What: Indiana Hoosiers Offense vs. Defense
When: Thursday, April 17 at 8:00 pm
Where: Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, IN
How to Watch: The game is not being televised or streamed. Hoosier Huddle will have coverage of the game on Rivals.
What’s at Stake: The most important thing for any Spring Game is that the team emerges healthy. IU has already lost wide receiver Tyler Morris to a season-ending injury and it is a near-guarantee that any players with any sort of injury entering the evening will be held out of the game for precautionary reasons. IU will be playing with a modified scoring system that rewards points to the offense for touchdowns and field goals and to the defense for forcing turnovers or punts. This will be the staff’s final chance to get a look at their full team on the field before fall camp.
Game Day Details: The specifics for tonight's activities can be found here: Indiana Football Spring Game Arrives on Thursday - Indiana University Athletics
A FEW THINGS TO LOOK FOR
1. New Faces at Quarterback
Tonight is the first chance for IU fans to get a glimpse of expected starting Fernando Mendoza. The transfer from California threw for 3,004 yards and ran for 105 while scoring 18 total touchdowns. He was one of the most coveted quarterbacks in the transfer portal and chose Indiana over several high-profile options. Mendoza has impressed in the portions of the practice that were available to the media and it will be exciting to see him in Mike Shanahan’s offensive system. In addition, his younger brother has made a big jump from last season to how he looked this spring. Alberto Mendoza is competing with transfer Grant Wilson (Old Dominion) for the backup position and those two will both get plenty of reps during tonight’s action.
2. Pass Catchers
Myles Price and Ke’Shawn Williams are gone. Tyler Morris was expected to start in the slot but he is out for the season with an injury. Tight end Zach Horton has graduated and Sam West entered the transfer portal earlier this week. There are a lot of talented pass-catchers in Bloomington. Which ones are going to step up and fill the voids in the lineup? Young players like Charlie Becker and LeBron Bond are going to get a chance to impress tonight at wide receiver. Tight end transfer additions Riley Nowakowski and Holden Staes are now even more important and need to show they are capable of handling the load as pass catchers from that position. There is a real chance this is an area the IU coaching staff addresses in the spring portal and tonight’s game is a final chance to evaluate what they already have.
3. Secondary Depth Chart
Perhaps no position group on the 2025 Indiana Hoosiers is deeper or more talented than the cornerbacks and safeties. That makes for great competition and intrigue surrounding how the rotation and depth chart is going to play out. Who will start at Rover? Who will be the other safety starting opposite of Amare Ferrell? Which cornerback wins the battle to start next to DeAngelo Ponds? Beyond the starters, which cornerbacks appear to be left out of the top six on the depth chart? This is not a case of needing to find enough good players. It is a case of which good players are going to have the upper leg on the depth chart heading into summer workouts and which ones will be on the outside looking in.
