Recent IU Commit Caleb Murphy feels like IU, Bloomington are Home
/
Image: Caleb Murphy’s Twitter
Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
West Washington High School product Caleb Murphy committed to the Indiana Hoosiers on June 4th. For those that do not know about West Washington, it is a small 1-A school in southern Indiana about an hour south of Bloomington. Usually when a southern Indiana prospect is talking about IU, it is because they grew up on IU basketball, however for Caleb Murphy when he wanted to watch Big Ten football on Saturday’s the Hoosiers were on his TV.
“To me Indiana University is home,” Murphy said in an interview with Hoosier Huddle, “you know any time that we were going to a football game or I was looking to watch Big Ten football, Indiana University was always on the TV. For me, being a rural southern Indiana kid, Bloomington and IU is definitely home.”
Being close to home is not the only reason why Murphy pulled the trigger in favor of the Hoosiers, Tom Allen and his staff who have been making impressions on players and their families across the country were one of the deciding factors.
“The coaching staff is a group of great guys and that was something that was really important to me as I went through the recruiting process was meeting coaches that I knew I would enjoy being under for the next four to five years of my life and guys I knew would be great mentors to me in my future. Them being such a great coaching staff is another thing that made committing to Indiana University so easy” Murphy added.
When Murphy gets to IU in 2020, there is some debate where he will play. Allen has recruited him as an athlete, but “when I got up there, they’d probably have me at defensive line first and if something carried me to tight end or offensive line, so be it” Murphy told Hoosier Huddle.
Wherever Murphy plays, he will bring a love of the game and physicality that players need to succeed in the Big Ten. “I love the game of football and playing hard is something I can do to show people how much I love the game” Murphy emphasized.
Murphy’s recruiting process was a wild ride as it took coaches a while to figure out just what kind of prospect they had on their hands.
“It was something, for being a guy from such a small 1-A high school in southern Indiana, people don’t know the kind of athletes you play so from the start it was kind of slow” Murphy admitted. However, once Ball State offered, things kind of took off over a four month period and people started to take notice at football camps.
“I got my first offer from Ball State and that was a great offer and it was a group of coaches that were really excited about me and I was really excited about. Just from there it grew and grew and grew as more people started to see the athlete that I was and once people already know your name when you go to camps, they can pay attention to you a little bit more. It was something that, once the first one hit, in a four month time span I was at 15 offers and I really wanted IU and happily they were the first one in the Big Ten to pull the trigger on me and that’s where I wanted to go” Murphy said of his recruitment process.
Murphy will enter his senior season at West Washington looking to improve his weight room numbers and his ability to finish plays on the defensive line.
Starting in 2020, Murphy will no longer need to tune in on TV to find Big Ten football. It’ll be an hour up the road at Memorial Stadium waiting for him.