Funny thing is, I think if IU brought in the TE that OSU did, people would be losing their minds and wondering why OSU didn't pursue the TE from OU. Its all perception at this point. Cig prefers the Portal to HS recruiting, but he's not pursuing top, high star guys(outside of Marsh). The TCU QB is not a player that OSU would be interested in, none of the IU WRs would OSU be interested in, Zen Michalski was cast off from OSU and was a running joke of recruiting OL failures, and now he could win an NC as their starting OL. Roman Hemby is their starting RB, but no one would even want him over CJ Donaldson or James Peoples let alone Bo.
Cig is also playing with house money with the IU job. He literally has nothing to lose. If he loses out on a recruit it doesn't matter, he's only at IU, if a transfer doesn't pan out, oh well fans will look forward to basketball season. If Ryan Day doesn't get every single 5star, and win every game by 40pts, the fan base turns on him. Cig has next to no pressure from his fan base or their donors. He can get blown out by Oregon and it won't matter that much, they're just happy to be there. OSU fans are up in arms over losing twice this season, imagine if Day said he was going to stop really recruiting HS talent in place of transfers. Every OSU site would explode