BORDEN, Ind. -- Big Ten football is won and lost in the trenches.
It's understandable, then, that IU head coach Tom Allen's attention is focused on the offensive and defensive line after getting the chance to step back and evaluate film from the Hoosiers' 15 spring practices.
While he liked a lot of what he saw from other positions, Allen still wants to see greater depth established on both sides of the line of scrimmage this spring.
"Still need to work on the physical strength of our defensive line, and that's a big priority," Allen said at Wednesday's On the Road with the Hoosiers Event at Huber's Orchard and Winery. "Another area of concern would just be the depth on offensive line and the strength of that group. Once again, that's a big priority coming into this summer."
Indiana's defensive line lost five members of its rotation to graduation. Of those five, four were defensive tackles.
Those departures were addressed by signing four-star Carmel (Ind.) High defensive end Beau Robbins, three-star defensive tackles Sio Nofoagatoto'a, Jeramy Passmore, C.J. Person and Antoine Whitner as well as junior college defensive tackles Juan Harris and Demarcus Elliott.
IU's offensive line, meanwhile, graduated four, including starting left guard Wes Martin, starting center Nick Linder and starting right tackle Brandon Knight. Three of those spots were filled by signing three-star offensive tackle Matthew Bedford, three-star offensive guard Michael Katic and two-star offensive tackle Tim Weaver.
Only eight of IU's 13 scholarship offensive linemen have received snaps in a college game. That shifts to 9 of 12 for IU's scholarship defensive linemen.
On the positive side, Allen was pleased with the number of defensive linemen, linebackers and defensive backs who "flashed" or stood out this spring. Allen also said the offense has made rapid growth when it comes to understanding new offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer's system.
Allen also said the offensive line had a great month this month when it came to their individual works. According to Allen, that tone was set by IU's three seniors at the position - right tackle DaVondre Love, center Hunter Littlejohn and right guard Simon Stepaniak.
"They probably had the most workouts out of anybody in the month of May," Allen said of those three.
Redshirt freshman wide receiver Miles Marshall, redshirt senior wide receiver Nick Westbrook drew praise for their work ethic and leadership respectively.
Majority Of Freshman Class Set To Report Today
It's move-in week for the incoming Indiana football freshman class, and the majority are set to arrive on campus today according to IU head coach Tom Allen.
"Most of our guys will be in (Thursday), so that will be an exciting day for us," Allen said at Wednesday's annual On the Road with the Hoosiers fan engagement event at Huber's Orchard and Winery. "Get to move them into the dorms, get a chance to get their physicals and orientation, all that."
Once those newcomers get settled, they will begin their summer strength and conditioning work on Monday.
Allen also said another wave of four or five players will arrive two weeks from today. The program is still waiting on final academic work from two unnamed players.
"We'll know for sure on them in a couple weeks," Allen said of those two players.
Indiana's 2019 class ranked No. 39 nationally according to Rivals.com, the third time in the Rivals era (data going back to 2002) that the program secured a top-40 collection of talent.
"Overall, really excited about the guys coming. Anxious to get them here," Allen said. "Texted many of them as they tell me when they're landing and taking off. Special group of guys that we can't wait to get on campus."
Player Leadership Will Be Key Offseason Focus
Allen wants more leadership, so he's trusting his own players to bring it.
When the program conducts coaches meetings in June and player meetings in July, Allen wants those arrangements to be more player-led.
It's necessary in part because some offseason activities such as on-field workouts or 7-on-7 work, essentially anything that involves a ball being in the players' hands - can only be supervised by the strength and conditioning staff and not the coaching staff.
"You have to a strong group of leadership to do that," Allen said. "I like our seniors. We don't have very many of them, there's only 12, but the 12 that we have are highly-vested and guys that have seen the negatives of us not having enough verbal leadership. I think that's caused some of these guys to rise up and say now's the time for me to take this thing over and do it the right way."
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