2021 Countdown to Kickoff: 28 Days (Charlie Spegal)

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

The 2021 Countdown to Kickoff is rolling along and we are less than one month away from the season opener. A campaign with more excitement than any in recent memory will begin as the Indiana Hoosiers travel to Iowa to play the Hawkeyes in Kinnick Stadium. Today’s countdown profile focuses on a running back with an incredibly productive history that is working hard to make an impact at the collegiate level for his home state school.

Name: Charlie Spegal

Hometown: New Palestine, IN (New Palestine High School)

Position: Running Back

Year: Redshirt Freshman

Height/Weight: 5’11”/219 pounds

Tom Allen believes in having a strong walk-on program. One of the best ways to build that is to bring in productive players that won in high school. It’s hard to be more productive than running back Charlie Spegal was as a star at New Palestine High School. During his career for the Dragons, Spegal ran for a truly astonishing 10,867 yards. He is the all-time Indiana high school football leader in rushing yards, career points, single-season rushing touchdowns and single-season total scores. He scored 70 times as a junior and 55 scores as a senior. That is not a typo. New Palestine won two state championships and four straight conference titles with Spegal leading the way. He was 2019’s Indiana Mr. Football and USA Today All-American. Spegal had scholarship offers to FCS schools and could have played quite a bit at lower-level FBS schools but the Indiana high school star wanted to play at the highest level and for his state school. He opted to come to Indiana University as a preferred walk-on.

Spegal joined the program prior to 2020’s fall camp. While he did not see any game action in 2020, he was named the special teams scout team player of the week for the Penn State game. While not the biggest back, Spegal is 5’10” and nearly 220 pounds so he is not a small guy. To see the field, he’ll need to beat out guys like Stephen Carr, Sampson James, David Ellis and Tim Baldwin. As well as freshmen Trent Howland and David Holloman and fellow walk-ons Chris Childers, Davion Ervin-Poindexter. Given the depth chart in front of him, it does seem highly unlikely he’ll see the field as a redshirt freshman in the 2021 campaign. However, much of the depth chart is older than the redshirt freshman so it’s very possible he can work his way onto the field in the future. One thing about Spegal is certain, if given a chance, he knows what to do with the ball in his hands. Very few people in high school football history have been as productive as the former New Palestine Dragon and having a player like that to practice against is a major benefit for the Hoosier defense.

The countdown continues with a new profile each and every day so come back to hoosierhuddle.com daily!