IU's Bulls, Alfred Bryant and Myles Jackson, Fighting For Position on the Defensive Front

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

The Indiana Hoosiers have a ‘Bull’ fight on their hands. No, there is no red cape and olé’s. It’s just Alfred Bryant and Myles Jackson battling it out for the starting ‘Bull’ position as IU’s hybrid linebacker/defensive linemen.

“We partner up in drills, so they’re going against each other, they’re challenging each other in the meeting rooms, they’re challenging each other off the field. We have to have that.” Position coach Kasey Teegardin said on Monday. “In my opinion, we haven’t had this kind of depth at this position [in the past]. I think when you have better players that are twos and threes, it elevates the ones, it pushes everyone to be better. We haven’t had this kind of depth since I’ve been coaching the position and I think that’s the most exciting part.”

Bryant is a senior who has played a lot of football for the Hoosiers. He has 68 total tackles and 7.5 tackles for loss to his name in 40 games.

“For [Bryant], he’s a coach on the field. He knows the defense, he knows where he’s supposed to be, how he’s supposed to fit, and I think that’s allowing him to play faster. I have not seen him move this fast. Just in generality, I think he has a better feeling and understanding. Now, we talked in the spring that we took a lot out of what we did a year ago, with this position and I think that has allowed those guys to play fast. Simplicity, for us, is going to allow us to dictate a little bit more of what we want to do at that position.” Teegardin explained.

The ‘Bull’, which IU has just recently focused recruiting a specific kind of player instead of just moving players from other positions, has a new comer from UCLA in Myles Jackson.

“Myles [Jackson] just brings the physicality factor, and his energy level is off the charts, that hasn’t changed one bit. He’s got a great base knowledge of what we’re trying to do, too. He can watch [Bryant] go and see how his post will look and react off of that, so that’s been great.” Teegardin said of Jackson.

In the IU coaching staff’s eyes competition is a tide that will lift all boats. Bryant and Jackson have been battling it out since spring ball.

“We partner up in drills, so they’re going against each other, they’re challenging each other in the meeting rooms, they’re challenging each other off the field.” Teegardin said. “We have to have that. In my opinion, we haven’t had this kind of depth at this position [in the past]. I think when you have better players that are twos and threes, it elevates the ones, it pushes everyone to be better. We haven’t had this kind of depth since I’ve been coaching the position and I think that’s the most exciting part. I think [Bryant] will tell you the same thing … Myles makes him bring his A game every single day, and [Bryant] makes Myles bring his A game every single day.”

With fall camp wrapping up, the two bulls will want to take their aggression out on opponents.