{"id":73928,"date":"2025-05-23T22:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T22:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/73928\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T22:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T22:18:09","slug":"opposing-big-ten-coach-says-indiana-football-ol-is-much-improved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/73928\/","title":{"rendered":"Opposing Big Ten coach says Indiana football OL is much improved"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Indiana<\/a> football saw one of the more drastic changes in just one offseason \u2014 not every little detail was able to reach the level of success that the program as a whole saw. With the game of football being won in the trenches, it\u2019s imperative to be able to win the line of scrimmage, and unfortunately, that was one area that Indiana struggled in during its two losses. <\/p>\n

Despite seeing a massive shift from the 2023 to 2024 seasons and Indiana football putting a much-improved offensive line on the field last year, it still wasn\u2019t at the level it needed to be in order to be a game-changer. <\/p>\n

Led by offensive line coach Bob Bostad, the only coach who stayed in the coaching change from Tom Allen to Curt Cignetti, IU\u2019s offensive line was a semifinalist for the Joe Moore award \u2014 given to the top offensive line in the country. <\/p>\n

But there was still a ways to go and it was shown in losses to Ohio State and Notre Dame. Indiana ran for 2.3 yards a carry against Notre Dame and 2.1 yards against Ohio State. The result were the only two losses of the season. It was also against the two most physical teams on IU\u2019s schedule. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve probably got more depth than we do,\u201d Cignetti said after IU\u2019s loss to the Irish in the College Football Playoff. \u201cThey probably have some front-line guys that are just a little bit bigger, stronger, faster than our guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have good players.\u00a0 And they won the line of scrimmage. They won the one-on-one match-ups on the perimeter. They affected the quarterback and they swarmed to the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

So this offseason it was a point of emphasis to retain its core from the improved group, and add depth and production. <\/p>\n

That resulted in additions from ex-Hoosier and former Colorado lineman Kahlil Benson<\/a>, Notre Dame\u2019s Pat Coogan<\/a> and Ohio State\u2019s Zen Michalski <\/a>\u2014 combining for 91 appearances in their careers. Add in the return of Carter Smith<\/a>, Bray Lynch<\/a> and the eventual return of Drew Evans<\/a> and Indiana\u2019s group is even more improved from a season ago.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Athlon Sports\u2019 annual College Football Preview release, it\u2019s sharing anonymous Big Ten coaches\u2019 comments<\/a> about opponents this season. The biggest takeaway from one opposing coach in regards to Indiana football? The improved offensive line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019ve improved the O-line enough to stay in games against top-level, physical defenses,\u201d said one coach.<\/p>\n

Outside of Indiana\u2019s two losses last year, it averaged 5.1 yards a carry \u2014 a vast difference than against the Irish and Buckeyes.<\/p>\n

While the improvement from year-to-year was massive from that group, it was pivotal this offseason get better, deeper and more versatile. All of which seem to be checked off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like our line a lot. I think we\u2019ve got potential to be really good,\u201d Cignetti said on the Always College Football Podcast<\/a> with Greg McElroy. \u201cI like our line, I think we can be better than last season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not yet a member of TheHoosier? Take advantage of our launch with On3 and join our community<\/a>! Just $1 for your FIRST MONTH and then 50% off the rest of your FIRST YEAR! Join here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Indiana football saw one of the more drastic changes in just one offseason \u2014 not every little…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,723,20593,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-73928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-in","10":"tag-indiana-hoosiers-bloomington","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114559471058260111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}