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BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football filled a 300-plus pound hole on the defense during the spring portal window.
Coach Curt Cignetti told reporters before an NIL-related event at Huber’s Orchard and Winery on May 29 that the Hoosiers were looking for “help” on the interior coming out of spring practice and expressed plenty of excitement over landing one of the best defensive tackles available by signing Kent State lineman CJ West.
“A really big person that had good initial quickness, violent,” Cignetti said. “He made a lot of plays at the nose guard position.”
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Last year, Indiana had a four-man rotation at defensive tackle with Philip Blidi (444 snaps), Marcus Burris Jr. (437 snaps), Patrick Lucas Jr. (248 snaps) and LeDarrius Cox (248 snaps). Burris is the only one of those tackles left on the roster.
Blidi’s late entry in the portal ahead of spring camp highlighted how competitive the transfer market was for interior defenders. He signed with Auburn after receiving interest from a bevy of top Power Four schools including LSU, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Washington, Missouri, and Colorado.
Indiana faced similar competition for West that included plenty of blue bloods like Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida State.
West, who is listed as 6-foot-2 and 315-pounds, was third team All-MAC in 2023. He has 110 career tackles (54 solo) with 19.5 for a loss and 7.0 sacks. He’s played in 36 games as a three-year starter.
According to Pro Football Focus, he tied for eighth among defensive tackles with 24 stops against the run. The site defines stops as tackles that constitute a “failure” for the offense.
He’s been disruptive against Power Four competition as well with sacks in games against UCF, Georgia and Texas A&M.
“We gotta get him in shape and…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/indiana-football-defensive-tackle-cj-080334074.html
Author : The Herald-Times
Publish date : 2024-06-05 08:03:34
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