Graham: IUFB Early Signing Period Notebook

By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Coach Tom Allen once outran his entire Ben Davis football team down the sideline and into the end zone to celebrate a semistate-clinching touchdown.

Allen, now helming Indiana's Hoosiers, runs three miles a day and can still show some giddyup on the sideline if need be.

But it seems unlikely he'll outrun his latest Ben Davis player.

Reese Taylor, Indiana's Mr. Football after quarterbacking Ben Davis to an unbeaten Class 6A state championship season, is fleet afoot.

That goes for many of the 23 Hoosier signees that joined IU's 2018 recruiting class Wednesday, with more to come into the fold by the traditional February signing date.

It is already Indiana's highest-ranked recruiting class since recruiting services began tabulations. It is currently listed at No. 32 nationally by Rivals.com.

And speed is a defining characteristic of the class.

"Speed was an emphasis for sure," Allen said when meeting the media Wednesday. "I went through the (needs) with our coaches and really just said we've got to get faster. To me, if you want speed, you've got to recruit speed.

"There's no question you can develop and get faster, but you have to have fast guys out of high school, and those guys can be developed from there. So that, to me, was a real priority."

And it meshes well with a 2017 recruiting class that emphasized size.

"We do have, I believe, two really, really strong groups back to back," Allen said of his initial two classes in his IU coaching tenure. "I just feel like it's an upgrade in a lot of just raw talent on the field.

"I like the way we've addressed it … I think this class adds more speed, not quite the size at certain spots … last year we felt we needed to get bigger. This year we wanted to get faster."

Some of the standouts in the class are track stars.

Running back Ronnie Walker, whose Hopewell team won the 2017 Virginia state title, qualified for the track regionals in both the 100 meters and the shot put. That's a nifty combo.

"Ronnie Walker, very excited about him, going to be a mid-year guy, as well as Jacolby Hewitt, Mike Penix, and James Head … which is huge for them to be able to get here and start with us in early
January," Allen said. "Ronnie (is) a tremendously talented player, strong, fast, great balance, great vision, and really used to running our system."

Taylor could play any number of positions on either side of the ball, quarterback included, but Penix is coming in purely as a quarterback from Tampa Bay Tech. Penix put up these numbers in track last season: a 22-foot long jump and 22.8 200 meters.

Penix, once a Tennessee commit who chose the Hoosiers over Florida State and South Florida, is a lefty with a big arm who threw for 61 touchdowns and just six interceptions over the past two seasons. He threw for almost 2,200 yards and led Tech to an 11-2 record as a senior.

"Tremendously excited about him," Allen said of Penix. "He's in the 6-foot-2, 6-3 range, 200 pounds. Love his length and athleticism. He's listed as a pro style quarterback on paper, but that's not what he is. He's a dual(-threat) guy. Really, really gifted athlete. Really good basketball player, can run and jump extremely well."

Speaking of running and jumping, there is not much question Madison Norris will help the Hoosiers eventually clear some hurdles. He made the Indiana state meet in the 110-meter hurdles last year.

Bear in mind Norris is a 6-foot-5 defensive end.

"Madison Norris, an in-state athlete from Hamilton Southeastern High School, an elite track athlete," Allen said. "I predict he will possibly win the state high hurdles this year and probably would have last year but he got a late injury in the tournament. Really, really fast, long athlete."

IU needed to add those on defense, where it graduates eight starters (though that number is a bit misleading, with prospective starters such as defensive end Nike Sykes and Husky back Marcelino Ball having missed all and most of last season, respectively, due to injury).

The recruiting class currently stands at 12 defensive players and eight offensive players along with kicker Charles Campbell and with Taylor and Stevie Scott listed as "athletes."

"Had a really strong amount of talent that we are graduating on defense, so we had to really address that side of the football," Allen acknowledged. "Graduated some linebackers, so excited to add
Aaron Casey, Cam Jones, and Micah McFadden to our team. Guys with athleticism -- all three of them from the South and guys that we really believe in.

