Indiana football sixth-year senior safety Bryson Bonds is out for the remainder of the 2025 season with a knee injury, head coach Curt Cignetti announced during his press conference Monday.
Bonds, who began his Hoosiers career in 2020, is the longest tenured player on the roster. The Fort Worth, Texas, native suffered the injury on a kickoff late in the second quarter of the season opener. He was seen on the sideline in the second half using crutches with a black sleeve on his right leg.
In 2024, Bonds appeared in all 13 games, making 19 total tackles and notching his first career interception against Purdue last November. However, his largest presence came on special teams, where he tied for second in the Power Four with nine special teams tackles.
Ahead of Indiana’s 27-14 season-opening victory over Old Dominion University on Aug. 30, Cignetti said there were some position groups in which the Hoosiers “better stay healthy.” Despite not directly specifying which group, safety was perhaps one of them.
Before the season began, Indiana had just four safeties who had made appearances at the collegiate level. With Bonds’ injury, there are now three.
However, that number could become two depending on safety Louis Moore’s lawsuit against the NCAA. Moore, who played at Indiana from 2022-23, is suing for a sixth season of eligibility and was granted a temporary restraining order Aug. 27, making him eligible for the first two games of the season.
Moore’s follow-up hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10. If he were to receive an injunction, he’d be eligible for the rest of the Hoosiers’ campaign. Moore led the Hoosiers with seven tackles and an interception against the Monarchs.
Including Moore, Indiana has seven scholarship safeties. Three of them have yet to take a snap in college — redshirt freshman Jah Jah Boyd, freshman Seaonta Stewart Jr. and freshman Garrett Reese.
Freshman safety Byron Baldwin Jr. missed the season opener with an undisclosed injury. His timetable for return is “day-to-day," according to Cignetti. Baldwin Jr. was the Hoosiers’ top recruit in the 2025 class, and a player who senior linebacker Aiden Fisher said Aug. 26 has the “it factor.”
Senior punter Mitch McCarthy was also banged up against Old Dominion, as sophomore kicker Quinn Warren stepped in to punt in the fourth quarter. Cignetti did not address McCarthy’s status during Monday’s press conference.
The Hoosiers look to improve to 2-0 at noon Saturday against Kennesaw State University at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
Follow reporters Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
