Pre-Spring Position of Interest: Stud DE

Lanell Carr held down the Stud DE position for Indiana in 2024, but he's graduated with only underclassmen left behind him in 2025.

Right now, we are experiencing one of the most quiet – if not the most quiet – stretches of the college football calendar. Recruiting is in a Dead Period until March 2, when a Quiet Period opens up for the duration of most Spring Camps, as recruits and transfers visit campuses. Since last month, the team has been working with Strength and Conditioning coach Derek Owings behind the scenes.

Fans won’t have much to gather about this team – outside of videos released by those within the program, various press conferences with Curt Cignetti, and any potential reports from the local media – until they can watch the team during its Spring Game on April 19. By then, there will have been some departing and incoming transfers that will shake up areas of the roster. But for the most part, this is what Cignetti and his staff are working with for 2025:

• 2025 Scholarship Chart

• 2025 Anticipated Depth Chart

As it stands, there are some areas where there is more to be learned. Those are the areas I’ll be taking a close look at in the coming days, but today, we’re focusing on the Stud DE position.

What exactly is the Stud DE?

Several of the most effective defenses in today’s college football are variations of the 4-2-5. Indiana fans are very familiar with the 4-2-5, as Tom Allen brought it with him as DC in 2016 and carried it throughout his tenure. including his last season in 2023, when he hired Matt Guerreri – who has a reputation for being an effective teacher of the 4-2-5 dating back to his days with Jim Knowles at Duke – as the Hoosiers’ DC. Knowles helped lead Ohio State to a championship with the 4-2-5 defense in 2024, and then he signed a record contract to build off the schematic foundation Allen left behind at Penn State.

Bryant Haines ran the 4-2-5 at James Madison, after he took over as DC in 2022 and then brought it to Indiana. What makes the 4-2-5 special is its multiplicity, and that multiplicity begins with – but doesn’t end with – hybrid positions like the Rover (linebacker-safety hybrid, sometimes called Nickel, Husky, Bullet, etc.) and the Stud DE (linebacker-defensive end hybrid, sometimes called the Bull, Jack, etc.).

The players at each of these positions can vary between either poll of those hybrids. For example, Amare Ferrell began the 2024 season at Rover but moved to safety, opening up Rover for Terry Jones, who plays more like a linebacker. Lanell Carr played Stud for Indiana in 2024 and played a bit more like a linebacker than Jalen Green did for JMU in 2023. Carr would drop into coverage more often, while Green would get after the QB, as he eventually led the nation in sacks in 2023.

Why is Stud DE significant to the Indiana defense?

Haines’ defensive front is precious to his defensive efforts. BSB readers are familiar with the DL havoc chart at this point, but it’s worth peeking at once again:

The Indiana DL was responsible for 32.5% of its defensive havoc instances, which was the most in the Big Ten, and the Hoosiers’ DL was 4th in total DL havoc.

With this in mind, the following chart focuses primarily on pass rush from the defensive line:

As the chart indicates, the considered linemen for each team on this chart were those who rushed the passer 180+ times. Indiana was one of 29 teams to have at least six linemen qualified – Mikail Kamara, James Carpenter, Lanell Carr, CJ West, Tyrique Tucker, and Marcus Burris – and that group totaled the 3rd-most pressures on the 13th-most pass-rush snaps in the nation. Rushing the passer is a massive dimension to Haines’ defensive scheme.

One position along that DL is worth a lot. As the Stud in 2024, Carr was 14th among Big Ten DEs in pass-rush snaps, 11th in pressures, and graded 15th in pass-rush scenarios. However, the pressure isn’t exactly high for the Stud position, since Indiana likes to work from the inside-out. DTs begin the havoc on Indiana’s defense.

But when looking at the current 2025 roster, it seems the Stud position might need to undergo some change.

Why is the Stud DE a position of attention?

Let’s consider the frames of the previous two Studs in Haines’ defense – Lanell Carr (6-2, 246) and Jalen Green (6-1,245). The closest linemen near those sizes on the 2025 roster are as follows:

• Ta’Derius Collins (6-4, 250)

• Tyrone Burrus (6-4, 245)

• Daniel Ndukwe (6-3, 239)

• Triston Abram (6-3, 230)

There is plenty of quality, developing talent on that list, but true sophomore Daniel Ndukwe, with his 17 defensive snaps (excluding his special teams snaps) brings the most experience in that group. Ta’Derius Collins, entering his third year with the program, might have the best odds of playing Stud in this group.

