Redshirts Rarin' To Go
3/22/2018 4:48:00 PM | Football
By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com
Even sitting down, Caleb Jones is still a large young man.
And Indiana football fans will finally get to see Jones in all his 6-foot-8, 360-pound glory next fall as the redshirt freshman officially joins the fray afield.
Jones and five other redshirt frosh, all of whom figure to see the field in 2018, sat down with the media following Thursday's practice that marked the resumption of IU's spring sessions after last week's spring break hiatus.
Defensive backs Bryant Fitzgerald and Juwan Burgess, linebackers Mo Burnam and Thomas Allen and tight end Peyton Hendershot joined Jones in giving their takes on having redshirted.
And one common theme was a joy about getting back on the field.
"There was no better feeling than that," said Fitzgerald, a standout from Avon. "Strapping on the helmet and putting the shoulder pads on and seeing your teammates to your left and your right, in front of you and behind you.
"It's a great feeling to have out there. There's no feeling like it. I love being back on the field."
Fitzgerald, compelled to sit last fall through no fault of his own, feels like he still benefited from the time away from the field.
'It was … 'Man, this is different. I've never sat out a year,' " he recalled. "It was definitely a shock to me, but in other ways it was a good thing, though.
"You got time to experience college. (You see) how you work out and you see players play. I still got a lot of practices in to see how they perform on the field. It was very beneficial in so many ways. I got ahead in schoolwork. It benefitted me in different ways.
"It wasn't as tough as it may have seemed. Everybody makes mistakes. Mistakes happen. God never puts you in a situation that you can't handle. You just have to embrace it and then move on and grow from it."
And a year's growth can help make a freshman more competitive.
"(A redshirt year can help) that transition from high school to college," Allen said. "You're playing against grown men every snap. You're going up against (a) big-time guy. And when you're doing that, it's different.
"So I think that redshirt year is a (good) time you get to focus on yourself, on getting bigger, faster, stronger each day."
Jones has seen that, personally.
"Everything that I did in high school has improved since I've gotten here," said Jones, nimble enough at his size to play the demanding left tackle position. "But the main thing I'd say has went up is the 'power profile,' which is something Dr. (Matt) Rhea works on a lot. It's how much power you can put out for the size that you are."
Jones was already sizable as a two-time all-state performer at Lawrence North, but now can do more with that physique.
"In high school, I had no idea," he said. "But here I've definitely noticed that as my squat and bench have gone up, my athletic ability goes up as well."
And Jones, who said he's gotten more used to 5:20 a.m. wake-up calls as a freshman, now hopes to apply his better conditioning to the field.
"Just every play, giving my all," Jones said. "I'm a big guy, so I get gassed pretty easily – or, well, I used to. I work on that every day, just giving 100 percent every rep, so I can make sure I'm 'the guy' when I'm out there on the field.
"Those first drives, when I first got here, you know that tempo offense is something. It was hard to keep up, at first, but I'm definitely getting better at that every day."
Hendershot, who played in the first four games last fall before taking a medical redshirt, has only recently gotten back to the conditioning regimen.
"Because I got hurt, I didn't get to work out much," said Hendershot, a multi-sport star for Class 3A state title-caliber teams at Hendricks County's Tri-West High School. "I'm just now getting back into all that – not that I've maxed out or anything – but I've put on about six pounds.
"I came in at about 240 (pounds) and I'm at 246 right now. That's good. I want to get to 250 before the season."
Hendershot also wants to better master a college playbook much more extensive than he knew in high school, and to learn how to block better – and to better emulate departed tight end Ian Thomas, who shined at the recent NFL Draft Combine.
"Blocking -- that's what Coach (Mike) DeBord wants me to do, get lower when I'm blocking, because I'm so tall," said Hendershot, a rangy 6-4. "Coach DeBord is a really good coach.
"When I was in high school, I played receiver, so I never really blocked. When I got here, it was good to have him – and Danny Friend, a senior last year who helped me out a lot."
Jones looks to veterans such as junior Coy Cronk, the returning starter at left tackle, and senior left guard Wes Martin for inspiration and guidance.
