The problem is “locking down the state”. Wisconsin does that because it is THE school in a a state with no others at that level. The best linemen in the state of Indiana have 3 Power-5 choices. Most go to ND and if they don’t have allegiance to “state pride” they (which most don’t) go out of state. An Emil Ekiyor, if he lived in Wisconsin, would probably take a good long look (if not commit) to the state school. You go back 5 recruiting classes and look at the top 5 players in the respective states of Wisconsin and Indiana and, hands down, Wisconsin probably comes away with 75% of those top 5 rated guys. IU gets 1 about every three or four years?
Take the 2017 class in the state of Wisconsin. All top 5 in that state are big, tall linemen. Every one of them signed with Wisconsin. We get the 6th rated guy out of their state, likely because he wasn’t born and raised in Wisconsin, and he leaves.
This is why I think Allen’s recruitment in the state of Florida is key. Go after those linemen down there. Most OL or DL in our state that are highly rated are not coming to IU.
This has been the case for decades and will likely continue. Go after the plethora of big bodies in the South. You have to go down a list of 30-40 guys in the state of Florida alone before you even find a 3-star kid. Everybody else above that is 4 or 5-star. The state of Indiana? 4-5 kids tops are 4 star.
I disagree because of some information that I omitted. I think that there are some good players in Indiana who do not get recruited highly because they are from Indiana. So they end up at smaller schools. 1AA (FCS now) or even lower. If they were in a big ten weight room and got the big ten level coaching, they could actually be as good as Wisconsin Lineman. For example, a kid from arsenal tech (Turner) that we offered is as physically good as I’ve seen. He was in the 18’ class and committed to ball state over IU, but honestly in a big ten environment he could be special. Is 6’5” 293 and was only a 2* recruit. He’s the typical kid who would go to Wisconsin and thrive, and I’d wager we didn’t recruit him as hard as we could have. Other kids who are similar to Wisconsin kids don’t even get an offer, and that’s the info I omitted. I think that the fact that they get offered by Wisconsin and are sought after boosts their ratings. But if you look at kids in state, they have similar size, weight and speed, and simply don’t get offers. Let’s not forget that IU was Jason Spriggs only power 5 offer, when in reality he was easily an upper level prospect. Jake Reed probably was only rated so highly because he was a TE in high school, yet he developed into a serviceable big ten lineman and got a shot with the falcons. I think that its more so a situation where Wisconsin is scouting better, finding under the radar talent, and then they get higher rankings. IU is losing guys that they could realistically develop to lower end schools, so those guys never end up developing the way they could. Even if you look out of state, a guy like Feeney wasn’t that highly recruited, but was a perfectly fine Big ten lineman. If you look at the D-Line Gavin Everett is a nice addition from in-state and had no big ten offers. He found IU and walked on. IU didn’t find him per se, and he was 60 minutes down the road at center grove. So I think there is plenty of talent on the lower end, but IU misses them, they go to lower level schools, then never develop. Wisconsin takes a chance on those guys, because Wisconsin offers they get higher ratings, and it gives the appearance that the state of Wisconsin has more talent. I disagree... I think it’s percetpion more than anything. Let’s say Everett didn’t transfer, or let’s say spriggs, or Rogers, or Bailey didn’t get an IU offer. Then we’d never know about them, and none of them would have likely developed the way they did at Indiana. But there were 5-6 guys in Indiana alone in the 18’ class who didn’t get an IU offer who appear to be similar to Spriggs, Everett, Bailey and Rogers along the O-line/D-line... especially tuner from arsenal tech who’s a freak athlete. I think that if IU gave some of those lower-end guys a harder look they could be developed. They honestly have better measurable than guys like Hunter LittleJohn. But because a guy like LittleJohn is from Ohio/gets more exposure, he gets a higher rating, so we assume we are getting a better player. I think that’s a false premise. I’m only using LittleJohn as an example, and actually think he can still be a good center with some development this year. My broader point is that perception often times determines rankings. It’s easy to perceive that he’d be better than a kid like Wes Rogers, or Tuner, but in reality that may nit be the case. So even if our best lineman in the state go to ND, there are some kids with small school offers who realistically have better measurable than the guys we get from out of state. There are guys in state who can realistically be developed. Wisconsin has just been developing guys for longer, so when they offer a kid the ratings shoot up IMHO. They get the benefit of the doubt when they offer a lower rated kid. We do not.
