My Two Cents: Hits and Misses are Profound on Signing Day

There are some interesting pieces to Indiana's small 18-person recruiting class, but there are some notable omissions as well.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The glass half full says that Indiana's No. 49-ranked recruiting class is a success, at least by Indiana's standards. In the past three years under Tom Allen, Indiana's classes have ranked 50, 36 and 49 in the 247Sports composite rankings, the best in school history.

But here's the deal: That's not good enough anymore.

Granted, this class was always going to rank a little lower than it should simply out of a sheer volume issue. Indiana's senior class is very small, so signing 18 kids on Wednesday as all they had room for, at least for now. 

There are several players in this class who will likely become stars, because one thing we've seen from Allen and his staff is that player development has been exceptional. So looking at only one 4-star recruit (Rashawn Williams, the wide receiver from Detroit) and a bunch of 3-stars isn't anything to get too worked up over, especially once strength and conditioning guys David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea get a hold of them.

But having the 12th-ranked class in the Big Ten isn't good enough when you're talking about moving up in the conference pecking order. Considering how this season went — an 8-4 record, the best in 26 years — I guess I was expecting a little bit more.

Most shocking to me is that there isn't A SINGLE RECRUIT from the state of Florida. They last two classes have been full of stars from the Sunshine State, but this year's a total zero. That amazes me considering the Allen's staff treats Florida like a home-state, with six assistants there all the time. To swing and miss completely is amazing.

"No, it's probably just coincidental,'' said Indiana coach Tom Allen, who has 25 Florida kids on his roster right now. "You have a bunch of guys we recruited down there. We'll keep going down there in Phase II, in January. It just happened to be that way. We obviously have a whole bunch on our roster. I'm sure we'll have some here in the future.

"Obviously, it's always going to be a huge priority for us. We've got nine different states represented, and we got guys from all across the country. The bottom line is we're going to go where we've got to go to find the best fit, the guys that end up signing with us, and want to be here. Florida is always going to be a priority.''

Let's hope that's not a trend.

Here's my take on how this class breaks out as of today:

1. Best prospect

That has to be wide receiver Rashawn Williams. He has it all as a wide receiver, including good size (6-foot-2, 200 pounds) great hands, and the ability to already run great routes. 

Maybe even more importantly, he really wants to be here — and contribute immediately. Even though Indiana has several wide receivers returning, notably Whop Philyor, Ty Fryfogle and Miles Marshall, look for Williams to work his way into that mix quickly.

2. Most likely to play early 

That could be graduate transfer Dylan Powell, the offensive lineman from Stanford. It's entirely possible that Indiana will lose three starting linemen to graduation — Hunter Littlejohn, Simon Stepaniak and Coy Cronk — so Powell will certainly get the opportunity to contend for playing time.

Allen thought it was important to add a veteran to that room because it's very young after all these guys graduate. Powell could be a good fit.

3. Were the needs met

Considering that Indiana had to be very careful with its limited amount of scholarships, they did a good job of balancing things out. The offensive line issue was taken care of, which was critical, and the Hoosiers are very happy with adding depth at quarterback (Dexter Williams) and running back (Tim Baldwin). The only place that seems to be lacking is with pass rushers, where they missed on a few guys they wanted. 

4. Who'd they miss

The entire state of Florida. 

6. Which of the position coaches did really well on the trail?

You've got to give offensive line coach Darren Hiller a lot of credit. He was charged with reloading his group, and he did well, with a graduate transfer, a junior college transfer and several promising high school kids.

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