BLOOMINGTON — IU football has landed a verbal commitment from Ohio State tackle Zen Michalski, according to multiple reports.
It’s an in-state pickup of sorts for the Hoosiers.
Michalski was a highly regarded prospect in the 2021 signing class out of Floyd Central High School in Floyds Knobs. The four-star offensive lineman was the No. 306 overall ranked recruit in the class and No. 4 ranked player in Indiana, per 247Sports composite rankings.
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He had nearly 30 scholarship offers at the time and committed to Ohio State over Florida State, Louisville and Penn State.
Why IU football signing Zen Michalski matters
Indiana has a solid foundation to build around on the offensive line with starting left tackle Carter Smith, left guard Drew Evans and right guard Bray Lynch all expected to return. Michalski is a potential replacement for starting right tackle Trey Wedig, who has exhausted his eligibility, and will compete with the likes of Austin Barrett and Cooper Jones for playing time.
Inside the numbers for former Ohio State tackle Zen Michalski
Michalski has played 260 career snaps — all but one of them at left tackle — with much of that experience (158 snaps) coming in 2024. He played a career-high 46 snaps in OSU’s loss to Oregon after starting left tackle Josh Simmons went down with an injury and got his first career start in the team’s following game against Nebraska, but had issues in pass protection in both appearances.
He gave up three pressures against Oregon and four (two sacks) against Nebraska.
Why Ohio State tackle Zen Michalski was a good fit for Hoosiers
Michalski is a bit of an outlier for Indiana coach Curt Cignetti and his production over potential philosophy. The offensive tackle has played in plenty of games (34), but he never really cracked the rotation on the offensive line and spent much of his four years in Columbus as a core special teams player despite a four-star ranking.
Indiana has largely avoided players without a full season or two of starting experience, but Cignetti is likely putting his trust in offensive line coach Bob Bostad here, and why shouldn’t he?
Bostad has done a remarkable job turning around IU’s offensive line in a short amount of time and had success with transfers that he identified out of the portal like Wedig and Evans, who both played for him at Wisconsin.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Ohio State transfer OL Zen Michalski commits to Indiana football
