Tom Allen cut his teeth coaching Indiana high school football players for a decade between nine years at Ben Davis High School and a season at Marion High School.
It makes sense, then, that his first signing class as the head coach at IU has Indiana high school football fingerprints all over it.
Allen signed six in-state standouts Wednesday: three-star defensive end Britt Beery (Carmel), two-star center Harry Crider (Columbus), three-star husky Bryant Fitzgerald (Avon), two-star tight end Peyton Hendershot (Lizton), three-star offensive lineman Caleb Jones (Indianapolis) and three-star defensive tackle LeShaun Minor (Indianapolis).
"I want to have a good core from Indiana. I do," Allen said. "You look at the list of guys in Indiana who all went to Division I places this year, we got the majority of them."
Indiana took just two native Hoosiers in its 2016 signing class but tripled that output this year. The staff also didn't short itself on talent, either.
Allen himself claims he doesn't pay attention to any sort of star ratings or rankings from various analysts. If he did, however, he'd notice that Fitzgerald ranked No. 7 among Indiana prospects, Beery finished No. 9, Minor No. 11 and Jones at No. 15.
"I want to get the best players in Indiana to stay home. I do," Allen said. "We're going to approach it that way, and we're not going to bow to anybody else or allow anybody else to think they've got an edge on us. If our guy is in state they're not going to get recruited any harder than they are by us."
Mission accomplished.
Players took notice.
"That's one thing I noticed for sure is that they really dedicated themselves to getting out to high schools in Indiana and really trying to get the best players to play for their program," Beery said. "They put in a lot of time and effort to recruiting. I think it's awesome that they put this much effort into their own state."
High school football standouts from around the state talk fairly frequently, Beery explained. That's especially true in the Indianapolis area where the perennial powers square off on Fridays throughout the fall.
Indiana is always going to have to fight Big Ten rival Purdue to keep in-state talent. This year, the Boilermakers took just two native Hoosiers in their signing class, instead focusing resources elsewhere.
On-field success has plenty of impact there. IU is coming off back-to-back bowl seasons while Purdue hasn't made the postseason since 2012. That was also, coincidentally, the last time the Boilermakers beat the Hoosiers to win the Old Oaken Bucket.
"Indiana football and the commitment to Indiana football has just gotten better and better the last few years or so," Beery said. "It's the state school. A lot of people want to play for their state. If you're in Indiana, what better place to go?"
Certainly there's going to be advantages to being the state school. There always are.
Take Crider for example. He was committed to Virginia because Indiana didn't offer until later on in the summer. Once the Hoosiers entered the picture, he immediately flipped to IU to attend school like two siblings did before him.
"For me, going to IU has always been a dream," Crider said. "It's part of the family. And you're going to have people like that."
In-state recruiting, just like recruiting in general, has its ebbs and flows. There's going to be years where Indiana swings and misses on in-state talent and years it cashes in with half a dozen or so prospects just like it did with the 2017 signing class.
But make no doubt, Allen wants to convince Hoosiers to stay Hoosiers. He's already got Lowell, Indiana, safety Jordan Jusevitch committed in the class of 2018 and said he was on the phone with an Indianapolis-area linebacker on National Signing Day talking about his vision for the future.
Should Allen have his way, the next class will be full of Indiana prospects, too.
And that's just fine by Beery.
"It's a great school," he said. "And Indiana, it's going to be great these next few years."
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