BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — One of Indiana coach Curt Cignetti’s worst nightmares came true in the Hoosiers’ season opener, and it had little do with his team’s offensive red zone inefficiency or two consequential defensive mistakes.
Indiana lost safety Bryson Bonds to a season-ending knee injury in the second quarter of the Hoosiers’ 27-14 win over Old Dominion on Aug. 30. While defending a kickoff with 3:36 remaining in the first half, Bonds became tangled with an Old Dominion player and fell to the ground. He struggled getting up, and when he did, he soon fell back down.
Bonds returned to the sideline in the second half with a brace on his leg and crutches under his arms. Cignetti confirmed in his press conference Monday that Bonds will miss the remainder of the year.
The 6-foot, 202-pound Bonds didn’t play any defensive snaps before his injury. He saw only 79 snaps on Indiana’s defense last season and didn’t eclipse 100 defensive snaps in any of his first five seasons.
But Bonds is a crucial loss. He’s a four-phase special teams player who saw 11 snaps in the first half alone against Old Dominion — six on kick coverage, one on kick return, two on punt coverage and two on punt return.
And defensively, Bonds, the longest-tenured player on Indiana’s roster, offered experience and depth at a safety position relatively thin on both.
Cignetti didn’t single-out safety as a specific area of concern entering the season, but the back line of the Hoosiers’ defense is low on scholarship players — and Cignetti worried about injuries dragging the number even lower.
“There's some spots we’re going to have to stay healthy, because we don’t have the depth at every single unit that you would like,” Cignetti said on his radio show Aug. 28. “As a coach, you can never have enough depth. But we do have some areas we’re really thin.”
Bonds aside, Indiana has six scholarship safeties. Amare Ferrell and Louis Moore started against Old Dominion, but Moore’s future is uncertain beyond Saturday’s game against Kennesaw State — he’s suing the NCAA for eligibility this fall, and his eligibility-granting temporary restraining order expires Sept. 10.
Elsewhere, prized freshman Byron Baldwin missed the season opener with an undisclosed injury and is day-to-day, Cignetti said. Baldwin and Bonds were the Hoosiers’ projected backup safeties this fall, and with Moore’s status up in the air, Indiana’s two-deep depth chart is full of questions on the back end.
The Hoosiers also have redshirt freshman Jah Jah Boyd and true freshmen Seaonta Stewart Jr. and Garrett Reese on scholarship.
Reese made his college debut against Old Dominion, playing six snaps on kick coverage. He joined receiver Lebron Bond as the only true freshmen to play in Week 1. Neither Stewart nor Boyd, who missed his true freshman season due to an injury, have appeared in game action.
Of Indiana’s six remaining scholarship safeties, only two — Ferrell and Moore — have played defensive snaps. Three others — Baldwin, Stewart and Boyd — haven’t seen the field.
Bonds’ injury heightens the stakes of Moore’s lawsuit. If Moore receives full-season eligibility, Indiana’s back line will have a pair of experienced starters with freshmen waiting in the wings. If Moore’s season abruptly ends from an NCAA decision, those freshmen will suddenly be forced into prominent roles.
And Cignetti’s biggest fear will become reality.