BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Carter Smith had a terrific season at left tackle for Indiana in 2025 and was one of the many reasons why the Hoosiers won their first football national championship.

But during that thrilling playoff run, the Big Ten's offensive lineman of the year, suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He played through it, but after the Hoosiers beat Miami 27-21 for the national title on Jan. 19, Smith had some decisions to make. 

He put up a lot of great film in 2025 as a redshirt junior, but with the impending surgery needed, he was concered with how that might affect his draft stock. So he opted to return to Indiana for another year, get the surgery and do more good work for the Hoosiers in 2026, which could improve his draft position even more.

His surgery might have been a blessing for the Hoosiers, getting another year out of their star left tackle. Good one, clearly, are very hard to find. 

"Yeah, I was definitely pondering probably putting my name into the draft this year," Smith said. "I think at the end of the day, I wanted to be able to put on film that even after an injury like this, where I need to have a full repair, that I can still put the same stuff on film.

"Sometimes that can pop up as a red flag for some (NFL) programs, and with it being my first time being like this, I have to prove that I can still go out and do all the same things."

Spring practice is going on now in Bloomington, and Smith will miss all of that. He said he'll be back to lifting within the next month and expects to be full-go by the time fall camp starts at the end of summer.

"Usually I'm the kind of guy to be able to run back up to the line two days after the game and still want to be able to hit something," Smith said. "So I am itching a little bit right now, that's for sure. Timeline wise, I see myself getting back for fall camp.

"With the surgery, I'm still going to be managing a lot of weightlifting this offseason. I'm not allowed to put a lot of pressure on it (shoulder), but that's going to change here in a few weeks. I'm just keeping it very manageable right now, getting back into running pretty slowly."

Smith, a Powell, Ohio native, went back home for the surgery to repair the labrum. "I had a good repair done by a lot of doctors back at home,'' he said. "So nothing precautionary, it was just part of the procedure."

Provided he's ready to go by the fall, he will anchor what should be another very good offensive line at Indiana. They've been honored two years in a row as a Joe Moore Award finalist, and could do it again this year.

Smith has been Indiana's starting left tackle for three years now, and Drew Evans and Bray Lynch are back, too. Adedamola Ajani saw plenty of action a year ago for the Hoosiers and former Wisconsin transfer Joe Brunner joined Indiana this winter from the transfer portal. 

We all know the value of offensive line play. We watched Indiana be horrible at football for decades because they couldn't compete along the line of scrimmage in the Big Ten.

They've fixed that under Curt Cignetti, on both sides of the ball. Much of the offensive line improvement — especially with holdover guys like Smith, Lynch and former center Mike Katic, a 2024 staple — started with Bob Bostad, who's one of best O-line coaches in the profession. They all got better individually, and played great as a group.

And when Katic graduated, the got Pat Coogan from Notre Dame in the transfer portal and he was great. So was Khalil Benson, who returned to IU after a year in Colorado. They've also recruited well, so there should be plenty of depth.

A lot of this guys are going to get plenty of work this spring, which is a good thing as well.

Throw all of that into the mix with a ton of talent at the skill positions, and the Hoosiers are going to be scary good again.

August can't get here soon enough, right? 

Here is the link to Indiana's complete 2026 schedule, with dates, locations, game times where available, plus newsy nuggets on all 12 opponents.