Storylines to Watch When IU Opens Spring Practice on March 21
/
Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
The Indiana Hoosier open up their first spring practice session under head coach Curt Cignetti in less than three weeks. The new look Hoosiers will have new faces on the field and on the sidelines on March 21st. With incoming transfers and a new coaching staff there will be plenty of storylines to watch, here are what we are watching for this spring.
1. Culture Change
With any coaching change there is inevitably a culture change. Curt Cignetti brings a culture of winning and self confidence and will try to push away the dark clouds that have always surrounded and lurked around Indiana football. It’ll be difficult to tangibly judge the culture change until the fall, but there are signs. Those signs have shown up in recruiting and press conferences where Cignetti is not shy about telling people he will be successful at Indiana and to throw out all the old notions of the program.
2. Impact Transfers
There are so many incoming transfers for 2024 and many of them at high impact spots. IU brings in former MAC offensive player of the year in Kurtis Rourke who is the frontrunner for the starting quarterback job.
Receivers Elijah Surratt, Myles Price, Miles Cross and Ke’Shawn Williams join an already talented room. While running backs Ty Son Lawton and Kaleon Black come over from JMU. Tight end Zach Horton is a playmaker at tight end and is a former Duke as well.
The offensive line received reinforcements with the additions of Tyler Stephens and Nick Kidwell from JMU and Trey Wedig from Wisconsin. That’s just the offense.
On defense, the Hoosiers added four former JMU starters who will all be in contention to earn a starting position or major rotation time with IU. The Hoosiers get safety help with Shawn Asbury II and Terry Jones from Troy.
Needless to say there will be plenty of competition in spring practice for the Hoosiers in 2024.
3. What Does the Operation Look Like?
This is a football geek question, but an important one. With Coach Cignetti using only 13 of a possible 15 practices, what will his operation look like? He values efficiency and clearly his philosophy has worked in the past. Cignetti is bringing most of his staff from James Madison, which should help ease the transition and many transfers who are familiar with his style of play. However, there are still new pieces that need to be adjusted to the coaching change.
4. What Needs Still Need to Be Addressed?
Even before spring practice there are needs that will still need to be addressed before fall camp. The most obvious one right now is defensive line depth. IU will only have a handful of healthy defensive linemen heading into the spring. The rest of spring practice should show what else needs to be addressed during the spring transfer period. It’ll be interesting to see who enters the portal from IU and who will be coming to IU from the portal and what positions can be helped.
5. We Have a Spring Football Game Again!
Finally! Indiana is holding their spring football game on the Thursday night of Little 500 weekend and will try and continue the swell of momentum the football program has had since the coaching change. A spring game will be a chance for fans and media to see how game operations will work under Cignetti. There are some changes on the horizon coming regarding helmet communication and clock management. Will those be in place by April?
It will also give everyone a chance to see how much progress has been made throughout the offseason during winter conditioning and the first 12 practices under Cignetti.
The Hoosiers will kick off spring practice on March 21st and close it out with their spring football game on Thursday, April 18th at 8pm in Memorial Stadium. Comment below for the storylines you are following this spring.