"There are a lot of guys on the team that I'd say I look up to," Jones said. "Wes Martin being one. Coy Cronk. You know, I'm right behind him, and he teaches me a lot every day. Just watching guys go out and dominate, making me want to do the same thing, basically."
Burnam could look to All-American Tegray Scales and honorable mention All-Big Ten performer Chris Covington setting the example at linebacker.
"I felt kind of down about the redshirt thing," said Burnam, who had 111 tackles as a senior for Salem High in Conyers, Ga., "but at the end of the day, I knew it was the best thing for me and the team, just to have that year off and learn from the guys ahead of me, like Tegray, Chris Covington. Guys like that, I was learning from. It helped me out a lot.
"Tegray, Chris, those guys were studs since Day 1 of their freshman years. What I learned from them really helped me out a lot … just being a leader. Just being talkative, outworking everybody, competing every day."
Scales and Covington are graduating, along with six other starters from last season's defense, but Burnam doesn't see a drop-off in ability on that side of the ball.
"It's been pretty good," he said of the defensive performance so far this spring. "I know we lost half of our starters from last year, but we haven't lost talent. The ones are just as (good) as the twos, and the twos are just as (good) as the ones. We're just trying to compete every day."
Fitzgerald said he draws inspiration in the defensive secondary from "the energy and effort" of senior safety Jonathan Crawford and redshirt sophomore Husky Marcelino Ball (himself coming off a medical redshirt).
Burgess also looks to Crawford, a fellow Floridian, and relishes playing alongside high school teammates such as Allen and receiver Whop Philyor – all of whom played for a Tampa Plant team that made the state 7A title game.
"It's pretty much the same feeling as high school," Burgess said. "It's just now we're on a different level. We're more mature and more teed up. More 'lit,' to be exact.
"It's very fun, I can say that. The pipeline from Indiana to Florida is very strong. I'm looking forward to more Floridians coming in … I'm here with family. That's what a lot of people ask me, 'Oh, why'd you choose Indiana?' I'm here with family. Family sticks with you forever."
It is literally family for Allen. His dad is the Hoosier head coach.
"It's different," Allen said about playing for his father. "It's a cool experience. It's one I got to pick. At first I was like, 'Heck, no, I'm not playing for my dad.' I heard some guys, got to talk to some guys who did it. And at the end of the day, it was, 'He'll always see you play, or he'll never see you play.'
"I'm real close to my dad, real close to my mom, real close to my family. So I wanted them to see me play … I wanted my grandparents to see me play. They're an hour-and-a-half, two hours up the road. And my grandpa (another Coach Allen, who coached the IU head honcho at New Castle) is my best friend. I want him to see me play all the time. So that was it."
The Allens have lived in several states, as customary to college coaching lifestyles, but young Thomas knows where his roots are.
"At the end of the day, it's 'I'm here because I want to play for my dad,' but I'm (also) here because I was born in Indiana," he said. "I'm from here. I want to play for here. I want to do great things here. And it's just a cool experience that I get to play for my dad."
And alongside Plant teammates.
"It's awesome," Allen said. "And we've got Micah (McFadden, another Plant linebacker, part of IU's 2018 recruiting class) coming up soon. It's cool. You grow up with those guys. I didn't get to grow up with them as much as they got to grow up with each other – I was down there for two years – but it's a cool experience.
"It's cool just to have those guys with you every day. They're my best friends. Any day something goes wrong, I'm going to them every time. When you have that bond, when you've gotten to play together – you know, Juwan (Burgess) and I were on the same side, defensively. Whop (on offense) talked a bunch of crap! And now in college it's the same feel, but at a new level. It's a great experience to have with your friends, and we hope to have a couple more (come up)."
It's one thing to share other elements of college life with high school friends, but Burgess is especially happy his redshirt autumn is over and he's back in position to share the football field with them. He feels more mature. And ready to play.
"It feels amazing, honestly," Burgess said. "Football is all I knew. When I had it taken away from me, it made me focus more on maturing as a man. Now that I'm back out here, I can just have fun and do what I do best."
