Sit Down with Tom Allen: The Balancing Act of Recruiting in High School and the Transfer Portal

Written by Nathan Comp (@NathanComp1)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following quotes were given during a one-on-one interview with Indiana head coach Tom Allen. We want to thank IU Athletics and Coach Allen for taking the time to sit down with Hoosier Huddle to talk about all things IU football. This is the first article of many from this interview.

Transfers have always been a part of collegiate athletics, but the past few years’ leniency on eligibility requirements after transferring and the addition of the NIL world has completely flipped recruiting on its head. Coaches are now forced to adapt or be left behind. While all measures that improve player empowerment are received well, that does not mean these changes have been free of challenges.

For Tom Allen, one of the greatest challenges he has faced with the emphasis on the transfer portal has come not in talent evaluation, but rather in evaluation of one’s character. For a coach that has built his success in programs around culture building, it can be difficult to get a true feel for a player in the rapid-pace world of the transfer portal.

“In high school, you're recruiting for at least a year, maybe two, you know, and the portal can be a month, it could be less than that,” said Allen. “It's not very long, you know, so you're probably going to have a little bit less accuracy in some ways. I've heard some college coaches say that's why they like it. You know, because you can invest so much time to recruit a high school kid for nothing. But that makes me feel really uncomfortable, because I feel like it just creates a greater margin for error.”

On the flip side, there is certainly a benefit to bringing in a player that has had a chance to mature outside of high school and develop his body for a year or more in a collegiate training program.

“I will say this, you also got an older, more mature young man, and I think you have a better chance to have more accuracy from a talent perspective and what kind of player you can become, but maybe a little bit less in terms of the character development.”

To reduce the variability in character development, Allen has relied on relationships he has established in the past. Whether that means he is discussing with coaches he trusts for an evaluation, or re-establishing relationships with players he may have missed on originally out of high school, Allen focuses on using his network to ensure he knows the kind of player he is welcoming into his program.

“Now, you'll notice it's not true 100% of the time, but we've tried to have some kind of connection with the guys we’ve brought in in some way or another. Whether it's people that we know really well at the place that they're coming from… or maybe it’s some guys who we recruited before, you know, offered him when he was a sophomore in high school.”

Emery Simmons is a prime example of this for Allen, a wide receiver who Allen recruited and even had earned a verbal commitment from in June of 2018, before Simmons ultimately decided to go to UNC. He is now back with the Hoosiers, by way of the transfer portal, for the upcoming season.

Continuing to find the right balance between high school and portal guys will be an important step for Allen and the Hoosiers, who kick off a pivotal 2022 season against Illinois on September 2nd.