Hoosiers Lose Marcelino Ball for the Season

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Indiana head coach Tom Allen announced on Monday afternoon that senior defensive back Marcelino Ball will miss the entire 2020 season with a torn ACL. “I hate that for him. He has been such a great player for us and has really matured so much as a young man. He will handle it the right way, but he will not be able to play this season. We wish him nothing but the very best as he will be having his surgery in the near future and begin the process of recovery for his future” Allen said during his weekly Zoom call.

Ball has played in 41 games in his IU career and had his 2017 season cut short. He has made 201 total tackles, 15.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, picked off three passes and has forced and recovered a fumble.

Allen told reporters that Bryant Fitzgerald will move into the starting role at the husky position, but the Hoosiers will look to other players for depth there as well.

“Bryant Fitzgerald will be the young man that we are moving to that position. He will be the starter there. D.K. Bonhomme is also a young man that has been a stinger linebacker for us, so he will also be getting a lot of reps [at husky] for us right now. It is a very similar position technically with how we play our defense, so he has been moved to that position. We also have Jamar Johnson, who played there last year as the backup to Marcelino. Jamar is an extremely talented football player and has the ability to play there. Noah Pierre has the skillset to play there and we have some other young guys that can play there. We feel like we have the depth to be able to rotate a couple of different guys, but right now it is going to be Bryant Fitzgerald as the number one guy at that spot and training D.K. Bonhomme to be his backup.”

The Hoosiers open the 2020 season on October 24th at home against Penn State.