At this point in the 2022 recruiting cycle, every commitment can be perceived as evidence that Tom Allen and his staff are cashing in on the recent on-field success in Bloomington. Sometimes that optimism can get carried away, which always creates some skepticism in corners of the fanbase.

That brings us to recent Texas offensive line commit Bray Lynch, who became Indiana’s 11th commitment of the 2022 class July 9. The three-star tackle (No. 859 overall in the class, according to 247Sports) out of Austin chose the Hoosiers over Oklahoma State and Duke.

There are many ways to spin the commitment as a major win for Indiana and other ways to consider it an overreaction to celebrate the commitment as it has been celebrated, but to truly understand why it is a win for the Hoosiers, the recent history of Indiana’s recruitment in Texas must be involved in these conversations.

The initial narrative surrounding Lynch’s commitment to Indiana was that Indiana went into Texas and grabbed the left tackle of one of the most storied programs (Westlake High School) in The Lone Star State. That’s not entirely true, but it is partially true. Oklahoma State has been on shaky ground in offensive line recruiting for quite some time now, with plenty of turnover at the offensive line coaching position and leaning on transfer and JUCO additions since earning its last four-star offensive line commitment in 2016. Earning a commitment from any offensive lineman inside the top-500 has been difficult since then as well.

The Cowboys were channeling quite a bit of focus on four-star offensive lineman Jacob Sexton and five-star lineman Kelvin Banks until they committed to Oklahoma and Oregon, respectively. With that being said, though, Lynch took an official visit to Oklahoma State the weekend before Indiana, so there was plenty of opportunity for Oklahoma State to make its pitch. Now, it’s in quite a position with only one tackle committed to its 2022 class. So did the Hoosiers go into Big 12 territory and pluck an offensive lineman out of Oklahoma State’s grip? Perhaps. But like schools often do to prospects in their own territory, Oklahoma State left wiggle room for Indiana to pull Lynch away.

Back to Indiana, though. The other position that has been taken on Lynch’s commitment is that his recruiting ratings don’t warrant a celebration. That’s fair, given that he is in a position to gain as much exposure to scouting as anyone. But Indiana’s success along the line has never been synonymous with high — or, frankly, even acceptable — ratings.

Darren Hiller’s currency is development. The four offensive linemen who have earned All-Big Ten honors since he became Indiana’s offensive line coach in 2017 (Wes Martin in 2017, Brandon Knight in 2018, Simon Stepaniak in 2019, Harry Crider in 2020) didn’t wow many folks in recruiting. Crider and Martin were both two-stars according to their Rivals profiles, and Knight was the only one inside the top-1,000 according to his 247Sports Composite Rating. Top-1,000 commitments were never a guarantee for Indiana either — a topic which will be addressed in a later column.

The common denominator between these two differing positions on Lynch’s commitment is that he is from Austin, Texas. Either he was stolen from Oklahoma State or, based on his ratings, he’s not quite as good as his fellow Texan in Indiana’s 2022 class, Josh Hoover. But the existence of a Texas commitment is the story here.

It is undoubtedly difficult for Midwestern schools to land Texas prospects, but to get the recruits that make a program a top-25 — or a top-10 program — coaches must go where the best players are raised. One of those states is Florida, where Indiana famously built its foundational talent in the 2018 and 2019 classes, but another is, obviously, Texas. Between 2010-2021, Indiana had only landed eight high school commitments from the state, and it currently has two in this class. In that same time, Ohio State earned 14 commitments from Texas (currently has three in 2022), and Alabama earned 26 (none yet in 2022).

The story most often reported after Lynch’s commitment was that Hiller was at an SMU camp, and that’s where they met. The fact that Lynch and Hiller had a lasting conversation at a camp in Texas shouldn’t be taken for granted.

At these camps, colleges and prestigious high schools will host showcases during the summer or spring and welcome collegiate coaches of all levels. That’s where many of the relationships are created with recruits who are one or two years removed from the current cycle. At these events, there are clear wallflower schools, whose coaches are pushed into the background in favor of bigger programs. Low-tier Power Five schools get lumped into groups with MAC or MAC-equivalent schools. I’ve seen it happen to many programs, including Indiana, in the past. That is specifically where relationships come into play in recruiting, because if a recruiter doesn’t have the right logo on their polo shirt, they better have a relationship with coaches in the area.

Whether the relationships were there or not for Hiller and Nick Sheridan when they recruited Lynch and Hoover, the brand of Indiana provided some sort of appeal to two prospects who play at the highest level in the state. Lynch has won back-to-back Class 6A state titles with Westlake, while Hoover is viewed as the second-best quarterback in the DFW area, behind 2022 No. 1 recruit Quinn Ewers. Indiana was no wallflower for either of those recruits.

Allen and his staff are taking a measured approach to recruiting Texas, and with these incremental victories, they can begin to widen the radius of expectation, as Indiana can now be realized as a viable destination for notable Texan recruits in two separate markets. In other words, the Hoosiers can grow from here.

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