Brody Kosin can remember the play like it was yesterday.
IU football’s first class of 2024 commit opened his junior high school season with Clarkston (Michigan) High with a game against Davidson High at Michigan Stadium. He grew up a Wolverines fan, so the stage felt big.
Clarkston’s offense was inside the 10-yard line, and the team’s running game was not working. Coach Kurt Richardson told his players, from the sideline, that he needed someone to make a big play.
Kosin said, ‘I got it.’
The tight end lined up on the left side, with four receivers on the right. Against press coverage, he faked a move inside and cut hard toward the back corner. The defensive back was holding back Kosin’s right arm, so he went up with his left arm and made a one-handed catch.
He called it his most memorable moment on a football field.
“It was awesome,” Kosin said. “Crowd went crazy. I can’t believe I caught it. It was awesome.”
That’s the sort of player Kosin believes the Hoosiers are getting in 2024. He’s a tight end who embraces both facets of the position but loves making the big play. The tight ends he’s liked to watch most and tries to emulate are Rob Gronkowski and George Kittle, both for their playmaking and for their blocking prowess.
Kosin racked up 250 yards on 17 receptions last season with five touchdowns.
Kosin — listed at 6-foot-6 and 225-pounds — has always dreamt of playing in the Big Ten. IU was the only Big Ten school to offer the 247Sports Composite three-star recruit.
But there was more to Kosin’s decision than that. He liked IU’s facilities, campus, and culture. And the Kelley School of Business appealed to him.
But more than anything, he was sold on IU head coach Tom Allen. Kosin was looking for a coach who wanted him as bad as he wanted them, and Allen checked that box.
“Every week, on Wednesday, he would give me a call, just check in, and just be like, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ I thought that really stood out because there was no other college team that did that,” Kosin said. “I got my offer (during) my second week of playoffs, and they were still playing. And he called me every Wednesday since I got my offer.”
Kosin was not always a tight end. He played wide receiver when he was younger, but shifted to tight end when he got bigger upon reaching high school. So he had that flair for big plays before he actually started out at tight end.
And he’s not the only tight end in his family. His older brother, Blake, plays the same position at Northwood, after transferring from Northern Illinois. They were high school teammates for one year, a season Brody relished.
“He’s kind of like a role model for me,” Brody said. “It’s awesome having that older brother figure with you. I think I modeled my game a lot like his, so that kind of helped in the long run.”
Kosin started playing football in third grade, but it wasn’t his first sports love. When he was younger, he wanted to become a baseball player. Kosin played third base in little league. But he stopped at age 12, when he realized he wasn’t very good.
He’s also played basketball for Clarkston, but he won’t in his senior year, as he’s planning to graduate early to arrive in Bloomington for spring camp in 2024.
Kosin had no reservations about being the first IU commit of his recruiting class. He actually committed to the Hoosiers staff three weeks before he announced it on social media. He wanted to leave time to properly call and inform all the other coaches and programs who offered him of his decision and to thank them for their interest. And he took two more visits to Bloomington in that span, to make certain everything felt right.
Once his mind was made up, he also started talking to other IU recruits to try and get them on board.
“The reason why I committed so early, I wanted to be a leader of my class. I wanted to reach out to other guys, try and build my 2024 class, try and build something at Indiana,” Kosin said. “I was trying to see who had offers from Indiana, and I was trying to reach out, tell them how great it is, to get on campus and visit, coach Allen is great, that type of deal.”
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