Former Bloomington North star Aaron Steinfeldt shows he belongs in first IU football start

BLOOMINGTON — Aaron Steinfeldt caught a pass in the flat and saw nothing but green and then red in front of him. The former Bloomington North High School star began high-stepping before he crossed the goal line, then got to the back of the end zone and started flexing. He turned around and leapt into the arms of center Mike Katic, came down and held the ball up in the air wondering if someone could take it for safekeeping, then leapt into the arms of classmate and friend Cooper Jones, who was about to line up as one of the protectors on the extra point team.

It was a moment Steinfeldt had been waiting much of his life for, ever since his family moved to Bloomington in 2007 when his father took a job as a sports psychology professor at IU. He had actually caught a field goal attempt in the knothole park that used to be behind Memorial Stadium's south end zone, the same end zone he was scoring in.

"I remember seeing red in the end zone," Steinfeldt said. "It was just a bunch of raw emotion. All of that hard work I put in the offseason just paid off in that moment. ... Feeling that in the end zone celebrating with my teammates was an awesome thing for me, being a guy from Bloomington most of my life, being in front of a crowd that's mostly Bloomington, representing my city and my family. It was an awesome feeling."

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But it only lasted for about two minutes before it was taken away. The Hoosiers lined up for an extra point, but officials stopped play for a review and found that IU wide receiver Cam Camper, who was running a pick route to the inside to try to spring Steinfeldt open on the outside, had been a little overzealous and effectively blocked Steinfeldt's man. It was an extremely late call, but also a pretty clear case of offensive pass interference, so Steinfeldt's first career touchdown was wiped away.

"I'll have more opportunities," Steinfeldt said.

Indeed he will. The touchdown was a highlight, albeit a fleeting one, in Steinfeldt's first collegiate start and it's possible he has more of those coming his way soon.

The redshirt freshman had a very strong offseason to put himself third on IU's depth chart coming out of preseason camp. The Hoosiers rarely but occasionally use three tight ends, so that was enough to get him on the field some in the season's first three games, catching a pass for 14 yards against Western Kentucky. Then the two tight ends ahead of him went down with injuries. Backup James Bomba Jr., a former Bloomington South star, has been out since the Cincinnati game, and tight end AJ Barner was injured and held out for the Michigan game Saturday, which put Steinfeldt in the starting role.

Losing two tight ends wasn't exactly optimal for the Hoosiers' scuffling offense, but tight ends coach Kevin Wright still had an option he trusted in Steinfeldt.

"He was probably the third or fourth guy in fall camp and you don't get a ton of reps in that position," Wright said. "But just watching him progress, he's always had tremendous ball skills and been a really good route runner. Just being a young guy, the physicality of the game, being technically sound in different things we ask him to do in run blocking and pass pro is where he's really gotten better."

Wright never had any doubts about Steinfeldt as a pass-catching tight end from the time he was recruited. The 6-5, 245-pounder was a three-sport star at Bloomington North, becoming the first athlete in 20 years to earn all-conference honors in football, basketball and baseball. He finished his football career with 94 receptions, the second-highest figure in North history, 1,444 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns. Steinfeldt only started playing football in ninth grade — his Bloomington Catholic grade school, St. Charles, never had enough boys sign up for football to have a team, he said, even though he signed up every year he was asked. But his natural athleticism made running routes and catching passes a pretty easy skill for him to master.

"I think those help me be multi-dimensional," Steinfeldt said. "Baseball obviously develops good hand-eye coordination and ball skills on the perimeter and good body control. Basketball taught me how to be explosive, just the burst after the catch or after the block, and just body position, staying in bounds and staying on blocks."

But what players with Steinfeldt's pedigree are less used to doing is blocking, particularly blocking players that are bigger than them. Blocking defensive backs on the perimeter comes easy. Blocking linebackers is a little harder and blocking defensive ends and tackles is generally a totally different world than what they're used to, as their high school opponents almost never had 270-pounders on the edge or 310-pounders in the middle.

So getting used to blocking those kinds of players has been Steinfeldt's developmental focus since joining the program last fall after he'd played his senior basketball and baseball season.

"It's just time," Steinfeldt said. "When I first got here, I was this young kid, 18, hadn't really experienced blocking guys my size or bigger. But I think just overall, spring ball, coming into fall camp, it's just an intensity. Trying to get into guys, trying to move them off the line of scrimmage and just try to create space for the running back to help get a lane."

Steinfeldt's performance against Michigan on Saturday was proof the time focused on blocking technique was starting to pay off, though there are clearly more steps he has to take.

"I thought he had a really good game as a perimeter blocker," Wright said. "On a lot of those perimeter screens, he's at the point of attack and did a nice job. ... It's a game-by game thing. First of all, it's can you block on the perimeter? Can you block those safeties and linebackers on the perimeter? Then it gets down to, can you block those guys in the core? That's the biggest challenge right now is being and strong enough against the teams we're playing against to block a defensive end. No matter what level of football, that's usually a mismatch."

To try to turn more of those matchups his way, Steinfeldt needs to add some more muscle, but also hone his approach.

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"He's going to have to be really good technically," Wright said. "That's what we're working on is his pad leverage and driving your feet on contact, hand placement, all the things you can control. Over the course of the next year in the weight room, we'll continue to help him out. But he's come a long way in a year."

Steinfeldt's playing time will have its ups and downs the rest of the season. Wright indicated Bomba is likely to return this week for Saturday's 3:30 p.m. home game against Maryland. Allen said Barner is "week-to-week" and he was in a walking boot Saturday, so it's harder to say when he might return. Barner is a junior with two years of eligibility remaining after this one and Bomba is a redshirt freshman like Steinfeldt, so he's going to have to keep battling them for playing time.

But Steinfeldt can go forward with the confidence he has the talent to contribute, despite that touchdown that didn't count. He spoke to his father, a former Yale football, basketball and baseball player, after the game and took his message to heart.

"After the game, my dad said, 'You belong,'" Steinfeldt said. "I'm still a young kid, young player, still trying to make it in the Big Ten. But he told me, 'You belong. You're one of the players in the Big Ten.' He told me to prepare like it and act like it. I kinda took that personally."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana football: Bloomington North grad Aaron Steinfeldt on IU start