Mark Bennett: Recruiting class boosts Mallory's vision of ISU football future

Feb. 7—The thought of cracking into the upper tier of the Missouri Valley Football Conference may seem as likely as adding a new face to Mount Rushmore.

It's a fitting comparison, given that Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln are carved into that granite peak in South Dakota.

Since 2011, teams from universities with "Dakota" in their names have won or shared the MVFC title every season. In the past 13 years, teams beyond the Dakotas that have shared the conference title with North Dakota State, South Dakota State and North Dakota universities include Illinois State (2014 and 2015) and Missouri State (2020).

Indiana State coach Curt Mallory wants to get there. He's optimistic that his latest recruiting class — which includes 32 signees from the December and February periods, plus another recruit to come — could give the Sycamore program a step in that direction after two post-pandemic seasons of struggle. A MVFC championship has long been a lofty and still unfulfilled aspiration for ISU since 1986, when the Sycamores joined the conference.

Mallory unveiled the full class, including eight February signees on Wednesday from the ISU football office on campus.

The group leans heavily on linemen — eight on offense and six on defense — as well as seven wide receivers and six defensive backs. Mallory's staff also added two quarterbacks — USC and Northwest Mississippi Community College transfer Keegan Patterson, and Greenwood High School senior Brock Riddle.

ISU signed four Wabash Valley players — wide receiver A.J. Watkins, defensive back Nic Yatsko and punter Adam Mohamed, all from Terre Haute South, and 6-foot-2, 275-pound defensive lineman Zack Hess of South Vermillion.

Seventeen signees hail from Indiana and Illinois. "And the rest came from everywhere," Mallory said. He rattled off their states of origin — three from Ohio, two from Missouri, and one each from Kansas, California, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, Florida and Texas.

Those newcomers will blend with the returnees from last season's Sycamore edition that finished with records of 1-10 overall and 1-7 in the MVFC. That season followed a 2-9 season in 2022, a year marred by the tragic automobile accident that took the lives of three ISU students, including two football players, and injured two other Sycamore football players.

Through the previous four seasons, Mallory's teams had posted a cumulative record of 17-17, with no official games played during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. That stretch included records of 7-4 overall and 5-3 in the Missouri Valley in 2018, a bright spot after an 0-11 year in Mallory's first season.

The upcoming season's returning players and the 30-plus recruiting class encourages the 54-year-old Mallory, who served as an assistant coach at Indiana, Ball State, Central Michigan, Illinois, Akron, Michigan and Wyoming before taking his first head-coaching position at ISU in 2017. The recruits can provide the needed depth and talent at key positions, namely the lines and ballhandlers, to progress in 2024.

"Being competitive and the way we were this year, we've got to be able to finish games. We had a number of close games [last season]," Mallory said. "And that's the emphasis.

"I'm really excited about the team we have returning. That's our team as we [ended] the season. We're going to build around those guys. We're excited about the core, and the amount of guys returning this year. We felt like that's the team we're going to have, and we're going to bring in young men to build on that."

At quarterback, Elijah Owens is the lone returnee. He rushed for 67 yards and passed for 310 yards in four games, while then-regular starter Cade Chambers 1,119 yards. Newcomer quarterbacks will be Patterson, a 6-foot, 195-pound redshirt sophomore from Southern Cal (where he didn't play) and then Northwest Mississippi (where he threw for 1,983 yards), and Riddle, who totaled 4,393 passing yards and 49 touchdowns at Greenwood last season.

"We're excited about that position," Mallory said.

The Sycamores scored 18 touchdowns in their 11 games, while opponents reached the end zone 43 times.

"We've certainly got to improve on that side in scoring points," Mallory said. "That's why we really wanted to emphasize the offensive side of the ball. We return more guys on the defensive side, but felt like we needed to continue to build it with the offensive line and skill [positions]. We feel like we've got some guys returning that can make some plays, but we also feel like we're bringing in some guys who can add to that."

Like any coach at ISU, Mallory is well aware and energized by the attention the Sycamore men's basketball team is shining on the university this winter, with a 20-win season already secured and high hopes for postseason opportunities flowing. That follows a NCAA super-regional appearance by the ISU baseball team last spring. Mallory wants his team to experience such success too.

"Obviously, we're awfully proud of our sports here at Indiana State," Mallory said. "Baseball and what they did last spring. What our track programs have done both indoor and outdoor. The excitement with basketball right now. We want to ride that wave and that wave of excitement.

"But it starts in the classroom. Every sport here at Indiana State is representing in a first-class manner and they're doing extremely well in the classroom. Every program is above a 3.0 [grade-point average]. Our team GPA is at 3.3. I'll take that against any program in the country. I don't know if I've ever heard of a football program with that high of a GPA. And that's where it starts."

His father, the late Bill Mallory, coached college football for nearly three decades, amassing an overall record of 168-129-4 at Miami (Ohio), Colorado, Northern Illinois and Indiana, where his teams featured All-Americans Anthony Thompson and Vaughn Dunbar and played in six bowl games from 1984 to 1996. Bill Mallory also experienced seasons of 0-11, 2-9 and 3-8 records.

Before his passing in 2018, Bill Mallory visited the ISU football team several times in Terre Haute, where Curt and his wife Lori have raised their two sons and daughter, a high school junior who's being recruited by colleges for soccer.

"The one thing I always look back on, is who my dad was surrounded by," his son Curt said Wednesday from his Terre Haute office. "It was never about him — it was about 'us,' it was about 'we.' You surround yourself with great people, and that's what he did. He was a head coach for 28 years and never fired [an assistant] coach.

"And in this profession, you're going to have good days, and you're going to have tough days. And at the end of the day, you want to surround yourself with great people, and that's what we have here. People make a place; I say it all the time."

Mallory then praised the athletic department staffers surrounding him at ISU too.

"Everybody's together," Mallory said. "People always look at me when I say this, but surround yourself with people you can lose with. When things are going well, it's easy to jump on board. When things are tough and you've surrounded yourself with good people, people are going to fight through it. And that's exactly what we have."

His Sycamores open the 2024 season Aug. 31 at Purdue, then face longtime rival Eastern Illinois, Dayton and Houston Christian before taking on the MVFC.

"I love the schedule," he said. "I think we've got a very competitive schedule."

For ISU, it always is.

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.