshot)

“It’s a barbiturate that explodes the activity of the brain and the nervous system and breathing,” she said. “When you’re given an overdose of that, it will ultimately suppress breath and kill you.”

Pentobarbital was first introduced in 2010, according to the DPIC.

So far, 14 states have used the drug in executions: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia. Five additional states — Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina and Tennessee — additionally plan to use pentobarbital. Colorado includes pentobarbital as a backup drug in its lethal-injection procedure.

The same drug was also used for the 13 federal executions during the last six months of Donald Trump’s presidency.

In 2019, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr approved the use of pentobarbital in executions, though President Joe Biden’s Justice Department announced a moratorium on federal executions in 2021.

A first-time method in Indiana

Whether Indiana uses pentobarbital or other drugs for executions, Maher said there are still concerns about what could go wrong.

She noted that lethal injections have the highest rate of botched executions, which occur when there is a breakdown in — or departure from — the “protocol” for a particular method of execution.

The DPIC describes at least two botched executions that have occurred in Indiana.

In October 1985, it took 17 minutes to execute William Vandiver. Still breathing after the first application of 2,300 volts, four more bursts of electricity were fired into him before he was pronounced dead, according to media reports from that time. The Indiana Department of Corrections admitted the execution “did not go according to plan.”

Tommie Smith, who died by lethal Injection in July 1996, also had a prolonged execution, according to the DPIC. Because of unusually small veins, it took more than an hour after the execution team began sticking needles into his body for Smith to be pronounced dead. After multiple attempts, the lethal drugs were finally injected into Smith 49 minutes after the process began. It took another 20 minutes before he was pronounced dead.

Holcomb defends Indiana’s move to carry out execution, saying ‘justice will be served’

Maher said many of the documented botched executions in recent years have occurred because the drugs being used had expired, were contaminated, or they were administered “incorrectly.”

“There are a number of ways that the executions can go wrong, and it doesn’t only have to do with the kind of drug that is used,” she said, noting, for example, that if pentobarbital isn’t stored at a proper temperature, the drug can expire and should not be used.

When asked where DOC acquired the drug — pentobarbital, which can be used to carry out executions – and how much the state paid, Holcomb said he “can’t go into those details, by law.”

Lawmakers made information about the source of the drugs confidential on the last day of the 2017 legislative session.

Indiana Capital Chronicle has filed an official records request seeking the cost of the drugs.

“States have been hiding this information behind secrecy statutes in an effort to avoid answering difficult questions about their execution protocols. These are elected officials. They are using government funding, and they are saying they are conducting an official function,” Maher said. “And all of that means they should be honest and transparent about what they’re doing and why. The fact that they have shrouded everything in secrecy in an attempt to avoid answering these questions is not something that we should simply be accepting.”

Recent reporting by The Intercept and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver identified Connecticut-based Absolute Standards as the source of the pentobarbital used in 13 federal executions in 2020 and 2021. Reporting did not confirm if the company also supplied to specific states, including Indiana.

Absolute Standards produces materials for calibrating research equipment, but in 2018, it applied to the Drug Enforcement Administration to be registered as a bulk producer of pentobarbital. The company has since indicated this week that it will no longer produce the drug.

Maher further pointed to Idaho, which reportedly spent $100,000 earlier this year to purchase three doses of pentobarbital, the drug used in lethal injections. It’s not clear if that’s the same quantity purchased or price paid by Indiana, however.

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“What officials have said … is that they do not want to have people who are involved in the execution process — for manufacturers of a drug — to be harassed by advocates. But there are almost no real life examples of that happening unless we characterize criticism as harassment, which I don’t think we should in a democracy,” Maher said. “People who are critical of decisions the state is making, in terms of where they are finding their drugs and how they are choosing to administer them, that’s part of being a public official. Responding to those questions from your constituents — that’s part of being a public official. That comes with the territory, and there is no justifiable reason for them to avoid answering those questions.”

The Indiana Public Defender’s Office, which is providing Corcoran with legal counsel, did not reply to the Capital Chonicle’s requests for comment about pentobarbital or the impending execution.

Larry Komp, a federal defender for Corcoran, said the legal team is still seeking clarity on the state’s lethal injection protocol.

Groups are starting to come out against Indiana’s move, including the Libertarian Party of Indiana.

“A government whose primary function is to protect life should not be in the business of ending it, especially given the United States Constitution protects the accused from cruel and unusual punishment. There is no more cruel punishment than putting someone to death,” the party said in a statement. “The state, simply put, should not be killing its citizens. The Libertarian Party of Indiana calls upon Governor Holcomb and the State of Indiana to halt all planned executions and, furthermore, upon the General Assembly to ban the use of the death penalty in Indiana.”

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