(2027) RB Da’Jon Talley-Rhodes to INDIANA

[American HoosierX]

9 hours ago, DChoosier said:

I wonder what our highest-ever class was ranked? I remember the years in which we would have sadly had the 6th best class in Conference USA ( no, that is not a joke).

Scout 247 currently has us ranked 31st, with eleven 3*, sandwiched between Syracuse and Kansas State but we will really jump if we land Sales and a couple of other targets.

 

According to 247, #25 in 2022 was our highest ranked recruiting class (at least since 2000).

[IUHoosierJoe]

9 hours ago, DChoosier said:

I wonder what our highest-ever class was ranked?

 

I remember a year in the 1980s right after Bill Mallory had turned the program around, we had the fourth-ranked class in the Big 10, but I don’t remember what the national rank was. 

[skhoosier2]

Maybe some of these kids are taking a spot now knowing it may not be there if they wait but are continuing to field offers since it's widely known Cig doesn't pay the most for hs players.  We still have other rb visits scheduled so I would assume we will take another if they feel his commitment is soft.  I've often said here I think many take IU offers then shop around to get more of a bag if that's their angle.  Especially some that are more under the radar until they commit to us.  Seems like other programs jump on our recruits once we offer and don't really do their own scouting beyond star power.

[American HoosierX]

40 minutes ago, skhoosier2 said:

Maybe some of these kids are taking a spot now knowing it may not be there if they wait but are continuing to field offers since it's widely known Cig doesn't pay the most for hs players.  We still have other rb visits scheduled so I would assume we will take another if they feel his commitment is soft.  I've often said here I think many take IU offers then shop around to get more of a bag if that's their angle.  Especially some that are more under the radar until they commit to us.  Seems like other programs jump on our recruits once we offer and don't really do their own scouting beyond star power.

What is this based on? I think kids would be genuinely excited to come to IU at this point. I think Cignetti is one of the few coaches where kids may be willing to take a discount to play for him.

[Hovadipo]

1 hour ago, skhoosier2 said:

Maybe some of these kids are taking a spot now knowing it may not be there if they wait but are continuing to field offers since it's widely known Cig doesn't pay the most for hs players.  We still have other rb visits scheduled so I would assume we will take another if they feel his commitment is soft.  I've often said here I think many take IU offers then shop around to get more of a bag if that's their angle.  Especially some that are more under the radar until they commit to us.  Seems like other programs jump on our recruits once we offer and don't really do their own scouting beyond star power.

This is a pretty spot-on summary of the fluidity of HS football recruiting. It’s hard to apply logic to that scene. Too many factors at play. 

[Lebowski]

1 hour ago, skhoosier2 said:

Maybe some of these kids are taking a spot now knowing it may not be there if they wait but are continuing to field offers since it's widely known Cig doesn't pay the most for hs players.  We still have other rb visits scheduled so I would assume we will take another if they feel his commitment is soft.  I've often said here I think many take IU offers then shop around to get more of a bag if that's their angle.  Especially some that are more under the radar until they commit to us.  Seems like other programs jump on our recruits once we offer and don't really do their own scouting beyond star power.

 

2 minutes ago, Hovadipo said:

This is a pretty spot-on summary of the fluidity of HS football recruiting. It’s hard to apply logic to that scene. Too many factors at play. 

This kind of happened to a local 2025 4* recruit. 

Winter going into his senior season he committed to a MAC school. Got offers from ACC and Big 12 schools after commitment. Spring, he decommitted to the MAC and committed to a Big 12 school. During season, gets offers from SEC and B1G. Towards the end of his final season he decommitted to the Big 12 school and signed with a top B1G school.  Part of this was due to what kind of year he had and the other part of it was the size of bag he was getting. 

With IUFB, most of these recruits are already getting offers from the big dogs so I'm not sure if my example applies now. Because that's almost a typical college football recruit prior to NIL. Kid starts out as a 2*, goes to summer camps gains an offer from G5/6 schools, elevates to 3* once a 'mid to upper mid' P4 offer comes in, kid improves during the season and get offers from big dogs, elevates to 4*. 

