BLOOMINGTON – Following the conclusion of his first preseason scrimmage, what he sees as “preseason game No. 1” in preparation for the Sept. 4 opener against Illinois, IU coach Tom Allen confirmed the public won’t know his starting quarterback until then.

Allen will know, ideally within the next week, whether he’s going to run with Jack Tuttle, Connor Bazelak or Dexter Williams II. Teammates will know. Coaches — chiefly among them co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Walt Bell — will know.

But no one else will. Including the Illini. Which is how Allen prefers it.

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“We’re not going to announce it until kickoff,” Allen told reporters Friday afternoon. “That’s probably the right way to do it, right? I call defense. If I know who the quarterback is, that’s a little bit different than if I’m not sure.

“It will not be announced until then, but the bottom line is he will know, we will know, the team will know.”

Allen’s decision is a strategic one, and perhaps an unsurprising one as well. Since the end of last season, IU’s sixth-year coach has worked hard to keep a lot of his team’s offensive reconstruction away from prying eyes.

The Hoosiers closed spring practice to the media and the public, deciding against a spring game for the first time in memory. Only virtually did Allen, Bell and co-OC Adam Henry, or any of Indiana’s players meet with reporters to talk about their progress.

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Allen has loosened those measures during preseason camp, allowing media customary weekly access. But he’s kept his thoughts to himself regarding who might be leading what is at least a two- and might be a three-man quarterback battle, and that doesn’t appear likely to change across the next three weeks, even if he himself would prefer an answer by about this time next week.

“We would like to know (the starter), probably, after the second scrimmage,” Allen said, referring to next week’s all-squad preseason scrimmage.

Dating back to spring practice, Tuttle, the lone returning scholarship quarterback on roster with college snaps, and Bazelak, a Missouri transfer with more than 5,000 career passing yards in the SEC, were seen as co-leaders in the QB1 race.

Redshirt sophomore Dexter Williams, who missed the 2021 season after he sustained a torn ACL the previous spring, has turned heads across the past few months. Both Bell and Allen reserved special praise for the Georgia native, who has yet to take a snap in college, while Tuttle expressed pride Friday in his teammate’s hard work returning from his injury.

“Dexter Williams,” Bell said earlier this week, “is going to be a really good player someday.”

While those closed-door practices mean details on Bell’s offense also remain scant, largely compiled from tape of his work at previous jobs, Allen can point to a small handful of fundamentals he wants in whoever he hands the keys to that offense next month.

Greater explosiveness than last season is one. The others are more foundational.

“Command of the offense No. 1,” he said. “Protecting the football No. 2, which I thought we did a good job of (Friday). And then No. 3, winning the team over. Who, when we have the ball, with time on the clock, if that guy’s in the huddle, our team believes we’re gonna go find a way to win? That’s what the final step is for finding out who the guy needs to be.”

The short version of Allen’s answers on his quarterback battle Friday would read something like this:

1) Whoever wins the job needs to be accurate and smart with the football.

2) Ability to push the ball down the field is a must.

3) Allen expects to privately name his starter within the next week or so.

4) If he has his way, you won’t know who that is until Indiana’s first possession against Illinois on Sept. 4.

Publicly, IU’s latest quarterback battle appears set to run all the way to the finish line. Privately, it might be over soon.

>> Allen said Indiana emerged from Friday’s scrimmage with few injury concerns. He did name check a handful of veterans, like Devon Matthews, Tiawan Mullen, Cam Jones and D.J. Matthews, as players the Hoosiers might hold out of some activities to save their bodies for the grind of the season. “We’ve seen them play a lot of football.”

>> Lawrence North alum Omar Cooper, a freshman wide receiver, got special mention from his coach post-scrimmage. “Omar just keeps getting better. … The natural talent’s there. He’s gonna be a special one.”

>> Allen reserved praise for a handful of receivers, including Cooper, converted quarterback (and fellow LN alum) Donaven McCulley, junior college transfer Cam Camper and Tennessee transfer Andison Coby. IU’s remade receiver group, he said, “continues to elevate.”

>> Carmel alum Beau Robbins has “taken that next step that you want him to, and has gained a lot of good weight, and is really playing the way I expected him to.” Robbins appeared in all 12 games last season, with one tackle for loss.

>> Friday marked the Big Ten Network’s preseason stop in Bloomington, with former IU coach Gerry DiNardo and the BTN crew running their rule over the Hoosiers during that preseason scrimmage.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.