Indiana football's most important position battles going into spring practice
BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana football team is about to embark on a new era under coach Curt Cignetti with a roster that bares little resemblance to the one that closed out the season with a 35-31 loss to Purdue.
The Hoosiers only brought back 10 of the 22 players who started last year's regular-season finale. They lost more than 30 players overall between players transferring out and exhausting their eligibility.
That means there will be competition for playing time up and down the roster this spring.
Here are three position battles The Herald-Times is keeping an eye on — outside of the high stakes battle at quarterback — when camp opens on Thursday at Memorial Stadium:
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Departing: Josh Henderson, Christian Turner, Jaylin Lucas (Florida State)
Returning: Trent Howland (R-Jr); David Holloman (R-Jr)
Transfers: Ty Son Lawton (R-Sr); Elijah Green (R-Sr); Justice Ellison (Sr); Kaelon Black (R-Jr);
Freshman: Khobie Martin (Summer enrollee)
Trent Howland returned to a much different running back room after taking his name out of the transfer portal.
Howland was IU’s leading rusher last year with 75 carries for 354 yards (4.7 yards per carry) thanks to a late season surge. There's no guarantee he will remain at the top of the depth chart as the new staff sorts through the group's strengths and weaknesses.
"We are deep at running back,” Cignetti told The Herald-Times. “We wanted to improve the speed and quickness there and not have to take them off the field other than a standard rotation. The guy had to take it between the tackles, catch the ball, get the ball on the edge and pass pro."
Indiana signed two JMU transfers (Kaelon Black and Ty Son Lawton) along with two running backs out of the ACC (Justice Ellison and Elijah Green).
Black's 2023 season probably best fits the description that Cignetti laid out. He had 411 yards after contact (3.1 yards per carry), forced 18 missed tackles, had 18 runs of 10 yards or more and had 22 catches for 186 yards, according to Pro Football Focus.
He was similarity effective — with 14 forced missed tackles and 14 runs of 10 yards or more — on a smaller sample size (99 carries) in 2022.
The 5-foot-10, 210-pounder was a three-star running back in the 2020 signing class out of Salem High School.
Ellison has the most Power Five experience of the group with 100 or more carries each of the last three seasons at Wake Forest. The team liked to run him between the tackles and he showed the ability to fight through contact.
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Departing: Noah Pierre, Louis Moore (Ole Miss), Phillip Dunnam (FAU), Jordan Grier (Memphis), Jordan Shaw (Washington)
Returning: Josh Sanguinetti (R-Sr); Tyrik McDaniel (R-Sr); Bryson Bonds (R-Sr); Amare Ferrell (Soph)
Transfers: Terry Jones (Sr); Shawn Asbury (Sr)
Freshman: Dontrae Henderson (Early enrollee)
Indiana is expected to run a 4-2-5 base defense that relies on two safeties in the back end and a rover position, a hybrid linebacker and safety position not all that different than the husky position in former coach Tom Allen’s defense.
The Hoosiers lost all three starting safeties from last year with Louis Moore (Ole Miss) and Phillip Dunnam (FAU) entering the transfer portal and Noah Pierre exhausting his eligibility. They only brought back two safeties (Josh Sanguinetti and Amare Ferrell) who played more than 100 defensive snaps.
This was a rare position where Cignetti didn’t sign a single JMU transfer, but he did bring in some names he was familiar with by signing former All-Sun Belt safeties Terry Jones and Shawn Asbury from Old Dominion. They give IU much-needed experience at the position, but will have to prove they can handle Power Five competition.
The numbers just don’t add up though.
Indiana’s new defensive staff could opt to move some corners over here for additional depth or look outside the program for help in the spring portal window. The husky position is one of the more wide-open position battles on the roster.
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Departing: Andre Carter, Myles Jackson (Tulsa), Anthony Jones
Returning: Lanell Carr (Sr); Trey Laing (R-Sr); Venson Sneed Jr. (R-Soph); TaDerius Collins (R-Fr)
Transfers: Mikail Kamara (R-Sr)
Freshman: William Depaepe (Summer enrollee); Daniel Ndukwe (Early enrollee)
James Madison had one of the most imposing pass rushes in the country over the last two seasons. The Dukes had 45 sacks (ranked No. 6 out of 132 teams) last year 38 sacks in 2022 (tied for No. 13) and their defensive ends were a big part of that success.
Cignetti is changing up his approach by splitting up the defensive line coaching duties.
Pat Kuntz, his defensive line coach the last two seasons at JMU, followed him over to Bloomington, but will now just coach defensive tackles. He hired Buddha Williams, who spent the previous two seasons on Colorado State’s staff, to coach defensive ends.
He will have his work cut out for him.
Indiana’s production at defensive end has been lacking in recent years and he doesn’t have a ton of experience to work with.
Kamara was a nice get out of the portal from JMU, but he worked opposite Jalen Green last year, who had 15.5 sacks and a 20% pass-rush win rate that ranked No. 8 in the country at defensive end.
While Kamara had 7.5 sacks and 41 quarterback pressures, he’s going to face more physically imposing offensive linemen in the Big Ten without the benefit of playing alongside an elite pass rusher. Carr showed some flashes last year, but his production didn’t make a jump even though he played a career-high 494 snaps.
Collins might be the player to watch here having ended his freshman year as someone the previous staff kept mentioning late in the year as someone on the rise.
The 6-foot-4, 242 has the right build and showed signs of being an impact defender at Northwood High School (Louisiana) when he had 12 sacks and 24 tackles for loss as a senior. He had a strong offer list as a three-star recruit that included Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Louisville and Texas.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana football: Top position battles to watch during spring practice
