Another tidbit from Media Day was the news that Ajani will move from tackle to guard and Joe Brunner will kick out to tackle
What are your thoughts on that?
Brunner is a huge human (6'7" / 313 lbs), but I don't think he's ever played tackle in his career, even in high school (just looking at his iuhoosiers.com page). I have no doubts towards Bob Bostad, but this switch certainly isn't great news I feel
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I like it. I watched highlights of Brunner a week or so ago. He is so mobile for his size I thought he was a tackle.
Brunner is really, really good.
I did like Ajani last year and thought he'd be really solid this year. If they want him at guard, that's cool.
Only worry is if it's due to someone's injury and they are looking for depth or flexibility. Or Ajani just not picking up the position, they did have some comments on how much he had to learn, least year, but he played and got better.
Finally back in Indy. I’ll have a wrap of my thoughts tomorrow morning. A lot to unpack under the surface.
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The open question about the O-Line to be answered in the Jan portal cycle is will Indiana have to invest significant NIL resources to bring in multiple OTs for '27?
@middawg Which is why Tyler Cherry is such a key to the roster construction. If he can move into serious contention to start next year, you do not need to get a 1A protal QB and can put that to OL.
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@thehoosierhuddle I think if there's any hope of Cherry being the starter next year, we'll see them pushing those mop up minutes to him, vs Wilson. Expect Wilson is the backup to start, but if we're not seeing Cherry at all, I would think it's highly unlikely he'd be the starter next year. During the open house thing CrimsonCast did, Rhett Lewis was talking about developing a QB and he said he thought probably still a year away from that. Of course, things can change, so here's hoping Cherry is putting in a ton of work this summer.
@thehoosierhuddle Don't know if you did it anywhere, but would love to get a summary of your trip and what the schedule and setting was like. Looked like they just did a rapidfire speech for each coach and then you broke up into interviews with players, and then maybe interview tables with players and coaches? Just curious about the logistics of the day, never having been to one. Thought somewhere along the way, I heard Cig say they had an alumni gathering Wed night also. FYI, for anyone who hasn't seen it, the B10 network interview afterwards with the players and then Cig were terrific... here you go:
Didn't know that both Tucker and Sarratt had older brothers that played for Cig at JMU. Jones said he had to remove his faceshield from his helmet at the Peach Bowl because it was vibrating on his helmet from the noise.
@kkott We should have done a video diary, would have been cool. Here is how my day went yesterday. I have a 2-year old and we had some family obligations on Wednesday night, so I only went up yesterday.
I woke up at 6, packed the car and hit the road by 6:30am.
Stopped for Dunkin in West Lafayette, where they predictably screwed up my order.
Parked easily enough in Chicago (SpotHero for the win!) and walked to the Hilton Chicago. Really nice hotel
I got there about 3 hours before coaches started and met up with Campbell and Jenna. We went over oour game plan for the afternoon.
The set up is basically one giant ballroom divided into different sections (main podium, BTN set, radio row, a buffet and then side podiums and tables for breakout interviews).
Getting there is early because I get to shoot the breeze with people I haven't seen in a while. I talked with Coach Dinardo, my friend who is a director at NBC/Peacock and Malcom Moren.
When they bring the coaches up it's pretty much what you see on TV. Opening Statement and then a moderator calls on people for questions as they raise their hands. It's quick. Thursday was the first time we got IU at the main stage and then immediately after at the side podium. It was good to have it all done at once, but the drawback was the writing had to wait.
Breakout sessions are a free for all. Have to be respectfully aggressive asking questions and a lot of folks ask dumb questions that either have been answered a million times or should have been asked when we had access in the spring.
For me, Media Day is more about catching up with others on the beat and others reporters in the conference we just don't get to see a lot. It's more built for national reporters who don't get to every school to talk to everyone. It's a fun event and one where you can hone your skills because there's more opportunity, but it is not what is was before the internet age blew up and you can see what other teams are saying throughout the season.
Basically, if you can get a handful of useful quotes, it's a success.
Once we got quotes from players and Cig we recorded a standup video with our takeaways (still in editing), wrote our stories and headed out.
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He played T at UW some, but very little. He was a highly regarded tackle prospect out of HS though.Brunner is a huge human (6'7" / 313 lbs), but I don't think he's ever played tackle in his career, even in high school (just looking at his iuhoosiers.com page). I have no doubts towards Bob Bostad, but this switch certainly isn't great news I feel