As IU opened its first official practice of the season Wednesday morning, IU Coach Kevin Wilson, assistant coaches and select players addressed the media in what was similar to Big Ten Media Days in Chicago on July 25th and 26th.
With questions still remaining in recruiting, the quarterback competition and the punting position, the Hoosiers began their season after a 6-7 2015 season that ended with an overtime bowl game loss to Duke in New York City.
Wilson also clarified the release of a primitive depth chart saying that there is no firm depth chart and many positions are still being decided throughout practice performance.
Quarterbacks
Wilson said there wasn’t any fresh news on the quarterback competition between junior Zander Diamont, junior transfer Richard Lagow and sophomore Danny Cameron.
He said that the coaching staff isn’t looking for a fair competition though, giving the bulk of practice reps to Diamont and Lagow while the other quarterbacks earn their practice snaps.
“We're not going to be equal, not trying to be fair,” Wilson said. “A few years ago I tried to be equal and fair, and all I did was make everybody mad, and they got equal reps and equal throws and equal opportunity and everybody was getting mad. We were trying to be so fair to everyone that, egos got involved.”
Punters
With former Hoosier Eric Toth graduating from the program after last season, IU is in search of a new starting punter. Wilson didn’t name a starter, but he did mention sophomore Joseph Gedeon.
While Gedeon is a punter, Wilson said that the sophomore has a lot of athletic ability, running a 4.40 40-yard dash and owning a vertical of nearly 38 inches.
Scholarships
With the Hoosiers having 13 verbal commitments for the Class of 2017, Wilson addressed the idea of becoming selective in who the Hoosiers offer for the rest of the class.
He said that the team plans on bringing in 18 to 21 recruits in the class, as the team has brought in four in just the last week.
The program also maintains “five or six” scholarships for walk-ons for the 2016 season. If the scholarships are not used by the coaching staff, they can be utilized in the Class of 2017.
Twitter in recruiting
A new rule proposed by the NCAA this year allows coaches to “retweet” or “like” tweets sent by recruits throughout the recruiting process.
Wilson said he’s cautious with using Twitter as an interaction with recruits in fear of NCAA recruiting violations.
“Right now I'm getting a bunch of texts from people saying, ‘Hope you had a great summer. Best of luck this season,’ and it's just a phone number,” Wilson said. “If I reply to that and it happened to be a sophomore recruit, that's an illegal text message.”
Donavan Hale
At Big Ten Media Days, sophomore Donavan Hale was listed as a quarterback after he made the switch last season from wide receiver. Wilson announced Wednesday though that Hale is switching back to receiver.
The coach said Hale could potentially do well at either position, so he left it up to the sophomore to choose what was best for him.
“I don't want him going back and forth,” Wilson said. “He does have a redshirt if needed. I think he's settled in. He's a solid (6-foot-4). He’s 215 give or take. I think we've got four receivers over 215, 225 pounds, counting (junior Jordan) Fuchs and (junior) Ian Thomas who are athletic tight ends. So he's a big target, has a good skillset.”
