Tom Allen's first season as Indiana's head football coach was in 2016, and since taking over as the Hoosiers' coach, Allen has helped elevate Indiana's in-state recruiting. But where do the best players in Indiana sign to play college football?

Through analysis of the top 10 recruits in Indiana in each class since 2017 no school has signed more of the Hoosier state's highest-ranked recruits than Indiana. In fact, Indiana (14) has signed twice as many of the state's top 10 recruits as the next closest programs, Purdue and Iowa, who each have signed seven of the state's top 10 recruits since the Class of 2017.

Indiana and Purdue, the state's two Big Ten programs, signed the top 7 ranked prospects in the 2019 class with the Boilermakers signing the state's top 2 ranked players, wide receiver David Bell and edge rusher George Karlaftis. But the Hoosiers signed the No. 3-6 ranked prospects in the 2019 class.

Ironically, traditional college football power, Notre Dame signed just four of the state's top 10 ranked players since 2017, which ranks behind routine College Football Playoff participant Ohio State, who signed five of the state's top 10 ranked prospects since 2017.

The Hoosiers didn't sign any of the state's top 10 recruits in the 2023 class. However, in 2022, Indiana signed Bloomington native Dasan McCullough -- the No. 1 overall player in Indiana. The Hoosiers also signed offensive lineman DJ Moore, the ninth-ranked prospect in the state.

On average how far do players at each position group travel to play college football? An analysis of how far each position group travels to play college football.

Since 2017, there have been just three quarterbacks ranked in the top 10 of their class in Indiana, Hunter Johnson, Tayven Jackson and Brady Allen. Coming out of high school, the three quarterbacks traveled an average of 191.5 miles to play at their first school.

Quarterbacks generally don't travel as far as some other elite players coming out of high school, and the same holds true in Indiana. Of the nine position groups, quarterbacks were in the middle, traveling, on average, the fifth most miles to their first school out of high school

Of the three running backs to be ranked in the top 10 of their classes rankings, two traveled West to play their college career. Dylan Downing signed with UNLC in the 2020 class, traveling over 1,800 miles to play for the Rebels. Markese Stepp signed with USC out of high school, traveling more than 2,000 miles from his home in Indianapolis to play for the Trojans.

Class of 2019 tailback Sampson James from Avon, Ind., signed with Indiana, which is less than 50 miles from the Indiana campus.

Because Downing and Stepp signed with schools out West, no position group traveled further to play college football than running backs. In fact, the running backs traveled more than 1,000 more miles to play college football than defensive backs who traveled the second furthest on average at 402 miles.

Continuing the lack of depth at the offensive skill position in Indiana high school recruiting is wide receivers. There was only four wide receivers to trank in the top 10 of their classes since 2017.

Two of the three traveled less than 70 miles to play for their first school with Mac Hippenhammer and Tyrone Tracy both traveling over 360 miles to play for Penn State and Iowa.

Bell, the state's top-ranked prospect in the 2019 class, signed with Purdue traveling about 70 miles from Indianapolis to West Lafayette.

No position was weaker at producing talent than tight end in the state. Only one tight end cracked the top 10 of his class's rankings, and it was all the way back in the 2017 class when Carmel product Kurt Rafdal signed with Nebraska, traveling nearly 650 miles to play for the Cornhuskers.

Only one position produced more top 10 in state talent than the offensive line, and that's defensive linemen. There were 12 offensive linemen to crack the top 10 of their class rankings since 2017.

Interestingly, offensive linemen traveled the fourth most miles to on average of positions with more than one player ranked inside the top of their class since 2017. Offensive linemen traveled close to 240 miles coming out of high school to play college football.

in 2018, Emil Ekiyor traveled over 500 miles to play for Alabama where the played guard and for the Crimson Tide and is now hoping to hear his name called in the NFL Draft next week.

There might not be a more challenging position to recruit in college football than the defensive line, and that's because there are so few Power 5 prospects. However, that's not true in Indiana.

Of the 70 prospects observed for this story, 14 of them were defensive linemen -- more than any other position. Making the depth of the defensive line prospects in the state more valuable to the state's premier programs is that defensive linemen traveled just 185.4 miles on average coming out of high school before playing in college.

Indiana also shows a plentiful depth of linebackers in the previous seven classes. Eight of the 70 players observed were linebackers, the third most of any position.

The linebacker position was interesting. Five of the eight players traveled less than 100 miles to play their college football. Hower one played traveled close to 450 miles. But Hugh Davis went close to 1,000 miles from Indianapolis to Boston College to play for the Eagles.

There were five defensive backs ranked in the top 10 of their class dating back to the 2017 class in the state of Indiana, and they traveled far to play college football.

Four of the five traveled over 300 miles and one traveled close to 900 miles. But one traveled only 50 miles from Indianapolis to Bloomington when Larry Tracy III played for Indiana coming out of the 2019 class.