W2W4 during Spring Game, LeBron Bond Commitment

What are some things BSB will be watching for during IU's Spring Game? And what does LeBron Bond's commitment show about IU?

The Spring Game is coming up! This will likely be the last Bite-Sized Bison until the days following the Spring Game next Thursday, so I wanted to include some things I’ll be looking out for while watching. It’s important to remember that performances in this scrimmage aren’t a one-to-one comparison for how Indiana will play in the Fall. We’ve seen some great performances from guys like Alex Rodriguez in the past that didn’t manifest during the season. It does, however, provide a glimpse into what the staff might be looking to do on a granular level.

With all of the changes, both related to and not related to the roster, there are an innumerable amount of things to look for, but I’ll list five that fans should be watching for on Thursday night. 

Wide Receivers

I wanted to avoid listing the obvious positions of interest – like QB and RB and WR – but I’m too interested in WR to not list it. There’s so much talent and experience in this room, and Cignetti specifically mentioned that Donaven McCulley needed to pick it up a couple weeks ago (I wrote about that here). Some thoughts on this position:

System Fit: How does the staff plan to fit so many WRs on the field? I don’t anticipate every WR currently on roster to be on the roster come Fall, but even with that said, there will be plenty of talent in the room, including two slots on their last years of eligibility. In which ways will the offense differ from 2023 in fitting that many WRs on the field?

Outside WRs: Donaven McCulley’s continued development is the big draw here. Graded 5th among Big Ten WRs last season and 2nd among returning Big Ten WRs, how does McCulley continue to develop as a known threat in the Big Ten? Also, as I noted in a previous BSB, according to contested catch rates, Indiana has one of the strongest outside WR corps in the nation, between McCulley, Elijah Sarratt, Miles Cross, and Omar Cooper. Who eventually stands out in this group to earn opportunities? Lastly, a couple WRs that go unmentioned in conversations about this room are EJ Williams and Andison Coby. Both have plenty of potential if they can see the field. Williams finished with 39 targets in eight games due to injury, and Coby only had 12 targets. The athleticism these two bring as the perceived floor of the WR room is insane. 

Slot WRs: As you’ll read below, slot WRs are crucial to the system Cignetti and Shanahan have created together. Ke’Shawn Williams and Myles Price are the two slot WRs handling those duties after the departure of Kam Perry. How do those two look? TE Zach Horton will play a lot of slot as well, as he did at JMU. He would’ve ranked 8th among Big Ten TEs in slot snaps last year. How does he look from slot?  Does anyone else dip down into slot? 

Left Guard

This is perhaps the most intriguing position to me on the offensive side. It seems like we know who will be lined up for four of the five OL spots:

• LT - Carter Smith

• LG - uncertain

• C - Mike Katic

• RG - Nick Kidwell

• RT - Trey Wedig

That LG spot could be JMU transfer OL Tyler Stephens, but he’s graded 61st (2023) and 65th (2022) by PFF among Sun Belt OLs the last two seasons. Does the move from tackle to guard aid him, and can he rise to a Big Ten level? Or does someone like Vinny Fiacable, Noah Bolticoff, or even Drew Evans step in? Who are those guys getting real opportunities at guard?

Also, it seems Nick Kidwell has been missing time due to recovering from postseason surgery, so we may not see him Thursday, which also means we may not get any sort of answer to this question until kickoff in September. 

Defensive Line

I’ve been writing plenty about the DL recently, but it is a significant aspect of this staff’s defensive strategy. This Spring Game will most likely just guide us toward a more solidified idea of the role the DL will play for Indiana in 2024, rather than specific answers to the DL on a micro level, but the following questions still remain. 

How does Jacob Mangum-Farrar seem to be adjusting to Stud? How does Mikail Kamara look as the opposite DE? Where does Lanell Carr line up? Is James Carpenter as dominant at DT as he was at JMU? Will they run with mostly two DTs, or will they have three DEs on the field at once?

There are several questions about this area of the defense, and honestly, I’d expect some movement in the portal in the weeks after anyway. 

Defensive Backs

The competition in the defensive backfield is strong. There are several potential starters at both CB and safety, and there will be a hybrid Husky-type DB as well – pulled from the safeties room, as CB coach Rod Ojong mentioned on his Under the Hood episode this week. 

We know already that Nic Toomer has been pulled from the CBs room to fill in at strong safety, but have there been other position changes? For example, JoJo Johnson has a history at safety that could be useful. Also, who takes reps at the nickelback position (that hybrid role similar to the Husky)? How do the Old Dominion transfers (Terry Jones and Shawn Asbury) seem to be adjusting? How does Amare Farrell fit into all of this? 

Again, this scrimmage likely won’t provide explicit answers to many of these questions, but it can provide a glimpse. There will also likely be movement in the portal for this area in May too. 

Kicking

Placekicking is nearly always an interesting wrinkle in spring scrimmages, and Indiana happens to have two on scholarship. How do Derek McCormick and Nico Radicic perform? Kicking was such a strange concept for Indiana in 2023, as they elected to have Chris Freeman, a walk-on kickoff specialist, take the team’s field goals. It resulted in a strange battle of trust once they reached a certain area of the field. This always suggested to me that true freshman Nico Radicic simply wasn’t prepared to be taking those opportunities. Is he prepared now as a redshirt freshman? 

Derek McCormick was 27th nationally in field goal percentage, hitting 10-of-12 for ULM in 2023, and he was one of 36 kickers to hit two field goals of 50+ yards. He’s got two years of eligibility remaining, so does he take the starting job while Radicic develops? 

It will be interesting to watch them kick Thursday. 

LeBron Bond Commitment and What it Shows about IU

Indiana landed a potentially massive playmaker at WR when 5-foot-9 2025 Virginia star LeBron Bond committed to Curt Cignetti’s staff last week. While I haven’t seen him play in-person, he is the fastest WR I can remember seeing on tape.