The Spring Portal Has Closed. Now What?

Taking note of Indiana's 2025 roster, now that the spring portal has closed, and looking ahead to where the staff adds and how it fits its pieces together.

The college football transfer portal closed for the Spring on Friday, meaning no one can officially enter his name into the portal until after the 2025 regular season. Some might declare during the season (we saw guys preserve eligibility with their redshirts last year), but they can’t actually move until they enter their names into the portal after the season.

So, barring any late paperwork processing, there shouldn’t be any subtractions from the current roster. The staff still has room to make a handful of additions too.

• Indiana 2025 Scholarship Chart

As a reminder, this is how Indiana handled the spring portal after the Spring Game in 2024:

Departed:

• CB Kobee Minor

• LB Jayden McDonald

• RB David Holloman

• QB Broc Lowry

• LB Darryl Minor

• OL Will Larkins

• TE Anthony Miller

• WR Derrick Bohler

• OL Bubba Jeffries

• SAF DJ Warnell

Arrived:

• CB D’Angelo Ponds

• DT CJ West

• DE Andrew DePaepe

• KR/PR Solomon Vanhorse

• DT Tyrique Tucker

• LB Nahji Logan

• CB Cedarius Doss (just before the Spring Game)

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Let’s start by looking at the departures.

Breaking Down Spring Departures

During the Spring Transfer Portal Period, Indiana saw departures from:

• CB Jamier Johnson (UCLA)

• OG Vinny Fiacable (FAU)

• TE Sam West (Mississippi State)

• CB Josh Philostin

• OT Austin Barrett (Iowa State)

• DT Robby Harrison (Western Kentucky)

• DT Marcus Burris

• DE Ta’Derius Collins

• LB Jamari Farmer

These departures are continued shedding of the Allen Era talent. Only one of the players on this list (Farmer) was recruited/signed by the Cignetti staff. Josh Philostin committed to Indiana during the 2023 season and was retained by Cignetti’s staff during the rush of the 2024 recruiting class. Of the 79 players expected on scholarship today, only 20 were recruited by or transferred to Tom Allen’s Indiana program (excluding the incoming Kahlil Benson and Louis Moore), and six of those 20 are offensive linemen whose position coach (Bob Bostad) was the only retained assistant from Allen’s staff.

Perhaps the most surprising exit this Spring was Austin Barrett, who received plenty of praise from both regimes and leaves a bit of a hole in Indiana’s OT depth. Barrett joined his brother, Dylan, at Iowa State.

Before the Spring Game, I wrote a bit about which positions might see departures, and I noted TE, LB, and DT, as well as CB given the competition there. The reason I looked to those positions was because there were either leftovers from the Allen Era behind talent expected to play or because Allen Era guys were rising into roles of increased responsibility.

Marcus Burris was one of those players rising into a role, after James Carpenter graduated out of the program. This offseason seemed like a prove-it moment for him, particularly because the staff scouted and brought in Dominique Ratcliff and Hosea Wheeler during the winter portal period. The staff is no longer in a position where it is working with what it’s been given; it can now choose the talent on the roster, and a DT scholarship in Bryant Haines’ system is extremely valuable. This is why Burris and Robby Harrison’s departures are not too surprising.

Sam West was an inherited player who the staff recruited above at TE. Zach Horton commanded 77% of TE snaps in 2024, but it doesn’t appear that will be the case this season, as Indiana brought in Riley Nowakowski and Holden Staes this offseason and could use James Bomba behind them. The staff brought in two TEs behind West and cut Brody Foley loose in the winter. The staff has even been interested in adding to what it currently has in that room too. The writing was on the wall for West’s future in that room, even with three seniors ahead of him on the scholarship chart.

Ta’Derius Collins, a former top-500 signing, was another interesting departure this Spring, as he was often discussed as someone who could contribute on the edge this season. However, it was going to take a massive effort from Collins to fend off the talent being added behind him and following an injury that kept him out for much of 2024. Andrew DePaepe, if he returns from injury this season, could absolutely rise into a starting DE role, which might be what Indiana is hoping for, given his sheer size (6-5, 260). DePaepe was in the same recruiting class as Collins (2023). And behind them, this staff has already added five (!!) new DEs. That’s not even mentioning new DE additions in the form of Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt from the portal.

