Column: IU needs talent to take next step

One of the most clichéd ideas in sports is that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

When a team possesses both of those attributes, success becomes expectation.

During IU Coach Kevin Wilson’s tenure, he has demanded hard work from his players, and that effort is paying dividends.

But without sufficient talent, that hard work doesn’t equate to much.

That’s where the IU coaching staff’s ability to recruit enters the bigger picture.

Some might scoff at the words “recruiting” and “Indiana” in the same sentence, but those people haven’t kept a close eye on the Hoosiers’ pursuit of elite prep talent.

With roughly four months remaining until National Signing Day, IU’s 2013 recruiting class is beginning to take shape. The following is a list of the current commits.

Antonio Allen, DB
(Indianapolis)
Patrick Dougherty, DE (Aurora, Ohio)
Chase Dutra, ATH (Brownsburg, Ind.)
Danny Friend, TE
(Morris, Ill.)
Myles Graham, RB
(Hollywood, Fla.)
Isaac Griffith, WR
(Fort Wayne)
Jordan Heiderman, DT (Council Bluffs, Iowa)
Demetrius Hill, DE
(Fort Scott, Kan.)
Jacobi Hunter, DT
(Houston)
Evan Jansen, TE
(Cincinnati)
Anthony Young, WR (Lakewood, Ohio)

What I like from this current haul is the focus on improving the defensive line, which has been a weakness in recent seasons.

Because current starting senior defensive tackles Larry Black Jr. and Adam Replogle will see their respective eligibility clocks expire following the 2012 season, Heiderman and Hunter will add depth to the position.

Yet the most sterling piece of the 2013 class is Allen, a four-star prospect according to recruiting service Rivals.com.

Allen previously committed to Mississippi but chose to flip his pledge to the Hoosiers two months ago.

Allen could be only the second four-star prospect to come to Indiana in the past decade. Current redshirt freshman defensive end Zack Shaw is the other.

Allen, who attends Ben Davis High School, might be a catalyst for Indiana’s reclamation of the state’s largest recruiting hotbed.

The Hoosiers currently target four committed players from the Indianapolis area who might be influenced by Allen’s decision: defensive end David Kenney, currently committed to Iowa;, defensive tackle Darius Latham, committed to Wisconsin; defensive end Elijah Daniel, committed to Clemson; and linebacker John Kenny, committed to Iowa.

It would require a remarkable set of circumstances as well as a pinch of luck for Indiana to sway any one of the four aforementioned prospects.

But with a defense desperate for solid building blocks, a commitment from one of these elite defensive players would speak volumes about the progress Wilson and his staff have made on recruiting.

The hard work is evident. Now, it’s time to reel in the talent.

­— ckillore@indiana.edu