What about Mikail Kamara?

Well, maybe.

His physical limitations, at 6-1, 265, seemed to shine through against the toughest opponents (0 sacks, 0 TFLs, and 15 QB pressures against Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame), so maybe getting him into a hybrid position would suit him well and open up a spot for more physically gifted DE like Andrew DePaepe (6-5, 260)? Western Kentucky DT transfer Hosea Wheeler (6-3, 300) played an unusual amount of snaps over the tackle for his size, so he could potentially pass as a traditional DE, maybe?

Aside from his size, Kamara’s proven skillset just doesn’t seem to align here:

• Only 2% of Kamara’s career snaps have been coverage snaps, whereas 13% of Carr and Green’s career snaps were in coverage.

• Kamara also could play inside more often, dropping all the way down into the B gap 100+ times in 2024 (Stud has 0 snaps in the B gap under Haines).

• Kamara also has 20 pounds on the previous two Studs, which is significant.

Kamara isn’t the same fit at Stud DE as Green and Carr were, and even if he was to move to the other side of the line, there isn’t exactly a deep room behind him at DE – just Andrew DePaepe (with 11 career snaps) and six underclassmen.

What about pulling from the linebacker room?

That seems unlikely. While moving Kamara to Stud would be making the position exceptionally heavy, moving any of the linebackers would be making it exceptionally light. The only linebackers within 20 pounds of the previous Studs are:

• Aiden Fisher (6-1, 233)

• Isaiah Jones (6-2, 230)

• Kaiden Turner (6-0, 228)

• Rolijah Hardy (5-11, 225)

Those are Indiana’s top four linebackers. Placing any of them at Stud DE would essentially be a 3-3-5 defense, and that doesn’t seem likely, given what was noted about the DL’s importance above. Indiana will sometimes run package 3-3-5 looks, like it did late in the season, and even then, those looks were more like 4-3. Its base defense will likely remain 4-2-5.

So what does Indiana do at Stud DE?

I don’t think anyone knows except for the folks in Memorial Stadium. There are several possibilities, ranked in order by most likely outcome, from my perspective:

1. Indiana rolls with one of the younger guys and pairs that with a slight adjustment in scheme: Ta’Derius Collins seems to have the athleticism to play this position, but he’s still very green. The DT additions are notable in this conversation. Indiana has at least five DTs who will see significant playing time, and – as mentioned before – Hosea Wheeler plays over the tackle quite often for a DT. There seems to be a reality where the Stud DE plays fewer than the average 560 snaps and is rotated within what has become a very heavy Indiana DL room. I’m expecting a heavy focus on DT havoc in 2025, as the defense continues its inside-out approach, sometimes resulting in 5-DL looks. This schematic adjustment would keep some pressure off of Stud and allow a younger guy to excel there.

2. Indiana brings in a transfer who better matches the needs at the position: This is a close-second possibility but hinges on the staff not seeing enough from those competing for the Stud role, as well as a worthy talent being available in the portal this spring. It’s not unlikely, though! CJ West was added in the spring of 2024. But a CJ West-like talent isn’t always available in the portal, particularly at DE.

3. Indiana rolls with one of the younger guys and maintains the same scheme for Stud: This would mean those who competed for the role during Spring Camp impressed the staff enough to earn a decent amount of trust. It would also mean that the staff is comfortable in the responsibility of the Stud position – cause havoc, limit edge vulnerabilities – to trust a younger player there. With Buddha Williams developing these DEs and with the inside-out approach on the front, this would not surprise me either.

4. Indiana moves Mikail Kamara to Stud: Now we’re getting into unlikely territory. For the reasons listed above, I don’t really see this happening, particularly given the amount of money IU must be paying him to stay in Bloomington another season, unless there is an unseen talent developing behind Kamara at traditional DE.

5. Indiana moves a LB to Stud: The Hoosiers moved Jacob Mangum-Farrar to Stud before last season, but I think that said more about JMF’s abilities at linebacker than it said about 1.) how easily this transition can be made in an offseason, and 2.) how fruitful that transition really is for either party.

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