Indiana Spring Game Recap

My best attempt at a tempered, responsible reaction to a spring scrimmage 4.5 months before the season kicks off

Indiana hosted its first Spring Game since 2019 on Thursday night, which on its own is huge news. The amount of recruiting capital and fan interest the previous staff was willfully surrendering by not hosting a Spring Game was astounding. But fans showed up in Bloomington on Thursday, and you could feel the excitement in the air, as fans tailgated before the gates opened and notable Hoosiers like Trayce Jackson-Davis, Race Thompson, and most of the Indiana Women’s Basketball team attended. Folks are excited about the future of the program, and it’s because of the attitude and early competence and momentum new head coach Curt Cignetti has manifested in just four and a half months. 

The structure of the scrimmage pitted the offense versus the defense with particular scoring methods for both sides, and as drives ended, the staff sent out different units for both sides. The best signifier of which units were on the field was who was playing at QB. Most programs will split up the talent to either gain work in specific scenarios or to even the teams, but it was pretty clear that Kurtis Rourke’s unit was the starting unit, since the OL featured Carter Smith, Mike Katic, and Trey Wedig and the defense had Mikail Kamara, Jacob Mangum-Farrar, Aiden Fisher, and Kobee Minor. The skilled positions on offense were certainly split up, as Donaven McCulley played primarily with Tayven Jackson on the second unit. 

Like any Spring Game, it was imperfect. There are still a few areas this team needs to bolster in the portal come May, and there are even more things it needs to tighten up during Fall Camp. But in 2024, that’s to be expected, particularly when a team adds 22 transfers. However, there are several macro and micro signs that are encouraging for the potential of the Hoosiers in Year 1 of a new regime.

One must always be careful about taking away too many things from a spring scrimmage, especially a spring scrimmage featuring a team that hasn’t tackled yet, but after watching in-person and watching a recording of the broadcast, these are the Bite-Sized Bison responsible takeaways from the scrimmage.

1. The Offense is Dynamic 

Offensive scheme and gameplanning was a major source of frustration for Indiana fans, not just in 2023 but in the two prior years as well. Under Walt Bell and even Rod Carey, there was a desire to force a run-first strategy that didn’t seem to fit the personnel. Well, after Thursday, it seems fairly clear that this team will pass to set up the run. 

Aside from the play of QBs Kurtis Rourke and Tayven Jackson, the offense was far more dynamic than IU fans have come to expect. This starts with the TEs. There were very few instances of multiple TEs on the field at the same time, and when they were on the field, they were everywhere – working in motion, lining up in slot, maneuvering in blocking situations along the line. Of 28 Big Ten TEs with 10+ targets in 2023, Bradley Archer and Trey Walker ranked 6th and 8th in percent of snaps positioned along the line. There just was no creativity with TEs because they were needed to run-block, and they graded horribly there too. But Thursday, on one play, Walker lined up in a trips set out wide and dove into a crossing route, where Rourke found him for a handful of yards. JMU transfer TE Zach Horton was also targeted 5 times (by my count), which is more than a third of Walker’s 2023 team-leading target total (14).

The Hoosiers had several packages in spread concepts too, which opened up a lot of space in various areas of the field, not only in the pass but in the run too. This allowed the RBs to get north-and-south. The routes deployed also collaborated to intentionally shift the defense toward or away from certain areas of the field, and watching it was a breath of fresh air, personally. 

While Thursday was just an introduction to the scheme, I walked away feeling encouraged about the prospects of this team’s offensive philosophy in 2024.

2. Offensive Line Personnel

I wrote in the Spring Game preview to watch for who plays left guard because that position is fairly uncertain at this point, but I also noted that we might not get a straight answer here because of injuries, particularly to Nick Kidwell – the expected starting RG. And this was true.