Indiana Loses Offensive Lineman Nick Kidwell to Injury

Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

As first reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Indiana Hoosiers have lost offensive lineman Nick Kidwell for the entire 2024 season with a knee injury. Kidwell is a seventh-year player who transferred to Indiana from James Madison. He missed all of spring practice recovering from shoulder surgery that kept him out most of 2023.

This is a major blow to the offensive line as Kidwell was in line to be the starter at right guard. The former All-Sun Belt player appeared in 52 games with 34 starts along the offensive line over six seasons at James Madison. He received a medical hardship waiver after his injury last year.

The Hoosiers have some options to fill in the hole at right guard.

Redshirt sophomore Bray Lynch has played in nine games at IU and has been battling for a spot in the lineup. Cignetti mentioned Lynch specifially when camp started as being a depth piece.

Source: Indiana’s Nick Kidwell, the projected starter at right guard, will miss the 2024 season with a knee injury. He’d started 34 games at James Madison prior to transferring to IU and projected to be a linchpin on Indiana’s offensive line.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 14, 2024

“We're looking for depth on the offensive line. And we've got some guys returning -- Drew Evans, Bray Lynch and Tyler Stephens -- and we'll see if any of those young guys are kind of ready to provide some depth as well.” Cignetti said.

Evans is another redshirt sophomore Cignetti being in the mix, but he has no game experience yet. Stephens is a redshirt senior from JMU who has plenty of experience and has played guard and tackle in the past. IU could also move Trey Wedig inside if they need to as he played several games at guard in the past at Wisconsin.