AMES, Iowa—By all accounts, Jerome Tiller is a strong-armed quarterback who can run, works hard and is an unselfish team player.
But even with all that going for him, Iowa State coach Gene Chizik is hoping like heck that fans never get a chance to see Tiller play this year.
Tiller, a freshman from San Antonio, became the Cyclones’ No. 2 quarterback when sophomore Phillip Bates quit the team last week. He’s yet to play this season and Chizik wants to keep holding him out, which would give him four years of eligibility after this year.
So unless starter Austen Arnaud gets hurt, Tiller will remain on the sideline with the coaches as Arnaud takes every snap the rest of the way.
“If that can’t happen,” Chizik said Monday, “then Jerome will go in and we’ll go from there.”
Tiller was a three-star recruit who passed for nearly 1,600 yards and 12 touchdowns and ran for 770 yards and another 12 TDs as a high school senior. He mainly has been quarterbacking the scout team, which runs the opponent’s plays in practice, but also has gotten some work with the regular offense.
That work will increase now, though Chizik said the coaches won’t force Tiller to try to learn everything.
“At this point in the season it’s tough because we really have to give him small parts of the playbook,” Chizik said. “We’ve got to take baby steps with him, but we do have a plan. Jerome will be our backup quarterback.”
Of course, it was never expected to get to this point.
Bates, perhaps the team’s most elusive runner, had split time with Arnaud in the first four games, then did not play in the Cyclones’ 35-33 loss to Kansas on Oct. 4. Chizik said he stayed with Arnaud in that game because he was playing well, but added Bates no doubt would play in future games.
Five days later, Bates’ father, Phillip Sr., called Chizik to tell him his son was leaving the team. Chizik said the younger Bates never talked to him about it.
“We wish Phillip Bates the best,” Chizik said. “He is a great young man and we’re going to help him try to achieve everything he wants to achieve in college football by giving him a release to wherever he wants to go. And we wish him the best.
“I wish I would have had a chance to tell him that myself, but I didn’t. That was not by my choice.”
And that, said Chizik, would be his final comment on the matter.
Arnaud, who palled around with Bates, still seemed stunned by his friend’s abrupt departure.
“Talking to him recently, he really didn’t give anybody a (hint) of what he was doing,” Arnaud said. “It was a spur of the moment deal, I guess.”
With Bates gone, Arnaud also took every snap in the Cyclones’ 38-10 loss at Baylor on Saturday night and said he’ll be ready to do so again in next Saturday’s home game with Nebraska.
“That’s fine,” he said. “I did that the past two games. Really, I’m just getting used to it now. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
As for Tiller, Arnaud shared his teammates’ enthusiasm for the youngster’s ability. Offensive lineman Doug Dedrick said he saw Tiller throw a ball 73 yards. Arnaud said he couldn’t even think about throwing one that far.
“Jerome’s always showing off that big gun he’s got,” Arnaud said. “He’s got a cannon. He said he never played baseball. I couldn’t believe it. He would have been a phenomenal closer. We call him Mariano Rivera.”
Rivera is the New York Yankees’ closer with a fastball that’s unhittable when he’s on.
Dedrick said he’s confident Tiller could handle the job if he were pressed into action.
“If I had to pick one person on the team as a freshman that I think is poised enough to handle the position he’s in, it would definitely be Jerome,” Dedrick said. “I’m excited about Jerome and Jerome’s future.”
