BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football brought back its spring game on Thursday for the first time in several years, giving fans an extended look at Curt Cignetti’s first squad in Bloomington.
Only so much can be gleaned from these sorts of events — after all, Cignetti has acknowledged multiple times that he views these scrimmages as glorified practices. But with spring camp concluded, it provided a glimpse at how several position groups stack up, and what to expect from some players going into the fall.
Cignetti said IU avoided any injuries during the spring game, which is a victory for all involved.
Here are two big takeaways from Thursday’s spring game at Memorial Stadium.
Backfield promise
Indiana’s running backs had one of the strongest nights of any group on the team.
The backfield is dominated by transfer portal additions, particularly with Trent Howland re-entering the portal this week. Senior Justice Ellison (Wake Forest transfer), redshirt senior Ty Son Lawton (James Madison), and redshirt junior Kaelon Black (JMU) played with the first-team offense in spells.
The running game worked, both in part because of the offensive line creating holes and the running backs taking advantage.
“I think that group definitely caught my eye,” Cignetti said. “I just think our running back room is faster, more dynamic, good at pass pro, good at catching the ball out of the backfield, can break tackles. We have more speed and athleticism back there. All three of those guys just love football. They’re football nuts. Tough guys. They’re tough guys.”
Each of the three running backs had some positive moments during the game.
Black broke off a huge play on the third drive of the game, displaying his explosiveness. Lawton saw some third-down work, which created some opportunities in the passing attack. And he scored a touchdown, running through a defender or two on his way to the end zone. Ellison also scored a touchdown from shorter distance.
“I think we have one of the deepest running back rooms in the country and a lot of guys that can make plays, as shown today,” quarterback Kurtis Rourke said. “And as a quarterback, you want to be able to pass the ball, but being able to run the ball effectively really opens up the pass. So being able to have running backs that are able to create plays on their own really helps the whole offense.”
It appears to be a three-headed backfield going into fall camp. Redshirt juniors Elijah Green (North Carolina transfer) and David Holloman saw limited action with the second and third-string offense, but it was Black, Lawton, and Ellison in control of the backfield Thursday.
And the early returns were promising.
A new era of @IndianaFootball has begun. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/qeWXGXUly4
— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) April 19, 2024
Mixed bag for QBs
Everything Cignetti had said about his quarterbacks throughout spring suggested that Ohio transfer Kurtis Rourke was in the pole position to start at quarterback for IU this fall.
And while Rourke may still have a grasp on the job, he didn’t have a completely sparkling spring game. He finished strong, with a drive that ultimately resulted in a touchdown run by a young fan on the final play of the night — Rourke made some good plays to get IU in scoring range on that series.
At his best, Rourke was a little shifty in the pocket and delivered clean strikes to his receivers. But in other moments, he held on to the ball too long, didn’t read the defense properly, or misfired on passes. His receivers didn’t help him at times, as he was a victim of some dropped that would’ve made his night look better had they been caught.
Tayven Jackson proved to be closer to surpassing Rourke for the No. 1 job than to Tyler Cherry for the No. 3. Jackson had a nice night, with multiple impressive drives and several really good throws. He connected with Andison Coby for a few big plays, and showed good blitz recognition and pocket awareness on some plays.
But some of the success came from defensive lapses on a few of the bigger plays. The second-string defense had a rough game — IU missed several key defensive players with injuries this spring, so it may not be completely indicative of what the team is working with. But the depth is certainly a bit of a question mark after Thursday’s performance.
And Jackson also made a few mistakes, including an ill-advised throw that was picked off by Terry Jones Jr. in the second period. That sort of decision-making often prevented him from taking the next step as a quarterback last season.
It would still be a major surprise if Rourke isn’t IU’s starting quarterback to open the regular season. But Thursday showed that Jackson may be able to push him and make him really earn the job.
“I think there’s a healthy competition there heading into summer and fall camp,” Cignetti said. “Competition is a great thing. We need more competition at all positions. That was one of our issues this spring is we have some guys that played some football in the past that didn’t have the kind of competition we’d like to see to motivate them to go out every day, every play, focused in, best effort, improving.”
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