Countdown to IUFB Kickoff: 10 Days (Donavan Hale)

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

#10

Only ten days from now, the Indiana Hoosiers will take the field under the lights at Memorial Stadium to battle the consensus Big Ten favorite Ohio State Buckeyes. The Hoosier Huddle Countdown has churned through 90 days of player profiles and we are now at #10, a look at versatile athlete and wide receiver Donavan Hale.

Donavan Hale

-Height: 6’4”

-Weight: 215

-Hometown: Largo, FL (Largo High School)

-Position: WR

The Indiana Hoosiers are well-stocked at wide receiver thanks to the return of both Simmie Cobbs and J-Shun Harris from season-ending injuries in 2016 and the emergence of Nick Westbrook as an All-Big Ten caliber pass-catcher. IU lost Ricky Jones and Mitchell Paige to graduation but they return a number of contributors and are adding in some talented redshirt freshmen to the mix. The battle for playing time behind Westbrook and Cobbs, as good a duo as there is in the conference, will be intense and junior Donavan Hale is right in the thick of it.

Hale came to IU after a career as a quarterback at Largo High School. He starred there alongside his cousin and current standout safety Jonathan Crawford. Hale was named a first team all-district and all-county after finishing his senior year with more than 2,000 all-purpose yards and 17 touchdowns. He was perhaps even more accomplished as a basketball player where he averaged 15.7 points and seven rebounds and was nominated for the McDonald’s All-American game. Hale’s transition to Bloomington has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride as he’s moved from quarterback to wide receiver, back to quarterback for just a bit and then permanently to wide receiver. He played in ten games in 2015, catching one pass and returning a pair of kicks. Hale stepped forward a bit last season, making 13 receptions for 210 yards with one touchdown. He also contributed on special teams as a returner and on the coverage unit.

Hale’s height and athleticism makes him a very interesting target for Richard Lagow. He has shown flashes of being a receiver capable of taking the top off of a defense. His ability to throw the ball better than your typical wide receiver always leads fans, including yours truly, to think about the ways his skills could be utilized. Perhaps he could be the new “Legs” side of the “Bacon ‘N Legs” partnership we saw IU deploy last season. Or perhaps he could be deployed in jet sweep RPO play. In short, it will be interesting to see if new offensive coordinator Mike DeBord chooses to use Donavan Hale in more interesting ways than Kevin Johns chose to. Evaluating his place on the depth chart as a traditional wide receiver is difficult. We know that Nick Westbrook and Simmie Cobbs are going to start. After that, things get very competitive. Luke Timian is a known commodity that will likely see quite a bit of time in the slot. Isaac James and J-Shun Harris are potential slot receivers that are mostly complete mysteries at this point and true freshman Whop Philyor is expected to work his way on to the field in some capacity. That means the primary competitors for playing time will be redshirt freshmen Phil Benker, Jonah Morris and Taysir Mack. Each of them are above 6-feet tall and each of them have given fans reasons to be excited about their potential during spring and summer practices. It’s clear that Hale will be a contributor in 2017 but where he fits among the “second group” of receivers will be one of the things to look for in the early parts of the 2017 campaign.

Please share any comments or thoughts in the comments section or in our message board. The countdown continues each and every day so make sure to check Hoosier Huddle daily as we churn towards the 2017 season!