Countdown to IUFB Kickoff: 35 Days (Nile Sykes)

Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

#35

With Big Ten Media Days by the wayside and fall camp around the corner IU Football fans can feel the season coming up quickly. We are now 35 days away from the Hoosiers’ season opener agains the Ohio State Buckeyes. Today we look at one of the key pieces along the defensive line, Nile Sykes.

Nile Sykes (Redshirt Junior)

-Height: 6’2”

-Weight: 250 pounds

-Hometown: Oak Park, Illinois

-Position: Defensive Line

 Anytime a player transfers to Indiana from Notre Dame the expectations for their performance sky rocket, and that is what happened when Nile Sykes transferred from South Bend to Bloomington prior to the 2014 season.

Sykes arrived at IU prior to the 2014 season after signing at Notre Dame. He redshirted that first season in Cream and Crimson and won Scout Team Player of the Week twice for his performances on the practice field priors to wins against Missouri and Purdue.

Sykes finally saw the field as a redshirt freshman in 2015 playing in 11 games, mostly on special teams. He made five tackles that season. However, the expectations for Sykes were supposed to be higher than a special teams player who didn’t contribute many tackles.

Sykes showed flashes of what he could be in 2016 as he played in all 13 games including his first career start in IU’s 26-24 win over Purdue in the Old Oaken Bucket game. He finished the year with 18 solo tackles, seven tackles for loss, five sacks, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery.

His performance last season raises the bar again for the redshirt junior in 2017. Sykes was listed behind senior Greg Gooch on the intial two-deep Indiana put out at Media Day in Chicago, but that doesn’t mean he is unimportant. Sykes can give IU a great player off the bench at defensive end and really makes that second unit much better. Having a quality player like Sykes give the defense those reps should help the defense get to the next level.

Sykes does need to be a step quicker to really be able to up his sacks numbers from 2016. If Sykes can continue to build on his performances every year he could be in for a big year and set himself up for a starting position as a senior in 2018.