IUHoosiers.com
Even sitting down, Caleb Jones is still a large young man.
And Indiana football fans will finally get to see Jones in all his 6-foot-8, 360-pound glory next fall as the redshirt freshman officially joins the fray afield.
Jones and five other redshirt frosh, all of whom figure to see the field in 2018, sat down with the media following Thursday's practice that marked the resumption of IU's spring sessions after last week's spring break hiatus.
Defensive backs Bryant Fitzgerald and Juwan Burgess, linebackers Mo Burnam and Thomas Allen and tight end Peyton Hendershot joined Jones in giving their takes on having redshirted.
And one common theme was a joy about getting back on the field.
"There was no better feeling than that," said Fitzgerald, a standout from Avon. "Strapping on the helmet and putting the shoulder pads on and seeing your teammates to your left and your right, in front of you and behind you.
"It's a great feeling to have out there. There's no feeling like it. I love being back on the field."
Fitzgerald, compelled to sit last fall through no fault of his own, feels like he still benefited from the time away from the field.
'It was … 'Man, this is different. I've never sat out a year,' " he recalled. "It was definitely a shock to me, but in other ways it was a good thing, though.
"You got time to experience college. (You see) how you work out and you see players play. I still got a lot of practices in to see how they perform on the field. It was very beneficial in so many ways. I got ahead in schoolwork. It benefitted me in different ways.
"It wasn't as tough as it may have seemed. Everybody makes mistakes. Mistakes happen. God never puts you in a situation that you can't handle. You just have to embrace it and then move on and grow from it."
And a year's growth can help make a freshman more competitive.
"(A redshirt year can help) that transition from high school to college," Allen said. "You're playing against grown men every snap. You're going up against (a) big-time guy. And when you're doing that, it's different.
"So I think that redshirt year is a (good) time you get to focus on yourself, on getting bigger, faster, stronger each day."
Jones has seen that, personally.
"Everything that I did in high school has improved since I've gotten here," said Jones, nimble enough at his size to play the demanding left tackle position. "But the main thing I'd say has went up is the 'power profile,' which is something Dr. (Matt) Rhea works on a lot. It's how much power you can put out for the size that you are."
Jones was already sizable as a two-time all-state performer at Lawrence North, but now can do more with that physique.
"In high school, I had no idea," he said. "But here I've definitely noticed that as my squat and bench have gone up, my athletic ability goes up as well."
And Jones, who said he's gotten more used to 5:20 a.m. wake-up calls as a freshman, now hopes to apply his better conditioning to the field.
"Just every play, giving my all," Jones said. "I'm a big guy, so I get gassed pretty easily – or, well, I used to. I work on that every day, just giving 100 percent every rep, so I can make sure I'm 'the guy' when I'm out there on the field.
"Those first drives, when I first got here, you know that tempo offense is something. It was hard to keep up, at first, but I'm definitely getting better at that every day."
Hendershot, who played in the first four games last fall before taking a medical redshirt, has only recently gotten back to the conditioning regimen.
"Because I got hurt, I didn't get to work out much," said Hendershot, a multi-sport star for Class 3A state title-caliber teams at Hendricks County's Tri-West High School. "I'm just now getting back into all that – not that I've maxed out or anything – but I've put on about six pounds.
"I came in at about 240 (pounds) and I'm at 246 right now. That's good. I want to get to 250 before the season."
Hendershot also wants to better master a college playbook much more extensive than he knew in high school, and to learn how to block better – and to better emulate departed tight end Ian Thomas, who shined at the recent NFL Draft Combine.
"Blocking -- that's what Coach (Mike) DeBord wants me to do, get lower when I'm blocking, because I'm so tall," said Hendershot, a rangy 6-4. "Coach DeBord is a really good coach.
"When I was in high school, I played receiver, so I never really blocked. When I got here, it was good to have him – and Danny Friend, a senior last year who helped me out a lot."
Jones looks to veterans such as junior Coy Cronk, the returning starter at left tackle, and senior left guard Wes Martin for inspiration and guidance.
