Indiana football: True freshman RB likely to provide a spark for the offense

Before December 2021, Jaylin Lucas, a running back that’s every bit of 5-foot-9, was planning to play for Tulane his freshman year. But then comes Indiana football and Tom Allen, who saw Lucas play at a camp down south and fell in love.

As many Indiana football fans know, last season was one to forget, both on the offense and the defensive side of the ball. One of the primary focuses that Tom Allen and his coaching staff have been looking for is a “game-changer”.  Allen had this to say about the 17-year-old running back out of Louisiana:

"“Just the twitch, the burst, the acceleration to go from zero to full speed as fast as anybody that I’ve been around coaching wise, and then just a guy that has the complete package of a guy that has good ball skills, can catch, is a good running back, and just speed,”"

One of the first things Indiana football fans will be thinking of when thinking of a fast, playmaking football player should be Whop Philyor, who left the program after graduating in 2020 and led the Hoosiers in receiving in 2019 with 70 receptions for 1,002 receiving yards. Philyor was Allen’s all-around player that could make plays from anywhere on the field, which seems like that’ll be Lucas’ role as he grows and learns the ways behind new offensive coordinator, Walt Bell. Bell seems to be very high on Lucas’ abilities to make a strong impact as a true freshman:

"“He’s a really young kid.  He’s still 17 years-old, but he’s really far along how he prepares from a maturity standpoint in his approach to the game.”—“On the field he’s incredibly explosive.  He’s a guy that can go win in a 5-by-5 box, the first guy isn’t going to get him on the ground very much.  He’s had some really good explosive plays in the first five or six days of fall camp.”"

From the sounds of the coaching staff at Fall Camp, Lucas is panning out to be one of the stars of the new-look Indiana football offense as the program looks to reset from last season’s blunders and rebuild moving forward. Jaylin Lucas’ pinned tweet at the top of his Twitter page should give Hoosier Nation a glimpse as to what he can do on the field, especially in one-on-one situations.

https://twitter.com/jaylinlucas1/status/1401945379239776257