Black rushed for 1,040 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2025 to help Indiana roll to an improbable national championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat you’re resilient, man,\u201d he said at pro day of what he learned along the way. \u201cAnd you just always believe in God and keep Him first in everything. And I just feel like throughout the process it’s been very busy. Going from the national championship to the Senior Bowl to training, it’s just taught me a lot about myself and being always humble and never taking things for granted and just thanking God your body’s good through it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Black, who for some reason was not invited to the Scouting Combine, measured 5-foot-9 3\/4 and 211 pounds at pro day. He does not have enough testing numbers for a Relative Athletic Score, though The Athletic\u2019s Dane Brugler reported he ran his 40 in 4.45 seconds at pro day.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/x.com\/IndianaFootball\/status\/2039496027640574330<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI hope it did well for me,\u201d he said. \u201cJust it’s all in God’s hands at this point. I’m just ready to go out there and ball and show it to all the teams what I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n The testing results should have been no surprise. He was part of Bruce Feldman\u2019s coveted Freaks List<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s our biggest Freak for sure,\u201d defensive lineman Mikail Kamara via On3<\/a>. \u201cWhen he lifts, everything moves so fast. He\u2019s ridiculous. I\u2019ve never seen him struggle [in the weight room]. I saw him bench press 415 the other day, and it was butter. It touched his chest and went right back up. It looked like a warmup set. And he\u2019s hella fast.\u201d<\/p>\n Packers Have Questions at Running Back<\/p>\n The Packers have a need at running back. Josh Jacobs will lead the depth chart for a third consecutive season, but Emanuel Wilson signed with Seattle in free agency and MarShawn Lloyd has managed to play in only one game in two seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re certainly going to add competition to that room,\u201d Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said<\/a> last week at the owners meetings. \u201cBut I like whether it\u2019s MarShawn, as we get him healthy and get him going, Pierre Strong\u2019s there. There\u2019s guys we really like, but I\u2019m sure there will be more competition to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Indiana’s Kaelon Black (8) runs during the College Football Playoff National Championship game against Miami. | Rich Janzaruk\/Herald-Times \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n Black started his career at James Madison, where he rushed for 970 yards during two seasons, before following coach Curt Cignetti to Indiana for his final two seasons.<\/p>\n After a quiet 2024 season for the Hoosiers, he had a breakout final season that included 99 yards and one touchdown in the Rose Bowl against Alabama, 63 yards and two touchdowns in the Peach Bowl against Oregon and 79 yards in the championship game against Miami.<\/p>\n Black caught only eight passes during two seasons with Indiana but did catch 27 passes or 254 yards and four touchdowns for James Madison in 2023.<\/p>\n In 2025, Black averaged 5.6 yards per carry. Of that, 3.47 came after contact, according to Pro Football Focus.<\/p>\n While NFL.com\u2019s Lance Zierlein<\/a> called him a \u201cgrinder with below-average third-down value,\u201d PFF has him ranked No. 187 overall<\/a>. He\u2019s No. 181 on the Consensus Big Board<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI Can Do It All\u201d<\/p>\n PFF charged Black with two pressures allowed in 48 pass-protecting snaps last season.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I can do it all \u2013 pass protect, catch the ball and run the ball,\u201d he said at pro day. \u201cI hope I showed that today.\u201d<\/p>\n Not long after winning the national championship, Black was in Mobile, Ala., for the Senior Bowl.<\/p>\n \u201cI just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity,\u201d Black told reporters at the time<\/a>. \u201cBeing able to show the scouts what I can do immediately after something like a national championship. My body felt pretty good afterwards, and I just wanted to show the scouts what I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n Black, indeed, showed what he could do. He was one of 10 standouts from the week, according to NFL Network\u2019s Daniel Jeremiah.<\/p>\n \u201cI was surprised Black decided to participate in the Senior Bowl considering he had helped Indiana win its first ever national championship just a week earlier,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe decision speaks to his competitiveness and won\u2019t go unnoticed by NFL teams. And somehow, he didn\u2019t look like a guy who had just wrapped up a 16-game season. Everything he did was full speed.\u201d<\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t been smooth sailing for Black.<\/p>\n \u201cStarting off my freshman year [in 2020], I was faced with a heart condition that sidelined me for a month. There was a lot of uncertainty at that time,\u201d Black said via 13 News Now<\/a> in 2023. The following season, he suffered a torn ACL, an injury he called \u201cheartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n But he persevered, setting up his big season for the Hoosiers.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a great coachable kid who worked extra-hard in the weight room and in the classroom,\u201d his high school coach, Shawn Wilson, told PilotOnline.com<\/a>. \u201cHe pushed himself in the weight room and dedicated himself to lifting. That\u2019s rare for a high school kid. A lot of times, they\u2019re scared of those weights and don\u2019t want to lift. And he worked hard on the field. He didn\u2019t complain.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s just one of those old-school players where if your mama tells you to keep your mouth closed, you keep it closed. And that was him.\u201d<\/p>\n Black learned how to be a pro under Cignetti\u2019s focused approach<\/p>\n \u201cWhether that’s cooking, vacuuming, cleaning up the house, those certain things that you have that certain mindset from football that you learned from him,\u201d Black said via SI.com<\/a>. \u201cIt just kind of translates to your everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n Packers Predraft Visits<\/p>\n All-American defensive tackle<\/a> | Big-play receiver<\/a> | Tough-as-nails QB<\/a> | A top running back<\/a> | 99th percentile corner<\/a> | Rising Big Ten blocker<\/a> | Walk-on to NFL<\/a> | Round 3 pass rusher<\/a> | Hard-hitting linebacker<\/a> | Round 3 receiver<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Indiana's](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01knjgpw9wmqp22dhs5c.jpg\" "\\"Indiana's")
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