Team Crimson Confident Heading Into Spring Game
With the draft now complete and free agents signed, Crimson head coach Mike hart has the utmost confidence in the group he assembled ahead of Saturday's spring game scheduled for noon ET.
"(Defensive line) coach (Mark) Hagen and (safeties) coach (Kasey) Teegardin did a great job of selecting the guys that we really wanted," Hart said after practice Thursday. "Obviously we didn't get everybody we wanted but for the most part we felt like we kind of ran the ran draft. We were calling the shots and making them choose guys we didn't want, putting (the Cream team) in those kinds of positions. I thought we did a great job on draft day."
The Crimson squad took junior defensive end Gavin Everrett with the first overall pick in Monday night's draft and also added senior and three-year starting safety Jonathan Crawford and redshirt junior wide receiver Chris Gajack in the second round.
Prior to the draft, Team Crimson also signed redshirt junior offensive lineman Wes Martin and redshirt junior defensive end Nile Sykes as priority free agents.
Martin and Sykes were two of "five or six" players out of a pool of 25-30 that Hart and his staff - comprised of IU Athletics Director Fred Glass, wide receivers coach Grant Heard, offensive line coach Darren Hiller, defensive line coach Mark Hagen, safeties coach Kasey Teegardin, offensive graduate assistant Billy Cosh, special teams quality control coach Jim McInerney, defensive graduate assistant Jim Nelson and special teams coordinator William Inge - targeted while assembling the team.
"I think we got 5 of the 6, and the rest of the guys just signed with us because they knew we were the better team," Hart said. "I think the saw the draft stats we had. The guys we drafted, they saw they strength we have on offense, the strength we have on defense. I think they know that obviously Crimson team's going to run away with this pretty easily."
Team Crimson's other draft selections included:
• OL Coy Cronk
• Husky Marcelino Ball
• OL Delroy Baker
• WR Luke Timian
• DL Jacob Robinson
• QB Peyton Ramsey
• OL Hunter Littlejohn
• LB T.D. Roof
• OL Nick Ramacca
• TE Shaun Bonner
• DL LeShaun Minor
• RB Craig Nelson
• DL Tramar Reece
• WR David Felton
• LB Thomas Allen
• S Khalil Bryant
• CB A'Shon Riggins
• CB Raheem Layne
• RB Connor Thomas
• OL Britt Beery
• TE Peyton Hendershot
• DL Josh Brown
Hart said he had never done a draft-style setup for a spring game prior to arriving at Indiana last year, but sees the value value from a competition standpoint.
"It is a fun time leading into the draft, signing the free agents early on and then drafting the kids as you go," Hart said. "The other side of it is some of the kids get a realistic picture of what guys think about them which is also a good thing at times."
Just like last year's spring game, the winning team will be served steak dinners by the losing team. Meanwhile, the losing team will get hot dogs.
Hart already knows how he wants his steak, and who's going to be serving it to him.
"I'm a medium kind of a guy," Hart said. "I'm going to have (Team Cream) coach (Brandon) Shelby deliver my steak to me, definitely."
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