LOS ANGELES — Indiana’s first bye week might not appear a notable point in the season from the outside.
But that week off, at the end of September and beginning of October, is when everything changed for Mikail Kamara.
The standout edge entered this year with lofty goals, setting his sights on reaching 20 sacks and setting a new IU single-season record. After leading the Hoosiers with 10 sacks in 2024, aiming for the program record book felt lofty, but attainable.
But things weren’t going according to plan for Kamara. He went into that bye week with two tackles for loss and one sack. The team was off to a great start, with a 5-0 record and ranked No. 8 in the AP Poll ahead of a pivotal game at then-No. 2 Oregon. And Kamara was still making an impact, but not in the way he’d envisioned.
And that weighed on the redshirt senior.
“I feel like, at the beginning of the year, I wasn’t really having fun,” Kamara told The Daily Hoosier. “I was really out here trying to be successful and make plays, where as last year and years prior, I was just having fun playing football.”
Teammates noticed something was off with Kamara, as well.
“During that time, it was definitely noticeable that Mikail was in his mind a little bit, not very happy with the way things were going,” sophomore defensive end Daniel Ndukwe told TDH. “But I just always made sure to let him know, ‘I still believe in you. I know you can go dominate every week. It’s your week, bro.’”
The bye week allowed Kamara to take a brief step back from the game, catch his breath, and gain some perspective.
The Ashburn, Va. native realized the pressure he was putting on himself, and he set out to address the issue. He decided to stop worrying about the numbers and just have fun the rest of the season. He gained understanding of the fact that football will bring positives and negatives, no matter how things are going.
“Just realizing, like, yes, I’m on a big stage, but I’m still human. I still have parents, I still have people that love me. Remember all the good things that come with this, and there’s going to be bad things that come with this,” Kamara told TDH. “No matter how great you are, no matter how bad you are, there’s a lot of good and a lot of bad that comes with this. And it’s good to be in the middle and be at peace with all of this.”
Kamara’s season continued to be challenging after he flipped that switch — he still has just the one sack, and he’s at five TFLs after recording a team-high 15 last year. But the changed mindset did show up on the field. Kamara recorded seven pressures against Oregon, per Pro Football Focus — his most of the season at that point.
The redshirt senior has recorded 48 pressures this season, tied for 19th-most in the nation. Penn State’s Dani Dennis-Sutton is the only Big Ten player with more pressures — by only two. But Kamara’s had trouble converting those pressures into sacks. Everyone above him in total pressures has at least seven sacks this year; he has just one.
But Kamara has remained a valuable leader for the Hoosiers, and he’s been a key chess piece for defensive coordinator Bryant Haines and IU’s defensive staff this season. He’s played both defensive end and stud, Indiana’s hybrid defensive end/linebacker position. That flexibility was useful in multiple ways — it helped allow Haines to adjust his scheme to get Isaiah Jones more playing time, and it helped the Hoosiers position Kellan Wyatt and Stephen Daley for success across from Kamara.
“He’s been locked in all year long,” defensive ends coach Buddha Williams told TDH. “We put a lot on him, man. He’d (play) multiple different positions. And he handled it really well. But he’s always trying to still find a way to have an impact on the game. And I think that’s what he leaned his hat on. And it might not show up on the stat sheet. But trying to always find a way to impact the game and take over the game in that aspect.”
Kamara will suit up for the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day with No. 1 Indiana against No. 9 Alabama. If the Hoosiers don’t prevail, it’ll be his final collegiate game — every game in the College Football Playoff would carry that subtext for the redshirt senior.
And though this season hasn’t been the statistically dominant campaign Kamara dreamed of throughout the offseason leading into the season-opener, it’s still been a valuable experience. He’s arguably learned more going through the individual ups and downs this year than he would’ve if his season did go as planned.
He learned how to play through injuries and the perseverance that takes, and how to manage his body throughout a season like that. He learned how to better focus on himself and ignore outside noise both positive and negative.
And Kamara learned how to respond when he doesn’t quite reach expectations, no matter how ambitious they may have been. He learned how to get through that mentally and emotionally, something that will be useful well beyond his days in cream and crimson.
“It’s been a great year,” Kamara told TDH. “One of those years, like, things haven’t gone exactly according to plan. But it’s one of those years that I’ll be able to look back on and say that this is the year that gave me strength going into the rest of my career.”
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