DONE DEAL: Hoosiers Land super talented 3-Star DB
The Indiana Hoosiers gained their third commitment to the recruiting class of 2025 in Illinois defensive back Garrett Reese. The La Grange Park, IL native is rated a three-star prospect by 247Sports and is listed at 6’2” and 170 pounds.
Reese has good length to play in the secondary and figures to play in the new ‘Rover’ position in Byrant Haynes’ defense. He played both ways in high school and was offered by IU early in February. Reese has offers from 10 schools, but IU was his only Power Four offer so far.
On his NCSA Sports profile, Reese decribes himself as:
“I am a high character young man that comes from an athletic family. Both parents and older brother played at the collegiate level, along with my uncles, aunts and cousins. I inherited great genes and have been working on and dreaming about playing football at a higher level since I can remember. I love this game, along with the character building and camaraderie that comes with it. I am goal driven and will work hard to achieve common team goals. I am motivated to win and winning brings me joy. I have good football instincts to depend on to make plays.”
Here are his highlights.
New Indiana Hoosiers running backs coach John Miller was a recent guest on Under the Hood with IU Football hosted by Rhett Lewis. Miller, an Indiana native, has a simple mission for his room.
“We’re going to ask our back to do everything.” Miller said.
When Miller says everything, he means it.
“Obviously running between the tackles, the different run schemes that we had within our offense, but pass protection is one thing we’re big on.” Miller explained. “I’m coaching and I’m preaching it every single day. And just the way we incorporate our guys in the in the in the pass game (with) different routes coming out of the backfield you know, empty formations, putting them in the slot.”
The Hoosiers will have many new faces in the backfield in 2024 as Josh Henderson declared for the NFL draft, Christian Turner exhausted his eligibility and Jaylin Lucas transferred to Florida State. However, IU returns 2023 leading rusher Trent Howland and brings in a quartet of transfers as well as true freshman Khobie Martin.
“Our goal is to create the all purpose back. You got to be able to be the third in one back and you got to be able to run routes out of the backfield. That’s why I say we’ve been successful, because we’ve been fortunate to have those type of guys at JMU. And I think we got those guys in my room this year, too.” Miller said of his room at IU.
Miller will be reunited with two running backs he coached at James Madison in Ty Son Lawton and Kaelon Black.
Despite all of the new faces in the running backs room and the limited time they have been together, they are meshing together well.
“They’ve all come together. We preach about being a family and and that’s where we are. They all got each other’s back. They push each other in the workouts, but they all know it’s coming out of love and being very genuine with each other. So they’ve come together well and again, I think that’s why we’re going to be very successful.” Miller said of his group.
The Hoosiers start spring practice on March 21st and will hold their spring football game on Thursday, April 18th at 8pm in Bloomington.
