Height: 5’11”

Weight: 161 pounds

Hometown: Union City, Georgia (Hapeville Charter Academy)

Class/Position: Freshman/Defensive Back

The defensive back position is arguably the deepest and most talented unit on IU’s roster ahead of the 2025-2026 season. The addition of incoming freshman cornerback Zacharey Smith added to the talent that has been amassed and is part of helping to ensure Indiana’s cornerback room is going to strong into the future.

Zacharey Smith is not the perfect size for a cornerback as he enters Bloomington weighing less than 170 pounds and measuring at just under six-feet tall. However, that’s where the concern with the talented recruit from Georgia ends. Smith was a well-touted prospect and he chose IU over offers from Auburn, Kentucky, Louisville, Texas A&M, SMU and Georgia Tech along with several other schools. In the talent-rich state of Georgia, Smith led all high school players with eight interceptions. He followed that up by snagging seven interceptions as a senior at Atlanta’s Hapeville Charter Academy and added 20 tackles with 10 pass breakups. Smith visited the IU campus in June of 2024 and announced his commitment to the Hoosiers on June 20, 2024. He was rated a consensus three-star prospect but the list of schools that pursued him is a sign of the type of player coaches believe he could become.

Curt Cignetti does not play very many true freshman and that is not expected to change in the 2025 season. As previously written, Zacharey Smith entered an extremely deep and talented room of corners. He was enrolled for the spring and went through spring practices with the team but he will still need to spend time adding weight and bulk to his frame before making an impact in the Big Ten. In the past, IU’s roster may have been in a place where a player as talented as Smith would have been rushed into action right away but the Hoosiers have the ability to sit him and let him learn and grow behind players like D’Angelo Ponds, Jamari Sharpe, Ryland Gandy and Amariyun Knighten. That is the expected plan but we could see him get time in early games against teams like Indiana State and Kennesaw State as he gains experience for a larger role on the field in the years to come.

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