I'd like to add that some kids just want to get the recruitment out of the way and focus on season. 

But, NIL has completely changed everything and it's foolish to not keep the door open for these life changing opportunities. And this would be my advice to my child if he were in this boat. 

[jermhoosierfan]

1 hour ago, Lebowski said:

 

This kind of happened to a local 2025 4* recruit. 

Winter going into his senior season he committed to a MAC school. Got offers from ACC and Big 12 schools after commitment. Spring, he decommitted to the MAC and committed to a Big 12 school. During season, gets offers from SEC and B1G. Towards the end of his final season he decommitted to the Big 12 school and signed with a top B1G school.  Part of this was due to what kind of year he had and the other part of it was the size of bag he was getting. 

With IUFB, most of these recruits are already getting offers from the big dogs so I'm not sure if my example applies now. Because that's almost a typical college football recruit prior to NIL. Kid starts out as a 2*, goes to summer camps gains an offer from G5/6 schools, elevates to 3* once a 'mid to upper mid' P4 offer comes in, kid improves during the season and get offers from big dogs, elevates to 4*. 

I'd like to add that some kids just want to get the recruitment out of the way and focus on season. 

But, NIL has completely changed everything and it's foolish to not keep the door open for these life changing opportunities. And this would be my advice to my child if he were in this boat. 

But in football, there are only a handful of HS recruits who are going to get a big bag I would think.  It seems like they commit to one to see what other fish will come around.  I look at it like when a guy starts dating a girl, it would seem like you draw a lot more attention to yourself because you are "taken".

[Lebowski]

2 hours ago, jermhoosierfan said:

But in football, there are only a handful of HS recruits who are going to get a big bag I would think.  It seems like they commit to one to see what other fish will come around.  I look at it like when a guy starts dating a girl, it would seem like you draw a lot more attention to yourself because you are "taken".

Yes, you're correct, 'a handful' of HS recruits are going to get offers from the big dogs. If you're getting offers from the big dogs then you're more than likely getting a big bag, somewhere. Keep in mind, a HS recruit getting D1 offers are rare among his peers. He is just a handful amongst many. We can figure out the percentages by looking at these 2024-2025 numbers from NFHS. The link breaks down participation numbers. It doesn't include 8-Player football but Google AI overview estimates there are around 26k participants. So adding those numbers, you're looking at roughly 1.052 million HS football players available for 14,490 total D1 scholarships. (138 D1 football schools x 105 scholarships per school) That means around 1.4% of HS football players go on to play D1. But that percentage is actually lower because every school isn't offering 105 scholarships every year. These numbers are estimates and I'm just using them to provide a bigger picture. 

So of the 14,490 pool of recruits, I'm willing to bet most if not all 4* recruits are getting compensated a big bag via NIL. (A big bag to me is 6 figures, anything 100k and above) Because again, in the grand scheme of things, there's really not that many recruits in general. And most if not all P4 3* recruits are getting compensated via NIL in some way or the other as well. (For example, a full ride scholarship and an NIL dollar value of a yearly tuition, housing, dining, and books. So depending on what school and out-of-state vs in-state cost etc. etc., something like 35K-60k would not be out of the question.)

The thing that has me way concerned is the market. It has shifted so much that it's impossible to predict what is the proper 'value' of each position/recruit. For example, maybe a DL recruit in 2025 signed with O$U for 240k. According to Coach Cig's latest comments, that value might now be 720k to 1.2mil? I believe he said it's jumped 3 to 5 times? I could be wrong. But like how does someone budget for this type of unpredictable jump?

Bottom line, today, these recruits have a life changing opportunity and I don't blame them for this type of approach. 

[Bigred3588]

Found some videos of this kid on Hudl and I’m a little more optimistic about him staying committed. There’s a lot to like but I’d be surprised if the traditional blue bloods get in the picture. He’s decisive, has nice burst, and initiates contact, but he’s too vertical between the tackles and his footwork isn’t where it needs to be. One video was 11 minutes long and I don’t think I saw him plant and get upfield once; he’s able to just run around the kids he’s playing. He has some speed but not enough to run around people at the next level.