At least we got RB Eric Graham

[imported_ankle23]

This is the article I read. Kind of confusing mid-way in the article and mentions he will take the test again this weekend........why would he take the test again?

http://iowa.scout.com/story/1510297-graham-lands-late-iowa-offer-commits

agree is confusing. maybe he is in with the sliding scale of gpa and act, maybe they are borderline and hope for a better act score to get off of the ncaa 'fence' so there is no 'chancing it' with any ncaa/clearinghouse issues.

not sure - but we'll find out sooner or later.

that all being said, sounds like a great person to have on the team with a solid background - sounds like he has the potential to be a star RB.

 

[HuckFinn]

With all due respect to Higdon, and I am sorry we lost him, since we are short on quality running backs, he is a 3 star. He has been stretched to a 4 but not by everyone and certainly not an overwhelming 4. How many 3 star's does Iowa have on their list of commits? I think I have this right: 21 commits; one 4*; two 2*; fifteen 3*. So, we lost one of the better 3* recruits. Does anyone think it would be a stretch to assume that some of the 9 Iowa kids may have been 4* recruits if Iowa had not pinned them down early? Other teams' coaches are not likely to waste a lot of time recruiting Iowa born kids who committed early to the Hawks. I am NOT saying I think Iowa has a great class coming in...but, I also recognize that the recruiting analysts, who insist on going into two decimal places in judging the success at the division 1 level by kids who have not reached their 18th birthdays may be a pretty good scam. I hope my internal medicine guy who takes care of me is better at predictions than Rivals. BTW, did you see the article on the number of MAC and "below MAC" players who participated in the Super Bowl? Might want to google it...I am not trying to be difficult. I just think a black and white approach to this class of commitments is not a logical approach.

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

With all due respect to Higdon, and I am sorry we lost him, since we are short on quality running backs, he is a 3 star. He has been stretched to a 4 but not by everyone and certainly not an overwhelming 4. How many 3 star's does Iowa have on their list of commits? I think I have this right: 21 commits; one 4*; two 2*; fifteen 3*. So, we lost one of the better 3* recruits. Does anyone think it would be a stretch to assume that some of the 9 Iowa kids may have been 4* recruits if Iowa had not pinned them down early? Other teams' coaches are not likely to waste a lot of time recruiting Iowa born kids who committed early to the Hawks. I am NOT saying I think Iowa has a great class coming in...but, I also recognize that the recruiting analysts, who insist on going into two decimal places in judging the success at the division 1 level by kids who have not reached their 18th birthdays may be a pretty good scam. I hope my internal medicine guy who takes care of me is better at predictions than Rivals. BTW, did you see the article on the number of MAC and "below MAC" players who participated in the Super Bowl? Might want to google it...I am not trying to be difficult. I just think a black and white approach to this class of commitments is not a logical approach.

Agreed all around. Please post more.

It's not a great class, even below avg for Iowa. Personally, I believe we should usually be in the 26-45 ranking range, with an occaisional top 25 rank after a couple very good years....that said, there's about a eyelash difference between 40 and 60.

All we can do is hope for development.

Go Hawks.

 

[bigjim]

Hopefully Graham will be the surprise of this class. We sure do need someone to step up in the backfield this yr.

 

[hawkjunkie]

According to articles I read lots of other schools were interested, such as Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Ole' Miss and Stanford, but his ACT score kept them from offering. Iowa brought him in last weekend and offered this morning once they lost Higdon. Kid was over looked because he didn't actually have offers. Good student 3.0, good family, both parents are ministers and he likes the nursing program at Iowa. Sounds like a good get and coaches had a good back up plan. Love him on film.

After watching several videos, and reading multiple articles about this young man, I am still amazed that he was not offered by many. The ACT he has just taken care of aside, it would seem that offers should have been multiple. Look no further than Markel Smith with lots of offers, and nowhere near qualifying... It is as if Mr Graham was meant to be A Hawkeye.

I think we picked up a good player, who is a good person. If he keeps training hard and working hard, consistently, and hang on to the ball, then he will have the chance to show if he can make an impact right away. The opportunity will be there, it is & has been waiting...as will the cameras & microphones of the fishbowl at the standby for that one shining moment. Hope he can handle that Spotlight, for the good & the bad, it is approaching quickly. Especially with this position being our top need for multiple years now. We need our savior. We need our next great back.

On Iowa!

 

[DBAHawkFan]

Let's temper our expectations with this kid. It's natural for us to want to blow him up into something he's not. His tapes look good, but the level of competition was poor.

He had no offers. I don't buy the fact that it was his ACT scores, as someone else mentioned, Markel Smith had qualifying issues, yet he still had multiple offers. It is what it is, and he had ZERO.

Iowa has bad luck with RBs staying healthy, and staying on the team. He will not be expected to play in 2015. It is rare for a true freshman to play on offense at all for KF. It has happened, but not often.
What I do not understand, is why a program that prides itself on ball control, running the football, OL accolades....cannot recruit better at the RB position? This kid may turn out to be decent (I am leery of him suiting up in fall with the lack of information on him), but it's really sad our staff cannot reel in multiple RBs of quality in a class.

 

[Clark]

Let's temper our expectations with this kid. It's natural for us to want to blow him up into something he's not. His tapes look good, but the level of competition was poor.

He had no offers. I don't buy the fact that it was his ACT scores, as someone else mentioned, Markel Smith had qualifying issues, yet he still had multiple offers. It is what it is, and he had ZERO.

Iowa has bad luck with RBs staying healthy, and staying on the team. He will not be expected to play in 2015. It is rare for a true freshman to play on offense at all for KF. It has happened, but not often.
What I do not understand, is why a program that prides itself on ball control, running the football, OL accolades....cannot recruit better at the RB position? This kid may turn out to be decent (I am leery of him suiting up in fall with the lack of information on him), but it's really sad our staff cannot reel in multiple RBs of quality in a class.

was it? I have no idea but he is from Alabama and they play some good highschool football there right?

 

[MoseSchrute]

^ A small private school, that plays others like it, I believe.

 

[imported_ankle23]

Let's temper our expectations with this kid. It's natural for us to want to blow him up into something he's not. His tapes look good, but the level of competition was poor.

He had no offers. I don't buy the fact that it was his ACT scores, as someone else mentioned, Markel Smith had qualifying issues, yet he still had multiple offers. It is what it is, and he had ZERO.

Iowa has bad luck with RBs staying healthy, and staying on the team. He will not be expected to play in 2015. It is rare for a true freshman to play on offense at all for KF. It has happened, but not often.
What I do not understand, is why a program that prides itself on ball control, running the football, OL accolades....cannot recruit better at the RB position? This kid may turn out to be decent (I am leery of him suiting up in fall with the lack of information on him), but it's really sad our staff cannot reel in multiple RBs of quality in a class.

the list is actually quite long of true freshmen RBs playing under KF.