Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

The NCAA transfer portal, and now the one-time transfer rule, have changed the way college football coaches are recruiting their future players and the Hoosiers are no different. The IU football team has both gained and lost players via the transfer portal this past offseason. The Hoosiers have gained six transfers and have lost 10. The Hoosiers are probably not finished with the portal yet this spring and Allen has a strategy for its use and it’s for immediate help.

“You got to maximize for your program.” Indiana head coach Tom Allen explained. “And so for us, you know when you have guys that choose to leave to go to the portal, you got to be able to replace them.”

The Hoosiers lost a lot of depth along the defensive line due to the NFL Draft and the portal, so it is not surprising that two of Indiana’s incoming transfers are at that position group. However, the dilemma of the portal process is, do you take a veteran just because or do you recruit a high school prospect who you can mold into a multi-year player. Tom Allen has his thought process on that as well.

“Here's kind of our thought process,” Allen said, “and that is, you know you want to try and find someone that can help you immediately if you lose somebody that affects your depth. Or maybe a guy who can come in and be able to improve your roster. I think improving your roster is number one within the context of that they fit with you. So I never want to compromise that and that to me that is not consistent with our philosophy here that we recruit with so that won't change.”

Allen is not a person who is going to sacrifice his L.E.O culture to coax someone to come to Bloomington. So he has to take a deeper look into the future of each prospect potentially coming into his program.

“Then you have to answer the question, okay so if you take a guy that's got one year left then you'll still get that position back the following year. So if you're gonna take someone who has more than one year left, that's when it gets down you have to say, Okay, does that person, give us more value than what we could go out and get a high school kid at four for that same position. So that's the decisions you have to make and sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes you say no. I'm a big development program guy from recruit kids out of high school that would be my preference to do it with across the board.”

While Allen wants to be a developmental coach, there are outside factors that will force a coach’s hand to the situation. In the high stakes sport of Big Ten football, many coaches don’t have to wiggle room to take a step back because they don’t want to tweak their recruiting philosophy.

“You have you have injuries you know things happen,. That's one thing to hear it has kind of helped us you look at our recent issue whether we've been able to maximize the portal.” Allen said. “In the transfer market to be able to create some options bring some, some older guys in that can give us an immediate help in an area where maybe you lost some depth due to an injury or due to player decided to either transfer or quit playing for whatever reason that might be and so some of those things happen, and you have a chance to just address some needs through that that's kind of the way we've used it so far.”

Allen does not want to become too reliant on transfers, like some other teams in the NCAA, but the portal is not going anywhere and will make decisions on who gets scholarships much more difficult.

“That's not at all or anywhere close to where I want to ever see us become but, but I guess you do too got to do,” Allen said about taking more transfers than high school players. “Then but that's going to create some long term ramifications as well for the depth on your team so I just think it's a, it's a delicate balance. But you have to, once again, maximize the situation that you're in, and the rules that you have and so we're going to continue to recruit to the standard that we have set for guys that fit with us the kind of character, we're looking for here and kind of individually, what kind of young men we want in our program and what they value and how that matches with our values, and then just you're trying to the constant theme is how can we continue to improve our roster.”

There is another issue looming with the transfer portal that will affect high school recruiting and that is there will be more players that spots available due to the ‘free’ year after COVID. While the scholarship numbers will eventually get back to the normal 85, the ramifications of the free year will be felt for years to come.

“It just becomes a scholarship challenge .” Allen said. “Right now there's a really big issue moving forward with the current Juniors. The juniors for the 2020 season, whether they're redshirt junior or a regular Junior. Those guys, the class above them was able to stay without, without any penalty for your 85 and so but now it's at least telling, telling us that that that that's only a one year situation so those guys have a lot of guys coming back, you know, across the country and there's under rosters, and then they're not going to be given an additional (scholarship)relief now they'll get their extra year. But schools have to decide do you honor that extra year or do you go sign high school kid, you know in that spot. And so that's really going to be a tough, tough, tough decision for that class so it makes a sale that kind of flushes itself out and plays itself out moving forward but but yeah it's a, it's an interesting time.”

So buckle up for another wild offseason in 2022.

The Huddle

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