Analysis: Do Stars Matter in Recruiting and Where Does Iowa Fit In?

skinnykilmer17 said:
Rob, I have followed you for years and respect your writing, and this is an interesting and informative article, but your last paragraph surprises me. KF rarely recruits highly ranked players IMO. If so, why? Does he not trust a player who may not need as much development? Is he not as comfortable coaching them? Does he find them too confident and not as coachable? They don't work as hard? Is he so enamored in his reputation as a developer that he has overplayed that, thinking he can win consistently with 2's and 3's? Is this another aspect of the CULTURE here? Has this mentality overly influenced his assistants? Do you recall a few weeks ago how Parker went on in public about the things Josh Jackson still needed to improve upon? I mean that's great but what player is perfect? He was projected as being a first round selection at that point. He may have thought he was doing the kid a favor but at that point I think it was just the opposite. Did Parker's ego get in the way? Compliment the kid on his abilities and Let it Go! for crying out loud.

And as recently as 2016 Iowa ranked either 12th or 13th in the conference in money spent on recruiting (Northwestern is not required to disclose). That is NOT aggressive recruiting. Maybe you have more recent numbers now that Bell is more involved? I believe he will continue to have a positive impact in recruiting moving forward. But KF has the final say in any personnel decisions obviously.

Interestingly, KF's two worst years since 2010 are actually some of his highest talent score years according to your article. Any thoughts why? Why does he have so much trouble in getting highly ranked SKILL players to come here? In particular the WR position.

But the most surprising thing you said was he has a formula for winning a national title. ?? Seriously ?? He doesn't even have a relevant formula to beat Wisconsin. He still believes we are their equal and can line up and play them straight up. Newsflash - We are no longer as physical as they are and haven't been for sometime. This year's game was a downright embarrassment and set records for offensive futility and defensive dominance.

I seriously doubt he opens fall practice every year contemplating a national title. If he did he would treat EVERY game like it was a must win instead of laying eggs with questionable game planning and an apparent lack of motivation.
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Iowa does recruit and offer highly-ranked players. It always has. That’s not an opinion.
 
Of course stars matter and if you want to be a top 10 team consitantly and win national championships you got to get the top 5 and 4 stars every year, Iowa doesn't do that enough KF would rather turn 1 out of every 10 2 starts into a NFL guy while the other 9 fail because it makes him "look" better
 
I don't think he's looking to fail with recruits nine times out of 10. The notion that KF doesn't want to win is false. You can argue is methods used to go about winning are ineffective, but he does want to win and develop good players. He would also like to land some of the highly-recruited kids that go elsewhere.
 
Its always been somewhat shocking to me that KF can never seem to land a stud RB recruit. I mean like a 4+ star guy. The Melvin Gordon miss still stings...and the jury is still out on Eno. With Iowa being a run-first, pro-style offense with a reputation for NFL quality offensive lineman, you'd think a 4 or 5 star RB would be able to come in and get 20+ carries per game right away as a freshman.

Looking over the recent RB rankings though, seems most of the highly rated RB's come out of the south and stay in the south or occasionally get plucked by Urban Meyer to Ohio State. I guess it makes sense that the best RB's want to play in the spotlight for the best schools.
 
They matter. Teams like Iowa or fans of teams like Iowa like to say they are "developmental" programs and they don't matter as much, but they do as far as a chance to win a NC or to have consistency. This along with $$$$$ in the program.

All one has to do is go back and look who historically plays for the NC or is in the playoffs on a consistent basis. Teams that recruit the highest rated players. The difference is that those teams are loaded with them so they have very good quality depth. You can also look at the schools who have the most $$$$ in the programs and see that is a factor as well. Look at the BIG teams that are most successful. They have the most $$$$$$.
 
The premise that football recruits with more stars next to their name correlates to improved chances in making the CFP seems valid. Logically then football program with few star recruits correlates to a non-competitive program. The subject then turns to how does a program like Iowa convince those four and five stars to commit? Easier said the done to use an old cliche.

There are no simple answers to improving the star level of recruits. A great many factors influence recruiting. Many critics of Iowa's recruiting ignore the differences between Iowa and other programs. If I pointed them out they would accuse me of making excuses. Suffice to say being a member of a stronger academic conference in a small population northern state with two P5 football programs is a major part of it. Even Wisconsin with a larger population and only one P5 program in the state has trouble recruiting star recruits.

From where Iowa was in 1979 to today is night and days apart. The best way to attract recruits with more stars is to prove that they will become the best player they can be by being part of the program. I believe the track record and reputation for doing that has enhanced Iowa's chances of getting recruits with more stars.
 
About Iowa you state in your article "Iowa does more with less when it comes to the TCS.".

Boy, really makes you wonder what they could do with more. Just sayin'.
 
eyekwah said:
The premise that football recruits with more stars next to their name correlates to improved chances in making the CFP seems valid. Logically then football program with few star recruits correlates to a non-competitive program. The subject then turns to how does a program like Iowa convince those four and five stars to commit? Easier said the done to use an old cliche.

There are no simple answers to improving the star level of recruits. A great many factors influence recruiting. Many critics of Iowa's recruiting ignore the differences between Iowa and other programs. If I pointed them out they would accuse me of making excuses. Suffice to say being a member of a stronger academic conference in a small population northern state with two P5 football programs is a major part of it. Even Wisconsin with a larger population and only one P5 program in the state has trouble recruiting star recruits.

From where Iowa was in 1979 to today is night and days apart. The best way to attract recruits with more stars is to prove that they will become the best player they can be by being part of the program. I believe the track record and reputation for doing that has enhanced Iowa's chances of getting recruits with more stars.
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Iowa's best selling points to recruits is getting players to the NFL. Not just getting them to the NFL, but playing an NFL style and game ready to complete right away.
 
