James Carpenter's escape from JMU gives IU one of college football's most-used DTs

BLOOMINGTON – New IU defensive tackle James Carpenter carried a heavier load than nearly any other defensive lineman in the country last season. Sitting the spring season to rehabilitate a surgically repaired shoulder counted as a well-earned rest.

But time off didn’t make much difference to the James Madison transfer. His position coach and his coordinator both came over from JMU as well, and his head coach is a man Carpenter has followed for five years.

The school may be new, the facility less familiar. Carpenter still got his feet straight under the table.

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“It was a pretty easy transition,” Carpenter told reporters after IU’s second fall practice Thursday. “I’ve been with coach (Curt) Cignetti for five years now, going on six. Very comfortable working with (defensive tackles) coach (Pat) Kuntz. We obviously had a lot of guys come over, so for the most part, the transition was pretty easy.”

Healthy and on the field, Carpenter figures to be a key figure for defense leaning into veteran transfers this fall.

Per Pro Football Focus, Carpenter played 736 defensive snaps last season, second most in FBS among interior defensive lineman. Only Jer'Zhan Newton made more (749 snaps), as they were only DTs with 700 or more snaps.

He started all 13 of James Madison’s games, including the bowl, logging 53 tackles, nine for loss, with four sacks, before entering the transfer portal. Like roughly a dozen other Dukes, across nearly every offensive and defensive position, Carpenter then elected to follow his coach to Bloomington.

Likely to play a key role for Cignetti’s remade defensive line this fall, Carpenter fits neatly into a front four that could be comprised entirely of transfers. Kent State tackle CJ West and fellow JMU transfer Mikail Kamara also figure prominently in defensive coordinator Bryant Haines’ plans, while the staff believes Jacob Mangum-Farrar — who transferred to IU before the 2023 season — can successfully navigate a move from linebacker to end.

There are a handful of other transfers and young players who might provide depth to a unit badly needing it. Carpenter himself said Thursday he believes the Hoosiers’ line rotation deep enough not to burden any one player too much.

That doesn’t minimize his importance. Cignetti could really use another workhorse year from Carpenter along the interior line, this time in cream and crimson.

“I take pride in that,” he said of his workload in 2023. “If my team needs me to do that, that’s what I’ve got to do. It’s really no option for me — if I’ve got to play every snap, I’ll play every snap.”

Eliminating mental mistakes

When Cignetti hammers keywords like “consistency,” “disciplined” and “poised” as the traits he wants to develop in his players through practice habits, there’s substance behind the cliche.

Every coach wants those intangibles. Cignetti has seen their quantifiable impact. His teams finished each of their two seasons in the Football Bowl Subdivision first in the Sun Belt in fewest penalty yards per game.

The Dukes also finished second in their conference in turnover margin last season, as well as top four in each of those seasons in sacks allowed.

As with a lot of what he’s introduced to his new team across the past eight months, Cignetti can point to tangible meaning behind his methods.

“We want to get these guys playing football the way we want them to play,” he said. “Always been one of the least penalized teams in the league, (second) in turnover ratio and very highly ranked in key statistical categories which lead to success.”

ODDS & ENDS

>> My colleague over at the Bloomington Herald-Times, Mike Niziolek, had a story earlier this week on sophomore safety Amare Ferrell’s early success under Cignetti. Ferrell appeared in all 12 games for the Hoosiers last season as a true freshman, and he could feature either as a safety or in the hybrid nickel role in Haines’ defense, where he worked some in the spring.

>> Cignetti name checked Bray Lynch, Drew Evans and Tyler Stephens as offensive linemen he’s hopeful can provide Indiana depth along the front this fall.

>> Part of Cignetti’s pre-camp process involved waiting until the latter part of July to deep-dive into spring-season film with his staff. The freshness of mind “gives you another perspective of what happened in the spring. It’s a great evaluation tool.”

>> Cignetti said Indiana’s staff will use that film review to inform the first 8-12 practices of the preseason, which will be broad-strokes and more inwardly focused. The Hoosiers won’t start zeroing in much on opponent study until after that.

>> Like Carpenter, James Madison transfer linebacker Jailin Walker missed the spring recovering from a shoulder injury. Walker is also healthy and active for fall camp.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: James Carpenter's escape from JMU gives IU one of college football's most-used DTs