Veteran offensive lineman Kahlil Benson is officially the starting right tackle opposite side of left tackle Carter Smith for the 2025 season.
He joins a starting group that Cignetti said will feature Carter Smith at left tackle, Drew Evans at left guard, Pat Coogan at center and Bray Lynch at right guard.
Benson, who transferred to Colorado last offseason from Indiana, started the first four games of the 2024 season at right guard for the Buffs. He then missed most of the seasons games due to injury or was set as a rotational player on the offensive line.
Benson’s primary competition at right tackle has been Ohio State senior transfer Zen Michalski, who will back up the guard and tackle spots, Cignetti says.
"Kahlil Benson started at right tackle the year before I was hired here, and then when I got hired, he was in the portal already," Cignetti said. "Went to Colorado and heard such great things about the 'new Indiana,' he wanted to come back with his buddy Louis Moore.
"So, right now, he's the starting right tackle."
In the 2022 and 2023 seasons the 6-foot-6 and 310-pound Benson appeared in 24 career games for Indiana, with 17 starts. He played a total of 1,423 offensive snaps – 774 in 2023 and 649 in 2022 – with the Hoosiers.
In 2022, he played all 12 games, with five starts, for the Hoosiers. He missed the 2020 season with a torn ACL and redshirted in 2021.
The South Haven (MS) native that chose Indiana over other Power 5 offers, from Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee was a three-star recruit in the 2020 class according to 247Sports