2021 Countdown to Kickoff: 18 Days Part I (Jonathan King)

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

The 2021 Countdown to Kickoff is more than 80% complete. It has been a hot summer and a long offseason but the 2021 college football season is in sight. Today’s countdown piece has two different profiles, one defensive player and one offensive player: Jonathan King and Javon Swinton.

Name: Jonathan King

Hometown: Tampa, Florida (Tampa Bay Tech)

Position: Defensive Line

Year: Redshirt Junior

Height/Weight: 6’3”/252 pounds

Jonathan King came to Bloomington in 2018 after a strong career at Tampa Bay Tech High School in Tampa, Florida. He was a high school teammate of Michael Penix Jr. and a first-team all-county player as a senior. He is part of the pipeline the Hoosiers have built their program with under Tom Allen, bringing players from the Sunshine State to Bloomington.

King redshirted the 2018 season and was named scout team player of the week one time. As a redshirt freshman in 2019, he player in seven games as a defensive tackle and was the IU defensive player of the week in a win over Northwestern. Last season, King started his first contest and collected his first career sack. He played in every game in 2020 and shifted from defensive tackle to defensive end, a position that suits his weight better.

Jonathan King enters the 2021 season expected to help IU’s defensive line get more pressure on opposing quarterbacks. The Hoosiers led the Big Ten with 25 sacks in the shortened season but most of those came from linebackers and corners as part of designed blitzes. King will be rotating with James Head, Auburn transfer Jaren Handy and Ole Miss transfer Ryder Anderson to try and apply pressure without the Hoosiers needing to blitz.