Pre-Spring Position of Interest: Left Guard

With three transfers and an injury set to influence the Indiana OL during the 2025 offseason, who will assume the LG position?

After discussing what seems to be the most significant question mark on the defensive side of the ball (Stud DE), let’s take a closer look at what seems to be the same for the offensive side: Left Guard (and/or Center). I’ll explain the parenthetical in a moment.

Tom Allen made some incredible hires during his tenure as head coach at Indiana – Kane Wommack, Kalen DeBoer, Mike Hart, Deland McCullough (again), and even Matt Guerreri (just a few years too early) – but the Bob Bostad hire before the 2023 season might have been the one most fated for long-term success at Indiana. This is ironic, given the amount of time it took to make a change at the position and how the lack of change seemed to plague some offenses during the Allen Era. But the hire had an immediate effect, as Bostad instantly began developing and building a competitive group and pulling Indiana out of the OL pit.

Now, the Hoosiers are investing more funding toward the position than ever, boosting Bostad’s salary from $700k to $900k in 2025 and shelling out for linemen like Notre Dame transfer interior OL Pat Coogan and Ohio State transfer tackle Zen Michalski. That’s in addition to keeping Carter Smith in town and wrangling former Wisconsin tackle Trey Wedig in his final year of collegiate ball before the 2024 season.

What makes Bostad’s early achievements at Indiana particularly spectacular is that he’s done most of his work with talent he inherited. For example, Mike Katic had played 2,598 snaps in his career before 2024, only 11% of them at center, and hadn’t been particularly impressive outside of pass blocking. But in 2024, Katic played all 830 of his snaps at center and graded as the second-best center in the Big Ten. Matthew Bedford also posted his career-best grade within Bostad’s OL, playing RG in 2023 before transferring to Oregon and playing 2 snaps in 2024. This also includes Carter Smith’s development into the 6th-best graded tackle in his draft class (2026) in 2024.

Now, Bostad and Company are loading up on raw offensive line talent for Bostad to mold into a unit that can take another step forward – by adding Coogan, Michalski, and Kahlil Benson.

But the biggest question within this unit is: Who steps up at LG?

Why is LG a position of attention?

Drew Evans was likely not expected to start at LG in 2024. Bray Lynch was the expected guy there, but Nick Kidwell’s season-ending injury seemingly required Lynch to move over and opened up the LG spot for Evans. Then when Evans went down with an Achilles injury late in the season, Indiana was down to its fourth guard in Tyler Stephens. And as the quality of defensive fronts spiked at the end of the season, it was fairly evident that if Indiana wanted to compete to its full potential, it needed to build up its weakest points on the line.

That’s not to say Lynch and Evans weren’t key cogs in the machine that was Indiana’s offense in 2024. Evans, a former walk-on at Wisconsin, posted the best PFF grade at LG for Indiana since Wes Martin in 2018, and Lynch posted the best RG grade since Dan Feeney in 2016. Further, they were both sophomores in 2024!

Mike Shanahan, as discussed in a recent BSB, runs an offense that naturally makes life a bit easier on his offensive lines, which helped for roughly 75% of Indiana’s season in 2024. Highly suggest reading the associated BSB to learn more about this, but if not, the graphic from Parker Fleming at College Football Insiders below helps convey this idea a bit. The closer a team is to the green cluster, the better life is for its offensive line.

But when competition ramped up – Michigan to Ohio State to *cough* Purdue to Notre Dame – Lynch graded in just the 7th percentile among FBS offensive guards. That objectively needs to improve for the better of the two starting guards.

And as it stands, Lynch will most likely be the guy at LG in 2025. I currently have the OL projected as the following:

• LT: Carter Smith

• LG: Bray Lynch

• C: Pat Coogan

• RG: Kahlil Benson

• RT: Zen Michalski

That’s not terrible news. This OL could be successful with Lynch at LG. It’s more about the ceiling of the unit.

Let’s explore some ideas.

Will Lynch start at LG?

In my view, this is the most likely outcome. With further development, Lynch could be solid at LG, where he seemed destined to play in 2024 before injuries. The biggest question with Lynch is how much will he raise his ceiling? Can he hold his ground against top interior fronts in 2025?

This Spring Camp will likely be significant for the staff to determine answers to these questions, and if not, there may need to be assessment of the portal and whether there is 1.) talent that is worth bringing in, or 2.) whether dedicating the resources to another interior OL is worth the cost.

What about Pat Coogan?

This is where that parenthetical comes into play from the top of this newsletter. The LG and center positions are tied to each other for the Indiana offensive line this spring because both expected starters were developed as centers. Bray Lynch, at one point, seemed to be the future of the center position at Indiana, especially as Zach Carpenter transferred to Miami and Katic entered his name into the NFL Draft following the 2023 season. And, of course, Pat Coogan played center for CFP runner-up Notre Dame in 2024.

However, both have experience at guard. Lynch played his first full season at RG in 2024, and Coogan played the entire 2023 season at LG for Notre Dame.

But Katic graded as the 8th-best center in Power 4 football. Replacing him there is significant, and Notre Dame ran many similar interior concepts to Indiana – particularly Duo and Inside Zone blocking concepts – in 2024, and Coogan graded as the 14th-best center in Power 4 football.

Coogan will almost certainly play center for Indiana in 2024, especially with as many NIL resources Indiana undoubtedly dedicated to him.

What about Kahlil Benson?

The return of Kahlil Benson is exciting because he is stepping into the healthiest OL environment he’s ever played within. For perspective, the graphic below shows the most pressured QBs in the nation last year. Former Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders felt more pressure than any QB.

Many folks in Colorado’s fan and media base did not believe Benson was an issue on the line in 2024 either. In his 405 snaps in 2024, he actually graded 43rd among Power 4 guards, better than any of Indiana’s guards.

I wrote this about Benson earlier this offseason:

“Benson suffered from injuries for much of the 2024 season, and Colorado's OL was in shambles, which resulted in him being moved out of his initial RG job and placed around the line (some RT and LG). While he played RT during the 2023 season at Indiana, the interior is likely where he belongs. That’s where he began in Bloomington, starting at RG in 2022, and it’s where he has performed the best during his career. His worst game in 2024 was against Baylor, where he was moved between RG and RT and got eaten up for 7 allowed pressures in pass protection. In 2023 as a tackle, he surrendered the 3rd-most QB pressures among Power 5 tackles.”

Funny enough, Benson has more snaps on the left side of the line than Bray Lynch – 42 to 0. While it’s not entirely out of the question for Benson to play at LG, he’s played 98% of his career snaps on the right side, under three different OL coaches (including Bostad), so I’d anticipate him playing at RG.

What about Drew Evans?

Like was noted above, Drew Evans played admirably during his time in 2024 and unfortunately suffered a pretty serious injury close to the end of the season, meaning much of his 2025 offseason will likely be spent in recovery and less in development, which would’ve been crucial for Evans with or without his injury.

Evans graded 45th among Power 4 guards in 2024 but unfortunately missed the exact window of toughest competition that caused Lynch so much trouble. Judging his season-long grade against others would be unfair. For example, In the weeks before the Michigan game, Bray Lynch graded 10th among Power 4 guards and fell to 52nd after Indiana’s final four games. Evans graded 58th up until the Michigan game and rose to his 45th standing while injured. There just isn’t a clear picture of Evans’ ceiling for anyone not named Bostad.

There’s also no guarantee Evans will even be available to start the season. I’d anticipate Evans being a depth option on the interior later in the season, barring further injuries.

---