FOX’s Gus Johnson had an 8 on the jersey and made a natural assumption during Indiana’s overtime win at Michigan: Josh Hoover’s pass must have gone to Charlie Becker.
It didn’t. It was Brock Schott.
That small detail says plenty about where Indiana’s tight end room stands right now. Becker is the easy name to circle - he leads the Hoosiers with 65 targets and 42 catches this season - while the tight ends as a group have only eight targets and six receptions combined.
That wasn’t supposed to be a strength early on, and Curt Cignetti made that clear all the way back in the spring. The Indiana coach said his young tight end group was the biggest unknown on his third Hoosier team.
It made sense. All five tight ends on the roster were freshmen in class, either true or redshirt, and none had real college experience on their résumé.
Now, as the season has worn on, three of them have started to separate themselves a bit, and all three are from the northern half of Indiana.
Trevor Gibbs has played the most of the bunch, logging 231 offensive snaps. That still isn’t even close to half of the 491 plays Indiana’s offense has run so far, which is a pretty good snapshot of how unsettled the room has been.
Gibbs, a Crown Point native, caught Cignetti’s attention in fall camp before a hamstring injury slowed his start. He didn’t make his season debut until Week 3.
“He’s been coming on, really a smart player,” Cignetti said of Gibbs Thursday on his radio show.
Andrew Barker of Kokomo and Brock Schott of Fort Wayne have also been in the mix, with 151 and 144 snaps, respectively. The rotation has stayed fluid for a few different reasons.
Barker has appeared in five games on offense. For a stretch, he looked like he might be moving into the lead role, but an injury seems to have interrupted that progress, at least for the moment.
Schott, meanwhile, is the one who has recently started to look like the player many figured would be a full-time starter when the year began. He arrived as a consensus 4-star recruit and a top-25 tight end in his class, but after spending one season at Miami, he missed spring practice. Like the rest of the room, he was uneven early.
Then came Saturday in Ann Arbor.
Schott was the tight end on the receiving end of Hoover’s overtime seam route, a 21-yard catch that set up the quarterback’s touchdown run on the very next snap. Gus Johnson may have missed the target in real time, but Cignetti didn’t. In fact, the coach said he saw this coming.
It likely wasn’t accidental that Indiana went to Schott on the first play of overtime.
“The other guy that’s playing out there and getting better every week I think is Brock Schott,” Cignetti said. “I think he’s got a nice upside as well. There’s no doubt.”
Indiana’s offense has been stuck in a rough patch lately, averaging just 16 points over its last three games. Nebraska, Ohio State and Michigan are all strong defenses, and Minnesota is set to bring another tough test Saturday.
Still, the Hoosiers may need to find production in places beyond Becker, Nick Marsh and the run game if they want to keep the offense moving. That could mean more work for the tight ends, more throws to slot receivers and more quarterback runs.
In Michigan, with the game hanging in the balance, that’s exactly where Indiana looked.
“Those are things that have a chance, yeah,” Cignetti said.
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Another tense afternoon at Memorial Stadium ended with Indiana finding just enough to survive, as the Hoosiers slipped past Minnesota 23-16 in overtime. It was the kind of game that had plenty of clean chances to get away from them, but instead turned into a grind filled with turnovers, special teams miscues and long stretches where neither offense could find much rhythm.
Indiana still had to lean on timely execution late, including a field goal that tied the game and forced overtime after the Hoosiers had spent much of the day trading punches with a stubborn Minnesota team. Josh Hoover and Grant Wilson both helped move scoring drives along, but the bigger takeaway for Indiana fans was familiar: this team keeps finding ways to escape, even when the margin for error disappears. [Read more 🡒]
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This time, though, the payoff never came, and the near miss was the kind fans will remember because it felt so close. The segment still closed with a splash of Indiana flavor, as special guest Isiah Thomas joined in to make his picks ahead of the Hoosiers Big Ten game, but the missed kicks left Bloomington with a little extra sting and a lot of what-if conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Heads Into Bye Week With A Quarterback Problem Fans Noticed
Indiana got through Minnesota 23-16 in overtime, but the win came with enough rough edges to keep the bye week busy. Special teams mistakes helped make things harder than they needed to be, and the offense never found much rhythm before the Hoosiers leaned on their defense to keep the game within reach and eventually finish it off.
Grant Wilson took over for Josh Hoover at quarterback after halftime, a move that changed the feel of the offense and ultimately produced the game-winning touchdown in overtime. Even with the result in hand, the quarterback situation is now one of the biggest questions on the table as Indiana heads into a week off with plenty to sort through. [Read more 🡒]