Defensive Tackle Tyrique Tucker Is Ready To Set A High Standard For Indiana Defense
One of the hallmarks of Indiana’s 2024 football team wasn’t just its belief and talent in multiple positions, but its depth.
Take defensive tackle. James Carpenter and CJ West started and both played over 500 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. But Tyrique Tucker was an important contributor, too.
The sophomore played in all 13 games and played 306 snaps, third-most among Indiana’s defensive linemen.
What Tucker did with his time was impactful. He had three sacks and 21 pressures by PFF’s formula for quarterback pressures. PFF rated Tucker as the sixth-best defender overall on the Hoosiers among those with 100 or more snaps.
That put Tucker ahead of several Indiana starters, including Carpenter, Aiden Fisher, Lanell Carr Jr. and Jamier Johnson.
With both Carpenter and West out of eligibility, Tucker will get his turn to be a possible starter in 2025.
“I’m pretty confident. I know I can do it in the Big Ten now. I just got to go put out there and let the world see. And have that breakout season I feel like I can have,” Tucker said.
Not only is he ready to start, but he’s ready to be a leader on Indiana’s defense, something imparted to Tucker by Carpenter and West before him.
“I learned how to be a leader. And lead by example to the best of my ability. I feel like I worked hard to be in this position,” Tucker said. “(Carpenter) and CJ set the standard. So I feel like I got a standard to uphold.”
Tucker is typical of so many players on Curt Cignetti’s Indiana roster. He was one of the 13 James Madison transfers who followed Cignetti to Indiana. He played all 13 games in JMU’s 2023 season and started five of them.
One of many overlooked talents from the state of Virginia – Tucker is from Norfolk, he probably got overlooked since he is only 6 feet tall, but Tucker is hard to stop at 298 pounds and has worked well within defensive coordinator Bryant Haines’ scheme
He has also been part of “craft season” for Indiana’s defensive players. Tucker has worked with edge rusher Mikail Kamara in this regard.
“Just got to keep grinding day in and day out. You know me and Mikail, we craft during the off season. We call it craft season. We go out there, we work, man,” Tucker said.
Tucker explained “craft season.”
“That’s basically like modernized two-a-day for us. We work out, then we go out there and we work out again. We perfect our craft,” he said.
“We bring some of the guys out there. We may have a group of us or it might just be us, but we all want to get better during that time, kind of maximize the off season,” Tucker continued. “I feel like that translates to the field. When we go to the season it’s kind of like the reps have been instilled in us, and I kind of buy into that.”
The interior of the defensive line will be working in new players in 2025. Marcus Burris Jr. played 296 snaps in 2024 and returns, but the rest of the interior line is untested.
Western Kentucky transfer Hosea Wheeler is a factor as is Texas State transfer Dominique Ratcliff. Holdovers Robby Harrison and J’Mari Monette are also back.
“Hosea has been doing pretty good. Rat (Ratcliff) has been doing pretty good. I feel like we’ve all been doing pretty good. I feel like we’re in a way better spot than we were last spring,” Tucker said.
The standard set last season – when Indiana had the best run defense in FBS – is high. Tucker and his defensive line teammates will not shrink from the challenge.
“Losing those guys (Carpenter and West), they set the example. Now it’s time for us to elevate even more past that,” Tucker said.