RobHowe said:
Iowa does recruit and offer highly-ranked players. It always has. That’s not an opinion.
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Then he fails to execute. Isn't this where the poor execution of the program begins? How many 4 stars has he landed in the past 5 years? 10 years?

Someone said on here that only Nortwestern makes fewer scholarship offers than Iowa. Is this true? And again in 2016 we were almost dead last in recruiting $$. Rob, apparently only a Barry Alvarez-guided program is able to recruit this way and be consistently successful. We aren't. That is not an opinion.

Look this is what frustrates so many of us: Kirk has been over-compensated, well over-compensated for his results over the years. That is on Barta. No way is KF deserving of a Top 10 salary and on top of that he is rewarded for mediocrity. (8-win bonus). We have all read the national articles about how ridiculous this contract is so I won't even bother linking them. This is the worst contract in modern college football history. Yes, this an opinion. That many people share.

And now he gets to presumably select his succesor putting family ahead of the program? Again? He is really is no longer accountable. This breeds complacency and stagnation. If Brian is inevitably our next HC then I would just as soon see Kirk step aside after next year (after breaking Hayden's record and I won't get started on that) so we can just get on with it.

At least HE might hire a qualified OC.
 
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Fryowa said:
Wisconsin may have been 37th, but this year they're schedule was beyond powder puff. They got beat by the one and only decent team they played prior to their bowl game.
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Along SOS lines... final 2017 calculations are in - Iowa played 5/6th most difficult this year (including bowls)
 
teachercoach said:
Along SOS lines... final 2017 calculations are in - Iowa played 5/6th most difficult this year (including bowls)
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We weren’t talking about Iowa.

The reason Wisconsin was brought up in this discussion was because, in an article demonstrating that recruiting stars really do matter, Wisconsin finished in the CFP top ten with the 37th best talent composite (recruiting aggregate ranking).

My point was that the reason they did so was because of their unbelievably soft schedule. I wasn’t arguing or implying that Iowa’s schedule wasn’t tough.
 
Fryowa said:
We weren’t talking about Iowa.

The reason Wisconsin was brought up in this discussion was because, in an article demonstrating that recruiting stars really do matter, Wisconsin finished in the CFP top ten with the 37th best talent composite (recruiting aggregate ranking).

My point was that the reason they did so was because of their unbelievably soft schedule. I wasn’t arguing or implying that Iowa’s schedule wasn’t tough.
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You might have a stronger argument about the soft schedule if Wisconsin's appearance in the top ten was an exception this year rather than the rule. Their recruiting ranking is typically in the 30's and they are a perennial top ten team.
 
skinnykilmer17 said:
Then he fails to execute. Isn't this where the poor execution of the program begins? How many 4 stars has he landed in the past 5 years? 10 years?

Someone said on here that only Nortwestern makes fewer scholarship offers than Iowa. Is this true? And again in 2016 we were almost dead last in recruiting $$. Rob, apparently only a Barry Alvarez-guided program is able to recruit this way and be consistently successful. We aren't. That is not an opinion.

Look this is what frustrates so many of us: Kirk has been over-compensated, well over-compensated for his results over the years. That is on Barta. No way is KF deserving of a Top 10 salary and on top of that he is rewarded for mediocrity. (8-win bonus). We have all read the national articles about how ridiculous this contract is so I won't even bother linking them. This is the worst contract in modern college football history. Yes, this an opinion. That many people share.

And now he gets to presumably select his succesor putting family ahead of the program? Again? He is really is no longer accountable. This breeds complacency and stagnation. If Brian is inevitably our next HC then I would just as soon see Kirk step aside after next year (after breaking Hayden's record and I won't get started on that) so we can just get on with it.

At least HE might hire a qualified OC.
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We're getting into a circular discussion. You said Iowa doesn't recruit high-ranked kids. I said that it does. And it does.
 
No doubt Iowa tries to recruit high ranked kids but it's approach to doing doesn't necessarily indicate to me that they do so in as aggressive a manner as they should or could at times. I would be a member of the group that believes they could do better in raising the overall talent level.

It isn't a question of whether they do or don't make attempts.
 
RobHowe said:
We're getting into a circular discussion. You said Iowa doesn't recruit high-ranked kids. I said that it does. And it does.
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This has been almost a 15 yr deal now. Over 10 for sure. There's no resolving it until one stops typing. Utterly ridiculous that some think KF doesn't want or try to get good highly rated recruits. Of course he does and he's occasionally landed them. If any of us could walk a mile in his shoes for a year or so and see what just the recruiting world part of it is all about it'd probably blow our minds.
 
SpiderRico said:
The comparison of our 2015 schedule to Wisky’s schedule this year needs to stop. While we missed Mich, OSU, and PSU in 2015, we played at Wisky, NW, Nebby, and ISU. Wisky and NW won 10 games, Nebby was a couple hail mary’s from winning 9 and ISU is always a tough game on the road. Was it murderer’s row? No. But it was head and shoulder’s tougher than Wisky’s this year...
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2015 was Beathard's first year as starter also. Had an awesome second half at ISU that year.
 
RobHowe said:
No worries. I think we all agree that schedule matters.

Iowa misses Ohio State, Michigan State and Michigan next year and gets Nebraska and Northwestern at home.

Wisconsin plays at Iowa, Northwestern, Penn State and Michigan.

That should be an advantage for the Hawkeyes.

BTW, you guys all are five starts in my book. Well, most of you.
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When do they get to add the extra coach? Any idea who that might be and what area of coverage?
 
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