Along with the actual departures are departures that didn’t happen. Much like positions last year (WR and RB, for example), there were some positions where it wouldn’t have been surprising to see guys leave if they lost jobs. Here are some for this year:

• CB: Retaining all of that CB talent is massive for Indiana. CBs coach Rod Ojong mentioned how significant it is for this system to have reliable CBs, due the complexity of the reads and responsibilities. So holding onto all of Jamari Sharpe, Ryland Gandy, and Amariyun Knighten for CB2 is huge and might largely be due to Knighten’s injury that kept him out of this competition. Indiana looks set at CB for not only this season but next season as well.

• LB: I fully expected one of the junior LBs (Jones and Turner) to head to the portal after Spring Camp, given that sophomore Rolijah Hardy looks to be the starter next to Aiden Fisher. But it’s clear, given what we saw in the Spring Game, that Indiana will also be spreading the wealth of snaps at LB, which Fisher and Jailin Walker mostly handled on their own. Much like the end of the 2024 season, there seemingly will be more three-LB looks, opening room for Isaiah Jones to play, in particular. There is a ton of talent in that LB room, and the staff really likes true freshman PJ Nelson, which could have contributed to freshman Jamari Farmer hitting the portal. It’s tough to crack this room.

• TE: While Sam West hit the portal, it seemed like one of Riley Nowakowski and Holden Staes might as well, depending on how that room panned out. But neither entered the portal, which is massive for Mike Shanahan, especially with what seems to be a plan to continue adding to that room.

Breaking Down the Arrivals

So far, Indiana has added two transfers since the spring portal opened – DEs Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt. Teams are not beholden to the portal’s closure to add to their rosters; they only need to be concerned about respective enrollment deadlines, but most teams will look to finish adding before June.

By my count, the Hoosiers have six more scholarships to give at this moment, and here are some positions I would not be surprised to see additions to: Slot WR, WR, DT, DE, SAF, and OL (right talent at the right price).

So who are the arrivals?

• Kellan Wyatt: The LB/DE from Maryland will play on the edge for Indiana. At Maryland he basically only played in space on the edges, which is a presence Indiana doesn’t exactly have at the moment. Lanell Carr would serve some of this role for Indiana in 2024 at the Stud DE position. Mikail Kamara will likely play that position much differently than Carr did, with more of a focus on pass rush, so Indiana will need a utility edge piece, which will most likely be Wyatt.

• Stephen Daley: The true DE from Kent State also plays on the edge, but with much more of a traditional pass-rush approach than Wyatt. In 2024, he graded 39th among FBS DEs and 14th among Group of 5 DEs. He has just 6 career sacks in 1,200+ snaps, so he doesn’t get home as often on his pass rushes, but he does get pressure and is a disruptive edge presence. He is only 6-1, meaning I don’t think Indiana is adding him as its answer for the DE position. He’s likely a piece of the plan there.

Haines wants to make the defense very multiple and capable of handling almost any look an offense can show them, and these additions are part of that. Wyatt and Daley, at 6-2, 262 and 6-1, 260, are nearly exactly the same size as Mikail Kamara (6-1, 265), and I don’t anticipate Kamara taking many plays off this season. So any sort of 1-2 punch at Stud DE likely isn’t the case.

What seems much more likely is that Daley will be in the rotation at DE with Daniel Ndukwe (and Andrew DePaepe upon his return) and any additional DE Indiana might add, and Wyatt will play further on the edge and in space, rotating between a third LB spot, an additional DE, or spotting Kamara at Stud, with more of a focus on sealing edges – a bit more of a dynamic role than Daley without taking Kamara off the field. With as often as Indiana was rotating personnel during its Spring Game, it seems like Wyatt will still see a significant number of snaps, even if he is in a utility role. Expect to see Wyatt all over the place.

What is Ahead for Transfers?

The calendar ahead looks like this:

• Present - May 24: Contact Period – Prospects/transfers can visit campuses, and coaches can visit homes.

• May 29 - June 22: Quiet Period – Prospects/transfers can visit campuses

• June 23 - July 31: Dead Period – No visits either way

The current Contact Period is a heavy recruiting period for teams. Coaches will be paying visits to mostly high school recruits while also fielding visits from transfers and other recruits. Ideally, by the end of the Contact Period, the roster will be at the 85-scholarship mark, because teams will start shifting their focuses toward high school recruiting. June is the most significant high school recruiting month, and the 2026 recruiting class will be mostly compiled by the end of the summer so that teams can enter late-July, early-August Fall Camps with sole focus on the season ahead.

This is a lot to say that all answers around who Indiana might add from the portal for 2025 will likely be known in the next month, ideally sooner.

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