From Florida To Bloomington, Part 4: The Perception

The perception from Florida families and high school coaches is that Indiana is doing all the right things in recruiting Florida.

TAMPA, Fla. — There is a longstanding line about recruiting that dates all the way back to the days of leather helmets. The best recruiters, they say, are the ones who can win the living room.

Many times, winning a key recruiting battle in college football isn’t about your fancy stadium or your centuries of tradition or your cool uniforms or even about your won-loss record. It often simply comes down to this:

Who does Mom like the best, and who is she willing to trust with her son for four years?

Yep, it’s that simple.

Indiana’s great strides recently in recruiting — they’ve jumped 13 spots in the national team rankings in each of the past two years, according the 247Sports composite — is predominantly attributable to head coach Tom Allen and his assistants winning the living room. 

They’ve done well in flipping their home state, but they’ve also made huge inroads into Florida. There are 25 kids from the Sunshine State currently on Indiana’s roster.

And they’ve done that by winning the moms.

“When Coach Allen came to visit, my Mom, she really bought into Indiana right from the beginning,’’ said sophomore defensive end James Head, who’s from Miami. “They showed me the most love, showed my family the most love, and that really meant a lot. My mom had a big say, a very big say, and she loved Coach Allen and Coach (Mark) Hagen (IU's defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator).

“When we looked at our out-of-state choices — Tennessee, Michigan State, schools like that — really, it wasn’t about the team or the record or anything like that. That was the last thing we were worried about. We looked at the unity the team has, and the love. You look at “LEO’’ here — “Love Each Other” — and for my mom, that was a big influence on her. She really liked that a lot about Indiana.’’

It’s not just Allen, of course. Now in his third year as the head coach at Indiana but his fourth overall — he started as the defensive coordinator for Kevin Wilson — Allen has finally assembled the staff that he wants. He has a group of good football minds who are tireless workers and excellent teachers.

They all also share Allen’s belief systems about the type of program he wants. LEO is real inside Indiana’s football program, and that little catch-phrase isn’t going away anytime soon. The revival of this program is built on exactly that, and people are buying in. 

The coaches, the players, the recruits, the Florida high school coaches … and the moms.

“And to be honest, it’s not about Tom ‘working’ a room. What kids and their parents like so much about him is that he’s genuine,’’ said Plant High School coach Robert Weiner, who has had five players sign with Indiana in the past four years, including Allen’s own son, Thomas, who was a linebacker at the Tampa, Fla., school for two years. 

“He’s never ‘worked’ anybody. What he believes is what he says, and you’re getting the genuine article of who he is. He’s a great leader, but he also has great moral character, and that’s very hard to find these days.’’

Things are heading in the right direction, especially in recruiting the Florida kids, and there are more good things to come. The message Allen and his staff are sharing is resonating well.

“You have to do a good job in your home state, and we’ve done that. But Florida is just different,’’ said Indiana cornerbacks coach Brandon Shelby, who recruits the Jacksonville area for the Hoosiers. “Success breeds success in recruiting, and kids have seen what our Florida guys have done up here. They want to be a part of it, too.

“That pipeline isn’t going away, that’s for sure. Those high school coaches see how we treat their kids. We develop a great relationship with them because they know we are going to take care of their young men, and that’s genuine. Coach Allen has been doing that for years. When we tell coaches something down there, we back it up. Coach Allen has been doing that his entire career.’’

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Florida coaches have respect for IU’s staff

After spending a week in Florida and talking to nearly two dozen coaches there in practically every corner of the state, it’s obvious that Allen and his staff are doing it the right way. Winning 25 recruiting battles in the most competitive state in the country for top talent is one thing, but it’s who they are beating that’s becoming most impressive.

They have beaten the big boys — Florida State, Miami and Florida — for some players. They’ve taken kids that the next-level schools like Central Florida and South Florida wanted badly. They have beaten other Power 5 schools from the SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and Big Ten for Florida kids, as well.

They’ve done it by establishing great relationships with high school coaches and never wavering from their belief system. Sure, they want kids with talent, but it’s even more important they have a good work ethic are all willing to buy into that team-first, ‘’love each other’’ philosophy.

It means a lot to Florida high school coaches that they can send kids to Indiana and this coaching staff will get the best out of them, both on the field and off.

Coaches deal with college recruiters from all over, so I asked several to talk about Indiana’s staff without attribution, so they could be more honest. Here’s what a few of them said:

• “What I love about that staff is they treat you great, like you’re one of them. Even if I have a year where I don’t have a kid to recruit, I’ll still hear from them, either on the phone or if they’re in the area, they’ll stop by. The genuinely care about how you’re doing.’’
• “(Indiana defensive coordinator) Kane Wommack is one of my two or three favoite coaches in all of college football. Not only does he know his stuff, but he’s just a great person. If I had to pick up the phone and talk to him about something, anything, he’s always there for me. And other coaches have told me the same thing.’’
• “I’ve been impressed with how my kids grow up and mature there at Indiana. The football is one thing, but they come back home as well-rounded men, too. They’re doing it all right up there.''
• “I never guide my kids in any specific direction when they’re recruited, but when they ask me about Indiana, there isn’t a bad thing I have to say. Anything a high school recruit would want, he can get that experience now at Indiana with those players there and that coaching staff.
• “A lot of programs might go the extra mile to help a kid with academics or something else personal for a 5-star kid, but Indiana does it for every kid they want in their program. That sets them apart for sure. They definitely care as much — more, really — about the person as they do the player.’’

