2023 Countdown to IUFB Kickoff: 56 Days (Mike Katic)

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

The 2023 edition of the Hoosier Huddle Countdown is officially underway! We are counting down from 100 to the beginning of the 2023 Indiana University football season. Each day, we will take a look at one (or two) players on the current Indiana football roster and highlight the player’s role in the upcoming season. Today’s profile is an offensive lineman that is a favorite to start at one of the guard positions: Mike Katic.

Name: Mike Katic

Hometown: Gibsonia, PA (Pine-Richland)

Position: Offensive Line

Year: Redshirt Senior

Height/Weight: 6’4”/309 pounds

The Indiana Hoosiers typically do not recruit the state of Pennsylvania heavily. In fact, there are currently only two active Hoosiers from the state on the current roster. Eli Jochem is a wide receiver and he joins Mike Katic as the only two from the Keystone State. Katic came to Indiana after a very good career at Pine-Richland High School. He was an all-state performer and redshirted the 2019 season before starting four games at left guard in 2020. Katic missed three games due to injury in 2021 but he started the remaining nine contests at left guard. As a junior, Katic began the season at left guard before injuries to Zach Carpenter and Matthew Bedford necessitated changes along the line. Katic slid to center and started four games there before moving back to left guard for four more starts. In total, Mike Katic has started 21 games at left guard and four at center for the Indiana Hoosiers.

The offensive line enters 2023 with a need to vastly improve and Tom Allen believes there will be progress under new position coach Bob Bostad. Mike Katic is a veteran now and Allen saw improvement during the spring.

“I think Mike Katic coming in and adapting to a new coach and just being able to elevate his game and continue to get better is going to be huge,” Allen told the media in April.

History would suggest that Mike Katic would begin the season as the starter at left guard. That is the position he is most comfortable with and the line showed promise under interim position coach Rod Carey when Katic moved back to guard. Khalil Benson is the odds-on favorite to be the starter at right guard. The Indiana Hoosiers will be relying on newcomers Max Longman and Noah Bolticoff plus young players like Vinny Fiacable and DJ Moore to step up and provide depth. With an underperforming group and a new position coach, there is certainly the opportunity for changes to the lineup and surprises to occur so Katic is not a nailed-on starter. He’ll need a good fall camp to ensure he has the trust of Bostad when the Hoosiers line up against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the season opener.

The countdown continues with a new profile each and every day so come back to hoosierhuddle.com daily!