"It's not by accident that we got really a bunch of DBs that run really, really well, got some linebackers that run really well, got some defensive ends that run well. That, to me, is a speed game. The ball is out in space a lot, and we've got to be able to close. It also helps on special teams. To me, that's a big key."

Cornerback prospects Elijah Rodgers (at 6-1 with good size for that position) and Jaylin Williams are both blazers. Williams, from Germantown, Tenn., had a slew of SEC offers (and was initially an Ole Miss commit).

"Jaylin is a tremendously gifted player with high-class speed," Allen said. "He can play both sides of the ball, but he's going to play corner. Same with Elijah. He was a high school quarterback, and he's going to play corner."

And there is no surprise that, on the other side of the ball, wideout prospects Hewitt and Miles Marshall are also swift. "Jacolby is tremendously fast," Allen said, "and also has good size to him. Thick.
And Miles has got length, 6'4" receiver, caught a ton of balls there in a very, very good league coming out of the Atlanta area in Parkview High School in Georgia."

Taking 2018 and 2017 together, IU has addressed both speed and size in big classes that will amount to well over half its 2018 roster.

"Of the 85 on scholarship, you're going to have 50 of them that are in the last two classes," Allen said. "So that's a big chunk of our team.

"So that tells me that this offseason is going to be critically important for our future. The way we work this spring, the mid-year guys are going to be joining us, and when the rest of the class comes for June, their development for June and July leading up to fall camp is going to be huge."

If they develop well, these Hoosiers just might make a run at it.

And they'll do it fast.

CIRCLE OF EXCELLENCE HEADING TOWARD COMPLETION
Given that coach Tom Allen and staff have just posted IU's highest-ranked recruiting class in recent years without even having a full year of recruiting for an offensive staff that turned over entirely in 2017, one wonders what they might do coming off a winning season and when new facilities come on-line.

The new Excellence Academy in the South End Zone and new locker rooms and player lounges will complete what IU refers to its "Circle of Excellence" spanning the circumference of Memorial Stadium – to show prospective recruits starting next year.

All a student-athlete's needs – academics, health, nutrition, training, the works – will be within easy walking distance inside Memorial Stadium.

"I sit in my office and have a great view of that facility," Allen said. "And a year from now they'll be in it. That class will be using it. It will open up this summer. It's just another way for us to continue to show our growth and investment in the program.

"… I tell guys it's the people that make a place special. That is never going to be anything that I'm not going to say, but having better facilities helps. The people are what makes it special, but getting the facilities upgraded … shows the importance of our sport to Indiana University, the importance to the alumni investing in it and to our administration investing in it, and that's what we sell to our parents that we're trying to recruit and to our players."

CLASS NOTABLES
Tight end recruit Matt Bjorson hails from Hinsdale (Ill.) Central, alma mater of IU soccer All-Americans Grant Lillard and Andrew Gutman.

Charles Campbell will kick in the 2018 U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

Jacolby Hewitt, an all-state wideout in Tennessee after posting 1,413 all-purpose yards as a senior, was the leading receiver in the state's East-West All-Star Classic.

All-state tight end T.J. Ivy joined fellow IU signee Gavin McCabe, a defensive lineman, in leading Chicago Marist to an unbeaten regular season and state runner-up finish.

Nick Marozas, an offensive lineman and three-year captain, also played rugby for Chicago Brother Rice.

Defensive back Devon Matthews' nickname "Monster" stems from knocking off a quarterback's helmet during a sack when he was 8-years old.

MOVING ON UP
The average IU football recruiting ranking nationally for both 24/7 and Rivals over the past 10 years is 55.

So progress is palpable this year.

But Tom Allen doesn't get hung up on recruiting rankings.

"What do these young men develop into?" Allen said. "That's the question. What do these guys look like two years from now, three years from now? Nobody really knows that right now.

"You get fired up about rankings and all that. This is a great class in that regard. I still don't focus on that. Didn't focus on it last year. Don't focus on it this year. It's what do these guys become?"

Players Mentioned

Marcelino McCrary-Ball

Indiana University Athletics