Diving into Depth Charts – Offense

Indiana's Fernando Mendoza (15) passes during the Indiana football spring game at Memorial Stadium on Thursday, April 17, 2025. A look at what Indiana's offensive depth chart look like as we sit here in July... Subscriber Content Diving into Depth Charts – Offense A look at what Indiana's offensive depth chart look like as we sit here in July... I’m back and cannot be more excited to be writing for The Hoosier Huddle! I’ve always loved their attention to detail, their dedication to IU and their passion for writing. I’ve been super busy with work but have maintained my roster/depth charts over on the Google Sheet (link below) and today I’m here with a preview of my two deep depth chart for the offense. HC Curt Cignetti almost never puts out a depth chart so this is all speculation on what I’ve watched from each player who’s returning, their production and PFF grades either at IU or elsewhere, what I’ve heard from the message boards or insiders and a general assumption on the ascension I see some players making in the future. Hope you enjoy my take on the depth chart below and would love your feedback or who you think I should have where. If you’d like to see the entire roster, please feel free to check out the Google Sheets version here. This is a working document. I usually make a ton of notes about who and why I move players up and down (or off when they leave) but Google isn’t smart enough to let people who don’t have editing power actually see the notes…which is incredibly dumb and something that’s annoyed me for the 5 or so years I’ve been doing these on my own (rant over). On the Google Sheets version above, there are links to each player’s IU profile here and that’s the reason for the red, unclickable link looking things in the screen shots below. If a player doesn’t have a link, that only means IU hasn’t made a profile for them. On the final page with the specialists, you’ll see a current roster total for scholarships and walk ons. Roster note: With all that’s happened with NIL, Revenue Sharing and roster construction, the breakdown for what a team can have scholarship wise has remained constant. Now, however, if you go over the hard caps, you lose Revenue Sharing money. As of this writing, here are the scholarship numbers that I have for IU: Here is the offensive depth chart that I have for IU as of this writing: OL: It’s hard not to look at this group and be more excited than I was last year. I’m obviously a big fan of IU OL Coach Bob Bostad (as I think everyone is) but I can’t lie in saying that I was very dubious of the ‘24 vintage of the IU OL that only had LT Carter Smith and C/G Mike Katic returning. In ‘24, IU brought in G/T Trey Wedig who seemed like a lock for the RT job opposite Smith but the two guard spots, we thought, would probably be manned by JMU transfers G/T Nick Kidwell and G/T Tyler Stephens given their familiarity with the system, their decent to good PFF grades and the preference for older guys to help with such a big transition. Indiana's Pat Coogan (78) prepares to snap the ball as the Hoosies get ready before the start of the Indiana football spring game at Memorial Stadium on Thursday, April 17, 2025. Well, Kidwell never played a down for IU because of injury and R-Soph OG’s Bray Lynch and Drew Evans (former walk on) seized the starting guard jobs in the summer. So, for those keeping score, Katic was moving from G to C, Wedig, who had played every position at Wisconsin, was moving to RT, and then, with the Kidwell injury and the pics we saw from practice of Evans and Lynch with the starters, more than a few people were dubious of how this OL would perform. And then they played together, and it was like “oh, this is fun”. We basically got the 90th percentile outcome for all of them… Fast forward to Fall Camp 2025 and I see five clear starters. As of this writing, new portal guys Kahlil Benson (IU/Colorado), Pat Coogan (Notre Dame) and Zen Michalski (OSU) should all be penciled in to start along with returnees Carter Smith and Bray Lynch. Smith is the 9th highest graded OT coming back (80.1 PFF overall) while Lynch is 56th rated OG coming back (69 PFF overall). As for the transfers, Coogan is the 14th best returning Center by PFF (72 overall grade) while playing over 800 snaps for the national runners up. Benson finished 45th among returning OG’s (72 PFF overall). Both should pick up where they left off. Michalski didn’t grade out very well (61.7 PFF overall in just 158 snaps). He played the most against Oregon and Nebraska after an injury to the starter and got eaten up by two very good DL’s. Lots to like with both of these guys and the hope with Michalski is that the change of scenery and new voices in the room will unlock what led to him being a 4* out of HS and going to OSU in the first place. The only wild card here is if Drew Evans can make it back from his November Achilles injury early (I’m always dubious that a guy on the OL won’t take a full year to recover from an injury like that) but there really aren’t many surprises to speak of. I do think they’ve built some interesting depth with G Adedamola Ajani, G/T Austin Liebfried and T Evan Lawrence but we’ve seen them so sparingly that we won’t know how they’ll perform until we see it. QB: Cal transfer Fernando Mendoza is the no doubt starter for IU in ‘25. He’s getting hype from scouts like Todd McShay to random draftniks on Twitter. The offense has a lot of settled starters but Fernando is one of the best QB’s in this draft class (just a R-Jr who is probably heading to the NFL if he performs as expected) so as long as he remains healthy, he’s the guy. His brother, Alberto Mendoza, seems like he took hold of the #2 spot this spring over R-Sr+ (and Old Domnion transfer) Grant Wilson. The younger Mendoza got into games ahead of more highly ranked freshman QB in