Indiana Hoosiers Sign 26 Players on National Signing Day

Sep 1, 2012; Bloomington, IN, USA; Indiana Hoosiers coach Kevin Wilson leads his team onto the field and touch the rock before the game against the Indiana State Sycamores at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

The Indiana Hoosiers picked up 26 commitments on National Signing Day. IU’s recruiting classes have gotten progressively better, but it appears that the Hoosiers haven’t quite duplicated the success of last season.

The 2014 class consists of 14 defensive players and 12 on offense, although that doesn’t mean each and everyone will end up on that side of the ball.

Rivals.com ranks the Hoosiers with 37th ranked class in the country. 247Sports.com put them at 51st and ESPN didn’t have IU in its top 40. Scout.com gave IU the 44th best class in the country. The Hoosiers have two four-star recruits and 15 three-stars.

This class isn’t as top heavy with the talent of 2013, but appears to have a lot of depth players who will develop over time. Coach Kevin Wilson was pleased with the incoming class as well and thinks this might be the best back-to-back classes IU has ever had.

“We are pleased with the way our class came together,” Wilson said. “With a few years under our belt we have gotten comfortable within the Midwest region, our ties in Indiana and the surrounding states. We continue to do well in Georgia and Florida.

“Our strategy of how we sell our school and how we sell our program has really given us the chance to land back-to-back strong classes. On paper, they are the best back-to-back classes in school history. But now we need to take that paper product, work with it in the years to come and keep building our program.”

The unit hit hardest this season was the wide receiving corps. Kofi Hughes is graduating, as is Duwyce Wilson, and Cody Latimer has declared for the NFL Draft. Four-star Pike wide receiver Dominique Booth will likely get a chance to start from day one.

The success of the offense has led to Wilson drawing in some fairly talented players. The Hoosiers pulled in another four-star recruit for the offensive line with Tim Gardner from the Milford Academy.

This class was once again heavier on the defensive side of the ball, as that has clearly been the Hoosiers biggest area of need. Its been clear that the quality of players has been lacking but the coaching of Doug Mallory wasn’t helping either. A year of experience for the 2013 class coupled with new blood and adding Brian Knorr as DC will see an improvement from this unit.

Here is the list of players, via the IU athletic office:

We’ll have a more through breakdown of this class in the coming weeks.

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