Spring Practice 2018 Position Preview: Linebackers

Spring Practice 2018 Position Preview: Linebackers

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

After a few seasons of absolute certainty at linebacker, the Indiana Hoosiers are mostly starting over at the position. One of the best defensive players to ever play in Bloomington, Tegray Scales, will be playing on Sundays and the athletic Chris Covington will likely be joining him. The Hoosiers are not without talent but experience will be in short supply and questions abound. There’s no doubt this is one of the more intriguing positions entering the offseason.

In an effort to be completely transparent, I will let you know that I wanted to have a projection but there’s just no sense in making a wild guess based on no information. I’ll make a projection on how I believe the depth chart will look at kick off of the first game during the “position battle” article but for now, we’ll just take a look at each player in the group. There is going to be whole lot of fluidity and there are way more questions than answers at this position.

We’ll begin this preview by taking a look at the returning “veterans”. No one on the depth chart has much actual playing experience but these players have at least been through the program and know what to expect from a Big Ten schedule.

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Spring Practice 2018 Position Preview: Defensive Line

Spring Practice 2018 Position Preview: Defensive Line

Written By: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

Our next position preview as look ahead to the 2018 season focuses on the defensive line. Position coach and co-defensive coordinator Mark Hagen is a wizard and a real asset to the program and it’s hard to imagine the Hoosiers having anything other than a solid line with Hagen in charge. This personnel group has the chance to be more than just solid but there are certainly some question marks as IU must replace steady Nate Hoff and a pair vastly improved players in Greg Gooch and Robert McCray. We’ll split this into four different sections: tackle starters, tackle contributors/rising talent, defensive end starters, defensive end contributors.

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Spring Practice 2018 Position Preview: Safeties

Spring Practice 2018 Position Preview: Safeties

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

The Indiana Hoosiers lost a pair of safeties that played a lot of football in Chase Dutra and Tony Fields so there is a bit of re-tooling at the back end of the defense. However, there’s plenty of talent and a returning star to anchor things.

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Spring Practice 2018 Position Breakdown: Husky

Spring Practice 2018 Position Breakdown: Husky

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

The Indiana Hoosiers run a 4-2-5 base defense and one of the key positions to make this a potent system is the “Husky”. This player is a hybrid linebacker/safety that must be stout and physical against the run while also being capable of aiding in coverage. The Hoosiers brought in Marcelino Ball and immediately plugged him into the starting Husky position during the 2016 season and the sophomore was having a strong 2017 season before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the third game of the season. IU turned to Tony Fields and others to plug the hole but his absence was noticeable and his physical presence was sorely missed. Ball will return to the lineup in 2018 and he is expected to win back his starting role at Husky. He’s far from alone at the position as the Hoosiers have recruited well here.

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Spring Practice 2018 Position Breakdowns: Cornerbacks

Spring Practice 2018 Position Breakdowns: Cornerbacks

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

Welcome to Hoosier Huddle's coverage of Indiana's 2018 Spring Practice. Every day we will look at a position group or a position battle. IU kicks off spring practice March 3rd and will hold their annual spring game on April 14th at noon at Memorial Stadium. So sit back and enjoy as we take you through a very young, but talented IUFB roster.

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