Allen’s roots to Florida go back to the mid-1990s as a high school coach in Tampa, and he still has a lot of friends in the coaching profession there. Because they know him so well, he’s got plenty of people in Florida rooting hard for him to have success at Indiana.

“He’s knocking on the door up there, and there’s no doubt a lot of us want him to have success there at Indiana,’’ Weiner said. “That team, to me, seems to be on the verge of getting some big wins this season. They’ve been close, and they look like they’re ready to take that next step.’’

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Why the Florida kids have mattered so much to IU

There’s so much talent in Florida that every college program recruits hard there. Indiana did before Allen arrives, but he’s taken in to the next level.

For instance, starting wide receivers Nick Westbrook (Lake Mary) and Donovan Hale (Largo) were Florida recruits five years ago. They’ll be thrown to by quarterback Michael Penix Jr. (Tampa) and play alongside Whop Philyor (Tampa) on the outside. Now they’re all recruiters themselves, always pushing the Florida kids when they’re on campus for visits.

“We’re just trying to get some down-south up here, help us change the culture. We tell him there’s nothing wrong about being in the Midwest,’’ Hale said. “I was recruited a lot by (former offensive line) Coach (Greg) Frey, because he was from Clearwater and he was really good friends with my high school coach. I’ve loved my time here at Indiana from my first visit up here.’’

What’s most attractive to recruiters about the Florida kids is that they play practically year-round and get to see so much more. Indiana — like a lot of schools — has gotten a lot of skill-position players from Florida, but they’ve also signed more linemen and linebackers lately, too,

“They play year-round down there, practically. Those 15 spring practices every year, that 60 practices for a kid by the time he’s done, something kids in a lot of states (including Indiana) don't get,’’ IU’s Shelby said. “Do you understand how much football knowledge you can get from 60 extra practices?

All that Florida talent has them knocking on the door as Indiana tries to work its way up in the Big Ten East standings. That's why they work the state so hard.

“We have six full-time coaches in Florida, plus Coach Allen, and we treat Florida exactly like we treat the state of Indiana,’’ said Indiana running backs coach Mike Hart, who recruits in the Clearwater and St. Petersburg area, with great success.

 “It’s that important to us. Coach Allen has a lot of great relationships down there and, of course, his son (Thomas Allen) played at Plant High School in Tampa, so he knows all of those people well.’’

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Thomas Allen getting recruiting by his father

When it came time for Thomas Allen to pick a college, the choice was an easy one for him. He was a standout linebacker at Tampa Plant High School for two years and he would have plenty of Division I choices.

There was no doubt, though, he was coming to Indiana to play for his dad. He’s the favorite Florida recruit for Tom Allen, of course. 

Now, as a sophomore, he’s a starting linebacker for the Hoosiers and he’ll be playing with Micah McFadden, another Plant product, often on the IU defense

“When it came time to talk about the recruiting process with Thomas, I was like, ‘Do we even need to talk about this? You are going to Indiana, right’ ’’ said Weiner, who’s been coaching at Plant, a state powerhouse, for 16 years and 33 years overall. “We got very close his senior year, and he’s a wonderful kid. He really improved that year and he was a great leader and captain for us.’’

Tom Allen was the defensive coordinator at USF in Tampa during Thomas’s junior year, but when Allen came to Indiana in 2016, Thomas stayed behind to finish at Plant before rejoining his dad in Bloomington a year later. The separation was difficult.

“That was hard for him not having his dad around, but the benefit he got out of it was immersing himself in our program 24 hours a day,’’ Weiner said. “He worked very hard in the weight room and on the field and watching film. He got so much better.

“Our time together that first year, though, it was really special. Most of my conversations with Tom were away from football. Tom has a perfect balance. For me, he was always very helpful, but without ever being intrusive. We share a lot of the same values away from football, so we could talk about anything.’’

Weiner has the benefit of knowing Allen and his family better than anyone in Florida. He is, without question, greatly impressed.

“I know the kind of people they are, and I would want my son to be like Thomas, and I would want him to be coached by Tom,’’ he said. “That’s how much I think of them.’’

Indiana head coach Tom Allen with his son, linebacker Thomas Allen

The complete 'Florida Pipeline' series

Part 1, The Relationships: Indiana coaches have signed 25 players from Florida by making the state a go-to destination. CLICK HERE

Part 2, The Quarterback: How Michael Penix Jr., became a recruiting priority, and how Indiana got their man. CLICK HERE 

Part 3: The Hurricane: Going through the pain of a major hurricane was made easier by being surrounded by so many Florida friends. CLICK HERE 

Part 4: The Perception: The perception from Florida families and high school coaches is that Indiana is doing all the right things in recruiting Florida, and the results are obvious. CLICK HERE