Top Five Linebacking Corps Indiana Will Take on in 2017

Written By T.J. Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

As we march through the summer and into fall camp, Hoosier Huddle will look at the top five opposing players or position groups they will face in 2017. Only players and position groups from teams on the 2017 IU Football schedule are considered.

I’ve chosen to list the individual linebacker followed by the team’s unit as whole. That means both the overall unit and the best individual linebacker on each team have been considered for the ranking. There are plenty of talented players the Hoosiers offense will be squaring off against in 2017. The best linebacker this offense sees might just be lining up across the field from them every day in practice and going against Tegray Scales is a great way to prepare for taking on these other top-notch linebackers.

1. T.J. Edwards and Jack Cichy and Wisconsin

I know there are concerns about the Badgers moving to their third defensive coordinator in as many years. Jim Leonhard, while a terrific player and the embodiment of hard-nosed play in the secondary, is very green in terms of coaching experience so being worried about some regression for the Wisconsin is very understandable. However, given the culture that has been nurtured in Madison and the personnel on hand, particularly at linebacker, I find it hard to place anyone else at number one. T.J. Edwards and Jack Cichy are both All-Big Ten caliber players and they form one of the best duos in the country. Edwards led the team with 89 tackles in 2016 and Cichy had 60 despite battling through injuries. While there is a minor question mark at outside linebacker, Garrett Dooley, Zack Baun and Andrew Van Ginkel should be more than capable of providing quality play while offenses have to focus on the two marquee guys.

The Badgers will have a top 20 defense and I think they’ll walk away with the West division title. IU has had absolutely zero success against the Badgers in recent times, getting walloped by an average of about 35 points per game. 2017 figures to be a much closer contest given the improvement of IU’s program but getting by Wisconsin and their corps of linebackers is a tall task.

2. Jerome Baker and Ohio State

We all know the Ohio State Buckeyes, a consensus top-five team in preseason polls, lost a ton of talent and production to the NFL Draft. We also all know they return a whole lot of talent and there will be a number of players that will go from back-up to starter to NFL draft pick in the span of one calendar year. While the defensive line will be ferocious and the secondary will be completely unproven and may struggle for a while, the focus of this article is the linebacker corps.

It would have been completely defensible to place the Buckeyes at number one on this list and I nearly did but I gave the nod to the Badgers due to their two established stars and veteran leadership. That being written, this group is tremendous. Jerome Baker is a star-in-the-making after recording 83 tackles as a sophomore. It looks likely he’ll compete for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and then be selected in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft. He’s joined by Chris Worley as a returning starter. Worley had 69 tackles a year ago and he’s perfectly solid, but below the level of Edwards and Cichy for the Badgers (hence, why I chose UW #1). The last starter is an unknown but I think it will probably end up being senior Dante Booker. A number of blue-chippers are waiting in the wings and hoping to get their shot and I have no doubt they’ll end up looking great once they do take the field. The Buckeyes defense will be a massive challenge for the restructured IU offense on opening night.

3. Jason Cabinda and Penn State

Penn State’s offense got all the love during their resurgent season in 2016. While I certainly understand why that was the case, their defense was far from a disaster and it should be pretty good once again in 2017. Jason Cabinda is the best of the group as he had 81 tackles last year despite missing five games. He’ll be joined by the very promising duo of Manny Bowen and converted safety Koa Farmer. Bowen is dominant against the run while Farmer, thanks to his previous time in the secondary, is a bit like PSU’s version of IU’s “Husky” position. He’s not bad against the run but he’s on the field to provide extra pass coverage skills and speed from the linebacker position. There is depth at this position as well as sophomore Cam Brown got extended time last season and James Franklin has continued to recruit pretty well.

While I definitely expect PSU to be a dominant defense, mostly due to concerns about their defensive line and pass rush (which is a crutch that I think keeps them out of the College Football Playoff picture), they don’t have to be great to win a ton of games. The PSU offense is the headliner but this group of linebackers is more than good enough to create problems for IU’s offense when the Hoosiers visit Happy Valley.

4. Mike McCray and Michigan

The Michigan Wolverines return only one starter on a defense that will be rebuilding. Well, perhaps rebuilding isn’t the right word. When you recruit the way Jim Harbaugh has thus far in Ann Arbor, you don’t truly rebuild so much as you reload. While UM certainly will experience some regression, particularly in the first half of the season, it would be foolish to think defensive coordinator Don Brown and this many talented athletes would have a poor defense. McCray will be the veteran leader of this unit as he was second on the team in tackles and fourth on the team with 13 tackles for loss plus 4.5 sacks and eight passes defended. He’ll be joined by a number of former 4 and 5-star recruits like Devin Bush, Drew Singleton and Jordan Anthony. It’s entirely unclear who all will end up starting but I think it is safe to assume McCray and Devin Bush will both be starting and both could end up being All-Big Ten performers.

While this defense is very unproven and they likely won’t have quite hit their stride when IU takes on the Wolverines, I think it is a far more plausible scenario the Maize and Blue defense ends near the top of the Big Ten as opposed to in the middle. 

5. Micah Kiser and Virginia

Traveling to Charlottesville to take on the Virginia Cavaliers early in the season is a tricky proposition for the Indiana Hoosiers. A win is far from guaranteed but the Hoosiers will very likely be favored and a loss would be damaging given the remainder of the schedule. One player and unit group that could complicate things for IU’s offense is senior linebacker Micah Kiser. The rest of the linebackers are not great but Kiser is a terror and IU will need to be aware of him on every snap. In 2016, he had an astonishing 134 tackles, including 65 solo stops. He had ten tackles for loss, despite being the focus of opponents and a complete lack of attention needing to be paid to the Cavaliers defensive ends. In addition to his tackling, Kiser had eight passes defended and five forced fumbles.

There are some interesting pieces that could step up to provide help and make this a very tough linebacking corps: Jordan Mack played extensively as a freshman and Jahvoni Simmons, Dominic Sheppard and Gladimir Paul all might be able to adequately support Kiser. While this is far from an elite group, Kiser is an elite player and he could have a huge impact IU’s big early-season clash in ACC-country.