Indiana University Athletics
Looming Large – Caleb Jones and the Offensive Line Aim to ‘Win the Grind’
8/23/2021 9:30:00 AM | Football
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Film doesn't lie, so the coaching cliché goes, but roster sizes sometimes do. Listed heights and weights can clash against reality.
Still, by any measure, Caleb Jones is a mountain of a man. He looms large over the largest of groups, including Indiana's largest of all:
The offensive line.
Jones is listed at 6-8 and 362 pounds. That's the same weight he was listed at last season, when pandemic and other issues saw his weight rise and performance fall. But Jones knew the truth then (he topped 400 pounds), and knows it now (he's closer to 350).
He's too good a player (18 career starts the last 2 years), with too strong an upside for his final college season and, perhaps, for professional opportunity, to not play to his potential. That demands the best fitness of his career.
He understands that as never before.
"The No. 1 focus I had (for the offseason)," he says, "was getting my weight under control."
In 2019, Jones started all 13 games for an offense that ranked among the best in IU history. He earned honorable-mention all-Big Ten status.
Last season, Jones played in five of eight games. He received no conference honors.
"Last season, I did not perform the way that I should have and did not reach the goal I had in mind. I am sure a lot of people saw that in the way that I played, so this offseason was all about getting my weight under control, working as hard as I can so I can maximize the talents that I have this final season."
That goes beyond blocking.
"I am making sure that I am working hard and leading my teammates."
Having mostly normal winter, spring and summer training under senior assistant athletic director for football performance Aaron Wellman, Jones says, has made a big difference.
"It is almost night and day compared to last fall. Having the offseason helped in order for me to be successful. I am in better shape. I make the most out of our practices, go hard, and make the most of every day."
At Indianapolis Lawrence North High School, Jones was athletic enough to play basketball and compete in track as well as earn all-state football honors. He was the No. 12 prep football prospect in Indiana, and the No. 82 offensive tackle nationally by ESPN.
That potential made him a must-get recruit for offensive line coach Darren Hiller. He's seen flashes of dominance from Jones, and if he sees it all the time, well, saying fall camp has been encouraging is an understatement.
"It's been tremendous," Hiller says. "He and I have had these (improve-your-fitness) conversations since 2017, and I think in January he finally committed to it.
"He's a guy who when he has been in the building has always been great. He always worked -- whether it would be in the weight room or on the practice field -- it was a matter of what was he doing when he was outside of the building and the weight room. He battled that."
The battle looks won -- as long as there is no slipping back into bad habits.
"(His fitness) is showing up from a quickness standpoint," Hiller says. "He just looks better running, changing direction, and all of the movement that he's doing out there. It just shows up."
Showing up doesn't mean Jones is a finished product.
"There are always football things from an offensive lineman perspective that he's got to get cleaned up and take from the drill work to the team work," Hiller says.
Still …
"He's moving a lot better, and I can tell you he looks a lot better," Hiller adds. "I'm watching the film and you know how it is; when you're around the guys every day and you see them on a consistent basis, you forget what they used to look like.
"We were throwing on some film of 2019 and 2020, and looking at some things, and it was drastic when you see No. 77 in those two years compared to now. I look forward to him having a great football season."
Hiller wants greatness from the entire offensive line. The group struggled last season, a major reason why IU ranked 12th in the Big Ten in rushing at 108.6 yards a game.
"We are always trying to run the football," Hiller says. "There were times where we did run well, but there were games where we didn't.
"There's times that defenses are going to put more dudes in there than we can block. When they do that, we have to block the ones that we feel like schematically are more important."
Then it's up to the running back, Hiller adds.
"He's got to make a guy miss or run through a tackle if there's an extra dude in the box. He's got to do that. It's a mentality and it's got to be a mentality of just because they stacked the box doesn't mean we have to throw.
"There are answers to that, but we also have to be able to say you know what, we don't care how many dudes are in there.
"There were sometimes last year that we had to closeout a game and we were able to run the football, generate some first downs in late-game situations against heavy boxes. I think we proved that we can do it."
The biggest example was the Michigan victory, when the Hoosiers ran out the clock.
"But the consistency wasn't there," Hiller says. "It's just a grind. It's always getting through the details and being as best as we can in there and being tough enough and strong enough.
"The sky is the limit for this team," he says. "I truly believe we can go as far as we want to go as a unit, as far as we are willing to work."
As for the running game, Jones adds, "That has been our focus for most of this fall camp. We are making sure that we can open gaps for our running backs and making our offense as balanced as it should be. We are working on getting to the level we need to get to be successful."
Junior Matthew Bedford can vouch for that work.
"We have grown as far as our fundamentals and our technique," he says. "Personally, I have grown in pass protection. Last year, that was my Achilles heel, but this year I think I am going to be a lot stronger in that area.
"We are improving our fundamentals in the game and the things that you are going to fall back on in tough situations."
Like Jones, Bedford sees a big difference in the preparation.
"It has been good not being in the cohorts like we were last year," he says about the pandemic-caused restrictions. "Now that we are all allowed in the Team Room as an offensive line, we can form a better bond because we are all allowed to be together in one area. We can talk and communicate after practice about how we messed up a play or let me talk this person.
"Being able to have a face-to-face interaction has been great for us."
That should lead to better play.
"The communication has been tremendous," Bedford says. "For the offensive line to be able to communicate, talk with each other on a consistent basis during plays and when we are off the field has been great.
"It has been great being able to call plays during practice and communicate off the field. Also, it has been great to communicate our mistakes, correct those mistakes, and come out on the next play and make great things happen. That is all we care about."
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