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OneThing That Stands Out About Tom Allens Approach To Recruiting

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Hall of Famer
Mar 22, 2017
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He and the staff seem to be focusing on elite athletes with "character", rather then "characters" with elite athletic skills...

Not saying they won't take a chance on a guy who may be trying to turn his life around but so far the guys we appear to be after all seem to possess not just good character but also leadership skills, if you can believe the comments from their coaches and teammates...

That type of guy combined with a solid work ethic and great, or even just good, coaching can win themselves a lot of football games...

It's going to be fun watching these guys come together as a team over the next few years...
 
Agreed. This appears to be a priority in the recruiting requirement and it’s a smart strategy IMO.

As a few others have stated, on average, about half of any class truly sees the field and contributes. That’s true for nearly all programs. Of the half that do not, perhaps 5-6 are due to issues related to lack of ability and another 5-6, while having the talent, wash out for other reasons. Those might include off field behavior, failing in the classroom, poor work ethic, inability or lack of focus on learning their role in the Team sense and the playbook, immaturity or inability to be away from home, selfishness and “me first” attitudes or some other reason.

Recruiting high character, TEAM and family culture of team as a primary requirement *should* reduce the number of class members that wash out for reasons unrelated to pure athletic ability.

If so, I’ve said before that each class may produce 2-4 additional contributors, on average, that will see meaningful field time. That’s potentially 8-16 more players for depth on the team in just a few years compared to other teams with typical or average wash out rates. Those 8-16 additional players will translate to more wins for Indiana IMO.

It’s theory - but it makes sense to me.

It also greatly strengthens the ideas around team core values, program core values.

Those will attract specific types of players and repeal other types of players.

Also a theory, but IMO, high character guys will do 100% of the work asked, they’ll max effort in training, in nutrition, in care of self away from the field. They’re more likely to attain their personal best compared to those with incredible raw talent and bad work ethic, bad practice habits, bad nutrition habits, bad off field behaviors, etc.

LEO is, IMO, attracting a particular type of athlete. You can be a bad ass with violent impact on the field - while also having high character. That does NOT mean choir boys or all A students. I’ll take C students who just give their all on and off the field, maximize their own ability with a team first attitude.

I’ll take a team of 3 stars with high character working as a team over half 3 and half 4 stars with a big mix of character issues, off field problems, in team fighting, lack of trust, etc

7 wins+ in ‘18

Press On!!
 
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