Tom Allen Excited to Have Recruits Feel IU's 'LEO' Culture as Recruiting Dead Period Ends on June 1st
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Image: Indiana University Athletics
Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
On Thursday the NCAA will end the 15-month recruiting dead period that started last March in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic according to reports and Indiana head football coach Tom Allen could not be more excited for recruits to be able to experience the ‘LEO’ culture in person.
“(It’s) just exciting” Allen said on Wednesday, “you think about our culture here that we built and it's so relationally driven. I think it's hurt us by not to be able to have the kids on campus because there's a feel that you get when you come around us, and what we're doing and even our players. I just want to get them around us and want to get them a chance to feel the LEO culture that we have and not just see it on video or talk about it or hear about it or, you know, listen to it on a, on a zoom call.”
Social media and Zoom have become great tools for college football coaches in 2020 and Indiana, with help from the Cuban Center, have done a tremendous job of bringing the LEO culture Allen talked about to the public. But as great as those clips were to see, IU does their best recruiting when prospects can feel the culture that Allen has built in Bloomington.
The Indiana Hoosiers have one commitment in their 2022 class and two in the 2023 class, however June is lining up to be a hugely important month for official visits. IU currently has 19 official visits scheduled for June according to 247 Sports.
The logistics still need to be nailed down by the NCAA on what visits will look like. “What that looks like locally is still not known yet.” Allen said. “I'm assuming is going to be based on the local, you know, jurisdictions and rules of, you know, whether it's a mass mandate locally or whether it's a number of people you can have on certain locations and in the buildings or whatever. So we don't know what that's gonna look like yet, but we'll figure that stuff all out once we get all the information.”
As of publishing, Monroe county is still requiring masks, recommending social distancing and limiting gatherings to 50 people. June is still six weeks away and regulations can change and college football world is awaiting the guidelines from the NCAA, but this a major step forward for college football and may be the opening of the flood gates for Indiana football recruiting.