If job one was to get through spring practice relatively injury free, mission accomplished there for IU football.
Coach Curt Cignetti announced after the spring game, the one time IU went fully live and tackled over the last six weeks, that no one was injured on Thursday evening.
The Hoosiers did have one major setback a few weeks ago, when Michigan transfer slot receiver Tyler Morris was lost for the season due to what Cignetti has called a “non-contact” knee injury.
But Morris appears to have been the only player who suffered a serious long-term injury during the spring.
At quarterback, freshman Tyler Cherry was lost for the 2025 season during a practice leading up to the College Football Playoff in December. IU is rolling with just four available scholarship quarterbacks this fall unless an addition is made via the portal this spring. That seems unlikely, but the Hoosiers might have a pretty substantial drop-off if anything were to happen to starter Fernando Mendoza.
Morris isn’t the only receiver to be injured this spring. Elijah Sarratt has a minor knee injury that isn’t long-term. He suffered earlier this week and missed the spring game. Appalachian State transfer Makai Jackson had a hamstring issue and missed significant time. But they’ll both be back well ahead of fall camp.
Along the offensive line, Khalil Benson and Drew Evans both missed the spring recovering from 2024 injuries. Both have started at IU in the past, and both appear to be contenders for snaps this fall. Cignetti said both Benson and Evans are expected for fall camp. In an interview on BTN this week he said he likes the outlook for that position group.
The running back and tight end rooms appear to be healthy coming out of spring ball, although the Hoosiers are thin depth-wise at tight end after losing reserve Sam West to the portal this week. A late spring add there won’t come as a surprise, as IU could use a young playmaker with the potential to breakout behind seniors Holden Staes and Riley Nowakowski.
On the defensive side of the ball, star linebacker Aiden Fisher missed the spring game with a similar issue to Sarratt — a minor late spring knee “ding” a Cignetti described it — that isn’t long-term.
Cornerback Amariyun Knighten, who transferred in from Northern Illinois, was leaning on a crutch and unavailable for the spring game. That didn’t appear to be a long-term concern either.
And reserve defensive ends Andrew Turvy and Andrew DePaepe were both not dressed for the spring game. DePaepe missed the entire 2024 season with an injury suffered during fall camp last August.
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