"There are a lot of guys on the team that I'd say I look up to," Jones said. "Wes Martin being one. Coy Cronk. You know, I'm right behind him, and he teaches me a lot every day. Just watching guys go out and dominate, making me want to do the same thing, basically."
Burnam could look to All-American Tegray Scales and honorable mention All-Big Ten performer Chris Covington setting the example at linebacker.
"I felt kind of down about the redshirt thing," said Burnam, who had 111 tackles as a senior for Salem High in Conyers, Ga., "but at the end of the day, I knew it was the best thing for me and the team, just to have that year off and learn from the guys ahead of me, like Tegray, Chris Covington. Guys like that, I was learning from. It helped me out a lot.
"Tegray, Chris, those guys were studs since Day 1 of their freshman years. What I learned from them really helped me out a lot … just being a leader. Just being talkative, outworking everybody, competing every day."
Scales and Covington are graduating, along with six other starters from last season's defense, but Burnam doesn't see a drop-off in ability on that side of the ball.
"It's been pretty good," he said of the defensive performance so far this spring. "I know we lost half of our starters from last year, but we haven't lost talent. The ones are just as (good) as the twos, and the twos are just as (good) as the ones. We're just trying to compete every day."
Fitzgerald said he draws inspiration in the defensive secondary from "the energy and effort" of senior safety Jonathan Crawford and redshirt sophomore Husky Marcelino Ball (himself coming off a medical redshirt).
Burgess also looks to Crawford, a fellow Floridian, and relishes playing alongside high school teammates such as Allen and receiver Whop Philyor – all of whom played for a Tampa Plant team that made the state 7A title game.
"It's pretty much the same feeling as high school," Burgess said. "It's just now we're on a different level. We're more mature and more teed up. More 'lit,' to be exact.
"It's very fun, I can say that. The pipeline from Indiana to Florida is very strong. I'm looking forward to more Floridians coming in … I'm here with family. That's what a lot of people ask me, 'Oh, why'd you choose Indiana?' I'm here with family. Family sticks with you forever."
It is literally family for Allen. His dad is the Hoosier head coach.
"It's different," Allen said about playing for his father. "It's a cool experience. It's one I got to pick. At first I was like, 'Heck, no, I'm not playing for my dad.' I heard some guys, got to talk to some guys who did it. And at the end of the day, it was, 'He'll always see you play, or he'll never see you play.'
"I'm real close to my dad, real close to my mom, real close to my family. So I wanted them to see me play … I wanted my grandparents to see me play. They're an hour-and-a-half, two hours up the road. And my grandpa (another Coach Allen, who coached the IU head honcho at New Castle) is my best friend. I want him to see me play all the time. So that was it."
The Allens have lived in several states, as customary to college coaching lifestyles, but young Thomas knows where his roots are.
"At the end of the day, it's 'I'm here because I want to play for my dad,' but I'm (also) here because I was born in Indiana," he said. "I'm from here. I want to play for here. I want to do great things here. And it's just a cool experience that I get to play for my dad."
And alongside Plant teammates.
"It's awesome," Allen said. "And we've got Micah (McFadden, another Plant linebacker, part of IU's 2018 recruiting class) coming up soon. It's cool. You grow up with those guys. I didn't get to grow up with them as much as they got to grow up with each other – I was down there for two years – but it's a cool experience.
"It's cool just to have those guys with you every day. They're my best friends. Any day something goes wrong, I'm going to them every time. When you have that bond, when you've gotten to play together – you know, Juwan (Burgess) and I were on the same side, defensively. Whop (on offense) talked a bunch of crap! And now in college it's the same feel, but at a new level. It's a great experience to have with your friends, and we hope to have a couple more (come up)."
It's one thing to share other elements of college life with high school friends, but Burgess is especially happy his redshirt autumn is over and he's back in position to share the football field with them. He feels more mature. And ready to play.
"It feels amazing, honestly," Burgess said. "Football is all I knew. When I had it taken away from me, it made me focus more on maturing as a man. Now that I'm back out here, I can just have fun and do what I do best."
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