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The Indiana football program enters the 2022 season with a lot of questions surrounding key positions and while the quarterback battle is certainly one, the tight end room is another.
Indiana loses one of -- if not the top tight end in school history in Peyton Hendershot. The Third-Team All-Big Ten selection last year led the Hoosiers with 46 catches, 543 yards and four touchdowns.
Hendershot also broke the single-season tight ends record at IU with 52 receptions for 622 yards in 2019. His 52 catches were ranked fourth in the country among tight ends and his 622 yards were 10th among tight ends.
So without a key member of the passing game for the last few seasons, Indiana turns to a tight end room that has talent, without question, but lacks big game experience.
"I feel blessed in that way and to me this is a really exciting group of young tight ends that I am going to have for a while," IU tight ends coach Kevin Wright said last week. "It's a process and you have to get to game one, because everything changes when you get to a real game environment.
"It is such a young room, and they all bring something. Our goal is to get better each week of the season, and they will, because none of them have played a ton, but they complement each other very well."
Indiana will lean on junior AJ Barner at the position this season. While he hasn't experienced a lot of big moments at the position in his career, learning from a talented room as a freshman and sophomore has made him ready for an important role this season.
"He's ready to lead not just the room, but the offense," Wright said of Barner. "I think he got that from Peyton, and he got that from Matt (Bjorson). Peyton was the most productive tight end in the Big Ten the last three years and Matt Bjorson played in every game for four years when walked on campus. Two really great leaders and two guys he has absorbed a lot of those leadership qualities from."
Barner is 6-foot-6 and 252 pounds -- the ideal body for a pass-catching tight end. Last season, Barner caught 14 passes for 162 yards and one touchdown. Not only will his game look to take a step up this season, so will his leadership in the locker room.
It's something that has already been felt by some of the younger players, especially the teammates at the position.
"AJ's such a good leader," Indiana redshirt freshman tight end Aaron Steinfeldt said. "He's a guy that has great fundamentals, great technique. Every time I see him in the game, I watch him to see all the little things he does. I think he's done a good job helping me understand defenses. He's been able to help me have an easy transition to the game."
"He is a legit 6-foot-6 and I think he was around 235 or 240 when he got here. He's 250 and his body fat percentage is down, so he has really developed his body physically," Wright said. "I think in those early years, you knew you had a really good player that was going to take a little bit of time to develop himself physically. Then, the details and techniques of route running, of blocking, schemes, understanding football. Those are all things that are really hard when you are a high school kid that has played middle linebacker, which is what he did. He was the defensive player of the year in his conference and played a little tight end."
So whereas Barner will be expected to be 'the guy', Wright mentions both Steinfeldt and fellow redshirt freshman James Bomba will have roles.
"Those two guys, with James, he is a very big guy, and he has learned to be a very physical guy," Wright said. "He has soft hands and has shown that, right now, he can go in, especially in 12 personnel with AJ [Barner], and those are two big bodies that are both athletic and physical that can catch the ball, so he is a really good complement, especially when we are in 12 packages, short yardage situations. He can also play in the open field and has had a lot of opportunities in camp.
"Aaron may have the best ball skills in the room. He naturally has really good ball skills, and for him it is a time where he has learned he has to stick his nose in there and be physical and an end-line blocker. They both bring different qualities to the room, but we always talk about building the room. That is what I try to do and it is such a young room. Other than AJ [Barner], no one has really played in a college football game."
So, as Indiana sets its sights on a bounce-back 2022 season, the tight end unit looks to play an integral part in the offense. And, if anything, the way Hendershot worked and produces has set the groundwork for this current room.
"It's not just AJ, I mean James [Bomba] was in the room and Aaron [Steinfeldt] was in the room. I mean, those other guys are all in the room. That's how they think the game should be played and if that is the expectation you can set for your room then that helps going forward."
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