Countdown to IUFB Kickoff: 8 Days (Tegray Scales)

By David Sugarman (@David_Sugarman2)

#8

“If you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further.” Ok so Andy Dufresne’s stakes in The Shawshank Redemption may have been a little higher than ours, but none the less we can’t wait for Indiana Football. For those of you keeping up with the countdown from the beginning, kudos. You’ll only have to wait a little more than a week to be rewarded for your patience. For today’s profile we take a look at a vital player to both Indiana’s past and future successes, Tegray Scales.

Tegray Scales (Senior)

Height: 6’0’’

Weight: 230 pounds

Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio

Position: Linebacker

Indiana’s defense has catapulted themselves into a position to be a top 50 defense for the second straight season and have given themselves the difficult, but realistic goal of being a top 25 defense. While the secondary gets a lot of the love, and rightfully so, senior linebacker Tegray Scales has drawn the attention of people from around the nation and his decision to comeback for his senior season was massive for IU, especially after losing Marcus Oliver to graduation.

The Cincinnati native has been a difference maker since his first steps on campus. He racked up 46 tackles and two sacks his freshman year and has seen those numbers increase every season since. In 2016 Scales was the first Hoosier linebacker to be named to an All-America team since 1987 after being named to SI.com’s second team All-American squad. He led the nation in tackles for loss with 23.5, second all-time in program history and led the conference with 126 tackles. All of this was good enough to give Scales the Foster Farms Bowl Defensive MVP, be honored as Indiana’s Anthony Thompson Most Valuable Player and be selected as IU’s Male Athlete of the Year. Not too shabby.

Coming into the season ninth on Indiana’s career sack list with 33.5 sacks in three seasons, Scales’ ability to pressure the quarterback will be crucial. With the one big question mark surrounding IU’s defense being the defensive line, it’ll be on Scales to get after the QB, especially since it’s difficult to say if a premier pass rusher will emerge from the defensive line in 2017. Scales is already a sack heavy guy, he led the team last season with seven, so that doesn’t necessarily mean his role will change much, if at all. It just needs to continue to be a point of emphasis and an area he excels in.

With Marcus Oliver gone, Scales’ role is amplified even more in Tom Allen’s 4-2-5 scheme that only requires two linebackers. Scales passed on the NFL Draft this past Spring and returns to IU as one of the best linebackers in the nation. Expect Scales to be towards the top of the conference and nation in tackles. A versatile player, Scales has the potential to be the best linebacker in the nation and the Hoosiers will need that sort of production to reach their full potential in 2017.

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!