Hoosiers Now

Indiana Football Injury Report vs Michigan State: Freshman DB Poised to Debut

Indiana football freshman safety Byron Baldwin is off the team's availability report Saturday against Michigan State.
Daniel Flick|
Indiana's Byron Baldwin Jr. (2) at Indiana University football practice on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025.
Indiana's Byron Baldwin Jr. (2) at Indiana University football practice on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Indiana Hoosiers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — No. 3 Indiana football (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) has a clean bill of health entering its 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff Saturday against Michigan State (3-3, 0-3 Big Ten) at Merchants Bank Field in Memorial Stadium.

The Hoosiers ruled out just two players — senior safety Byron Bonds and redshirt junior running back Lee Beebe Jr. — on the Big Ten pre-game availability report.

Bonds and Beebe are out for the season with knee injuries. Bonds sustained his injury in a 27-14 win over Old Dominion in Week 1, while Beebe went down in the third quarter of the Hoosiers' 73-0 victory over Indiana State in Week 3.

Perhaps most importantly, Indiana freshman safety Byron Baldwin Jr. is off the availability report and is eligible to make his college debut Saturday.

Baldwin, the Hoosiers' highest-rated recruit in the 2025 class, hasn't played this season due to an undisclosed injury. He was a standout during fall camp, and both senior linebacker Aiden Fisher and junior safety Amare Ferrell said Baldwin could make an impact on the Hoosiers' defense this fall.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said Baldwin was "day-to-day" after Week 1, but he remained inactive through the first six games of the season.

Fisher said before Week 1 that Baldwin has similar qualities to junior cornerback D'Angelo Ponds and sophomore linebacker Rolijah Hardy, each of whom played meaningful snaps as freshmen under Cignetti.

"It's been really impressive to see him kind of change his demeanor and mature that quickly," Fisher said. "He's going to be a guy that really helps us this year. And similar to Ponds and Rolijah, he has the 'it' factor. He can go out there, he can make plays, special plays — special plays that we're going to need and depend on."

But for the first month-and-a-half of the season, Baldwin didn't get the chance to make an impact. Now, his moment has arrived.

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Daniel Flick
DANIEL FLICK

Daniel Flick is a senior in the Indiana University Media School and previously covered IU football and men's basketball for the Indiana Daily Student. Daniel also contributes NFL Draft articles for Sports Illustrated, and before joining Indiana Hoosiers On SI, he spent three years writing about the Atlanta Falcons and traveling around the NFL landscape for On SI. Daniel is the winner of the Joan Brew Scholarship, and he will cover Indiana sports once more for the 2025-26 season.

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