his class, 4* Tyler Cherry. Cherry then had an ACL injury during bowl prep and is doing a “coaching” role and is off the roster this season. Wilson is at IU to learn under this staff. Ideally, he’d only be called upon in an emergency situation, but he has played nearly 1000 snaps between his time at Fordham and Old Dominion. RB: There seems to not be a consensus on who will actually get the call to start behind Mendoza against Old Dominion on August 30th, but my money is on Maryland transfer Roman Hemby. Hemby was brought in to be the lead back in a system…that plays all three backs. He’s a true three down back with top end, NFL long speed, something IU hasn’t had since Tevin Coleman. He’s a home run hitter with NFL aspirations. Indiana's Kaelon Black (8) runs during the Indiana versus Nebraska football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. I do think he’s getting pushed by both (a fully healthy) Kaelon Black and Lee Beebe Jr. but the way the backs played last year, they’re going to use all three and right now, unless something I hear or see changes, the lead guy is Hemby, followed closely by Black and Beebe Jr. Don’t be surprised if Black and Hemby have a near even split in carries with Beebe mixed in as another weapon, especially in the passing game where he had 30 catches to go along with his 166 carries. IU wants (and needs) these guys to stay healthy, so this isn’t going to be a LaDanian Tomlinson type situation (yes, I’m old) where one guy is carrying it 85% of the time…In fact, I’d be surprised if this isn’t something like a 40-35-25 type time share. The bottom line is that IU has a talented and experienced group of three backs who will be used in a lot of different ways by OC Mike Shanahan given their versatility. WR: This is another position that actually seems fairly settled, even after the brutal spring ACL injury to Slot WR and Michigan transfer Tyler Morris and a hamstring injury that sidelined App State transfer Makai Jackson for basically the entire spring. IU added former Cal WR Jonathan Brady in the spring portal window and he has spent time out wide and in the slot (where he was more effective). I expect him to be in the slot this year. Much like the RB room, I think this is a fluid situation with a bunch of guys who will play (just like last season) even if the main guys are returning. Until we hear more about how Brady fits in, I really think EJ Williams will be the starter outside opposite All American candidate Elijah Sarratt and with All B1G (and often over looked returnee), Omar Cooper lining up in the slot. Cooper is a big time deep threat (21.2 YPC!!) but he’s also 6’0, 201 and isn’t afraid to mix it up over the middle where he might be able to make some catches in stride and put his speed and athleticism to use and get some YAC (yards after catch). Nov 30, 2024; Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Indiana Hoosiers wide receiver Elijah Sarratt (13) catches a touchdown pass while Purdue Boilermakers defensive back Botros Alisandro (19) defends in the second half at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images IU uses a bunch of different packages and alignments. Last year, Miles Cross and Ke’Shawn Williams looked like they were at least second on the depth chart in the lead up to the season and Williams finished second on the team with 39 catches and Cross finished one catch behind Omar Cooper with 27. That type of distribution bodes well for guys fighting back from injury (Makai Jackson) or trying to establish themselves on this team, like Charlie Becker or even true freshman Slot WR Lebron Bond. Becker is a big bodied outside type while Bond is a short area twitchy type slot guy. Bond is the only true freshman in my two deep on either side of the ball along with 4* S Byron Baldwin. Last year IU had five WR’s catch 27 passes or more and three of those guys are gone. That’s 104 catches and 1238 yards that needs to be replaced! I expect EJ Williams, Makai Jackson, Charlie Becker, Jonathan Brady and Lebron Bond to be fighting for those catches. TE: There was a massive overhaul at TE with the departure of do everything starter Zach Horton (graduation) and Sam West (transfer). I really thought West would have a role this year but IU brought in Holden Staes (Tennessee/Notre Dame) and Riley Nowakowski (Wisconsin) and West probably saw an easier path to playing time at Mississippi State. Staes looked like “the next Notre Dame TE” as a freshman, but he got passed on their depth chart by now NFL TE Mitchell Evans. He then went to Tennessee where, essentially, the same thing happened with Miles Kitselman. Staes needs to keep refining his blocking skills and continue to work on his route running but athletically, he’s on a different level from the TE’s IU’s had in recent memory…and that includes NFL TE Peyton Hendershot. R-Sr.+ Nowakowski started as a LB at Wisconsin. He’s truly an H-Back type looking to get his shot at some TE snaps. He’s only listed at 6’1 which really isn’t ideal. I do have him in an “-or-” situation behind Staes but I expect him to be ahead of R-Sr. James Bomba. Bomba is an elite blocker and is kind of a tweener in terms of TE or OL. Either way, IU has three really experienced players at TE who are all kind of different. It’s going to be interesting to see how they’re used this year as a good TE, especially in college, can be a true game changer on the field. Subscribe to get access Log in Subscriber Content Add content here that will only be visible to your subscribers.

Diving into Depth Charts – Offense

A look at what Indiana’s offensive depth chart look like as we sit here in July…

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Diving into Depth Charts – Offense

A look at what Indiana’s offensive depth chart look like as we sit here in July…

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