Indiana University Athletics
Hamdan Drafted by Redskins
4/27/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 27, 2003
Bloomington, Ind. - Indiana quarterback Gibran Hamdan was selected by Washington Redskins as the 18th pick of the seventh round (232nd overall) of the NFL Draft on Sunday.
Hamdan came on the scene during his senior year at Indiana, completing 152 of his 293 passes for 2,115 yards and nine touchdowns. Hamdan was one of the driving forces behind Indiana setting a school record for passing yards in a season. His 2,115 passing yards in 2002 was good for seventh place on Indiana's single-season list.
"Anytime you get picked by the team you grew up watching, it's a great honor," Hamdan said. "For me especially it's not only the fact that it's the Washington Redskins, that has such a wonderful tradition, but just where the state of the organization is at right now. I came into that local work out day and I was really confident. I felt really comfortable around the coaching staff. So not only is it that I get the chance to be a Washington Redskin, but the fact that the organization is in such great hands with Mr. Snyder and Coach Spurrier. I am very fortunate."
The Potomac, Md., native led the Hoosiers to a 32-29 win over Wisconsin by completing 24 of his 36 passes for 310 yards and four touchdowns. Hamdan brought the Hoosiers back from a 29-10 second-half deficit to win the game en route to earning Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors. He came back the next week to throw for 335 yards against Iowa, becoming the first Hoosier quarterback to throw for 300-plus yards in back-to-back games since 1994.
"He came to our local try-out camp we had three weeks ago. We were very impressed with Gibran," Washington Head Coach Steve Spurrier said. "He's a good-sized young man and throws the ball extremely well. He's a pretty good athlete. We think he has a lot of potential. He hadn't played a whole lot of football until the last year or two at Indiana. He looks like a pro quarterback."
Hamdan earned Indiana's Pete Schmidt Award as the player who places the Indiana Football program above himself.
A two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, Hamdan was also a first baseman on the Indiana baseball team, batting .335 with six home runs and 38 runs batted in as a senior.
He becomes the second Indiana quarterback taken in the NFL Draft in as many years (Antwaan Randle El was taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers last year.)
"I pride myself on being coachable," Hamdan said. "Going through this process a lot of people said one of my negatives was the fact that I had a lack of experience playing the game. But in a lot of respects I think that's one of my strengths because I do take coaching well and am trying to learn as much as I can whenever I'm on the football field. I think that got across to the coaching staff in that I was taking what they were trying to teach me during the work out and adjusting it and making changes in my fundamentals. I think that's one thing that didn't come out on my game film."
