James Head hopes to give IU D-line the playmaking it's lacked: 'He's worked his tail off.'

BLOOMINGTON — James Head Jr. couldn't let last year be the end.

The 2021 season wasn't a total loss for the fifth-year senior defensive end personally, but it was close. He developed a lisfranc injury — damage to the ligaments and bones in the middle part of the foot, in this case, his right foot — in preseason practice and was never quite himself. He missed the season's first five games and recorded a total of four tackles on the season with limited playing time even once he was healthy enough to get in the game. The Hoosiers went 2-10 and 0-9 in the Big Ten, ending a season that began with them ranked in the Top 25 with their worst finish since 2011.

"Coming off that injury, I was down on myself," Head said. "I was kind of sad. But the coaching staff and the players, they backed me up on everything, everybody was on my side. I'm more motivated than ever, really, trying to get back out there and prove myself."

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Thanks to the COVID year — the blanket waiver of a year of eligibility for players who were around for the 2020 season — Head gets one more opportunity at Indiana to prove himself and so far he's making the most of it. He was at the top of the depth chart at the end of spring practice, and though he's still in a battle with former Carmel star Beau Robbins for the starting job at strongside defensive end, it seems clear he's going to be part of the Hoosiers' primary defensive line rotation. IU coach Tom Allen has raved about his increasingly vocal leadership and new defensive line coach Paul Randolph has been pleased with his production in practice.

"He approached spring as a guy that, 'I've got to get better,'" Randolph said. "'I've got to improve in different fundamental techniques.' And he's worked hard to do it. He hasn't missed a single practice. He's worked his tail off. He's gotten better every single day."

Head arrived at Indiana as a fairly impressive talent to begin with. He was a three-star recruit, but on the higher end of that classification, entering as the fourth-highest rated recruit in Indiana's Class of 2018 behind only running back Ronnie Walker, quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and cornerback Reese Taylor, all of whom have since departed. Head won a Florida Class 8A state championship at Miami's Southridge High School and recorded 45 sacks in his high school career as a three-year starter.

Head didn't put up numbers anywhere near that gaudy in his first three seasons at IU in a defense where the linebackers and secondary have tended to make the most plays. Still, as a part-time starter he recorded 54 tackles including nine for loss and four sacks in his first three seasons, appearing in nearly every one of the Hoosiers' games in that time.

He already stood to lose playing time last season when the Hoosiers brought in fifth-year transfer Ryder Anderson from Ole Miss, and Head's injury made him a virtual non-factor. He got a lot of his work on 3rd-and-long pass rush downs but never actually got to the quarterback.

"He never was even close to being back to what he was before the injury," Allen said.

Much as this season allows for a reset for the entire roster, it allowed for a specific reset for Head. Defensive line coach Kevin Peoples left for Missouri allowing the Hoosiers to hire Randolph from Texas Tech. Randolph brought a new style of teaching fundamentals that were different than what Head has seen before.

"He's like a pass-rush master," Head said. "We're pass-rushing every day, focusing on little stuff, little moves that I've been missing. Making sure my technique and stuff is where I need to be at. He showed me a bunch of moves I've never seen before. I've been playing D-line my whole life, so it's kind of odd to see moves I've never seen before."

It's not that Randolph is inventing new moves out of whole cloth, Head said, but he's approaching tried and true moves in a different way.

"It's really not even new moves, just new ways to do them," Head said. "Just the smaller details you'd never even expect. Just as far as where you're connecting on a chop or with footwork, my lead step, stuff like that."

Head said the work on fundamentals has helped with his bend around the edge and helped keep his eyes where they're supposed to be, which ultimately helps him connect with the ball carrier, whether he's sacking quarterbacks or chasing down other ball carriers. Plus, Allen said, he's in the best shape of his career after his most extensive work so far with Aaron Wellman, IU's assistant athletic director for football performance, who came to the Hoosiers from the New York Giants in 2020. Head is finally healthy enough to really work with him and that's helped him trim down. He's listed at 6-5, 258 pounds, which is just a few down from the 262 he was listed at in 2021, but it's also better body composition.

"He's changed his body and really bought in," Allen said. "... James finally had a chance to have a full cycle and training and getting his lean muscle mass numbers right, reducing his body fat percentage. It's shown up. He's twitchier, and I think playing his best football this fall camp since he's been here. We needed him to do that and he's worked so hard."

The Hoosiers also needed him to step up his leadership some after a season in which Allen and many of his players acknowledged they felt short in terms of holding teammates accountable. That's something Head has always done well and has done more now that he's healthy.

"He's been part of our leadership council for so many years now," Allen said. "He's a little quiet, but within that room he leads and holds guys accountable and isn't afraid to challenge guys. He isn't a stand-in-front-of-the-room-and-give-a-speech kind of guy, which is fine. He doesn't need to."

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He does need real production, though, because the Hoosiers need a more effective pass rush and more playmaking in the run game than they've had in recent years. Indiana got a total of 5.5 sacks from its three hand-in-dirt defensive line positions last season, and all of that came from transfers Anderson and Weston Kramer. So the Hoosiers have zero sacks and just 4.0 tackles for loss returning from 2021 up front.

But Head has a chance to provide some of what was missing and what's been lost and in doing so erase his own personal disappointment with his fourth year at IU.

"You're seeing him doing some things right now that he hasn't done in the past," defensive coordinator Chad Wilt said. "Whether that's how he's taking on run blocks and sitting there and being an anchor and being strong and sturdy or his pass rush. You see some athleticism, a series of efforts, second move, third move, counter moves that maybe weren't there in the past. We're excited to see him continue to just continue challenging that growth. Keep pushing."

Follow Herald-Times IU Insider Dustin Dopirak on Twitter at @DustinDopirak.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana football: DE James Head Jr. looking to make most of 5th year