IU Football Depth Chart Ruminations
Part One: Offense (Version 2.0)
Ok, well…I may have jumped the gun on the offensive depth chart so below is Version 2.0 for the offense with some thoughts!
I was a bit surprised that the “silent commits” that Coach Curt Cignetti got a bunch of crap for would be four (4) offensive guys when there are still real, glaring needs on defense, specifially the iDL. That said, the JMU “silent commits” were incredibly productive and most walked away with some kind of honors from the Sun Belt Conference. At this point, you have to feel better about the iOL with Kidwell and Stephens being added. My guess is they’re more swing guys but adding them to Bolticoff and Longman seems like a big upgrade and adds a ton of depth overall to the OL. Essentially, C3 brought the best players from JMU to IU (sans WR Elijah Surratt who hasn’t announced and is still in the portal at the time of publishing this) and I believe they can play at the P5 level.
Just a bit of an explanation on where the roster is currently since what I’ve seen online seems to include players I don’t think will be on scholarship once the season rolls around:
Before these recent additions of seven (7) JMU transfers, IU technically had five (5) scholarships left to get to the 85 total max allowed once Fall Camp starts in June.
They technically have seven (7) if you don’t include the two (2) walk on’s who received scholarships from the previous staff (TE Trey Walker / LB Matt Hohlt). Those usually are a year to year deal (and a great honor to the player receiving it for their dedication to the program). To me, those are open scholarships at this point. Time will tell if they get those scholarships again.
The 85 total scholarships are a moving target until Fall Camp. I would be absolutely shocked if there isn’t attrition from this roster after spring ball as the depth chart plays out on the practice field with reps. IU is also still offering players from the portal (a iDL from New Mexico State was just offered recently).
We also don’t know if guys like Bradley Archer or even Josh Henderson are coming back. Archer is a Stanford transfer from last year who has a year of eligibilty left if he wanted to use it. We have also heard absolutely nothing from who also has another year is Josh Henderson. C3 and staff added two (2) RB’s to the room from JMU. Both the TE and RB rooms are pretty full (as you can see below).
Finally, a few things I highly recommend watching if you’re an IUFB degenerate are the Hoosier Huddle’s one on one with Kurtis Rourke done by Sammy Jacobs, C3 on “Under the Hood” with former IU player and radio color commentator Rhett Lewis, and
’s recent recruiting round up with of Bite Sized Bison.NOTE: Anything after the first two positions on the depth chart is usually total speculation.
Once I do a two deep in spring, you’ll see that at positions like OL, IU will likely have a couple “swing” guys as backups at more than one position. For instance, Cooper Jones will almost certainly not be the back up at LT…I fully expect Austin Barrett or either of the two recent JMU swing guys to be the direct back up there. However, for this exercise, we’re getting everyone in the positions I think they’re working at this spring.
I will be updating both offense and defense on Google Sheets as we get more commits and will ultimately put out my final full team and two deep Spring Depth Chart with much more analysis after the second high school signing day in February.
Here is a look at the FULL TEAM DEPTH CHART for the OFFENSE as of 12/26/23:
I got a couple comments last time and even a person with great eyes telling me that I somehow uploaded the last one without 4*, crown jewel Tyler Cherry!
Let me know what you think in the comments here or hit me up on X @jordanjamie!