Former verbal committments to Iowa

[1977Hawkeye]

2011 - Melvin Gordon - 4 star (Wisconsin) [would have been nice get at the time, but didn't need]
2012 - Alex Kozan - 4 star (Auburn) [didn't need]
2013 - Delano Hill - 4 star (Michigan) [didn't need]
2014 - Ross Pierschbacher - 4 star (Alabama) [don't need or want]

Iowa "doesn't need" 4* recruits? Oh that's rich. Standard flip response from some people when a player leaves.. "We didn't want him anyway". I guess Iowa football is just that loaded with talent where it doesn't matter if 4* recruits decommit. Sigh.

 

[JHHawk]

This highlights the challenge that faces Iowa football on the recruiting front. The only one of these guys who was an Iowan was RossP,and he went with the 3 in 4 defending national champ. The others went with their home state schools....we do not have enough of those 4 star guys in state,and when we do,there is always a chance of a Bama coming in to cherry pick.

 

[WegsBabyUnk]

**** them all. Your either a Hawk, or your not.

 

[nationalchamps]

um, you posted a couple articles on your HN Scout site about Rieff de-committed from Iowa and pledging to Nebraska.

Scout.com: Riley Reiff: Back Where He Started

Riley Reiff: Back Where He Started
		By HN Staff Date: Dec 21, 2007 Riley Reiff of Parkston, SD committed to the Iowa football program in the spring. In October, he took a visit to Lincoln and changed his mind, pledging to the Cornhuskers. After a change at the top of the Nebraska football program and athletic department, Reiff has changed his mind again, and he is right back where he started...

 

[AIRHAWK]

Look for big Ross to wash out in Bama and end up in purple UNI uniform eventually

 

[RocknRollface]

Melvin Gordon averaged 10.0 ypc last year. AJ Derby played mediocre JUCO ball. I think you are incorrect.

Derby as a QB is worthless, as a middle linebacker, where Iowa wanted him to play, he would have been a monster.

Gordon is certainly good too.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Iowa "doesn't need" 4* recruits? Oh that's rich. Standard flip response from some people when a player leaves.. "We didn't want him anyway". I guess Iowa football is just that loaded with talent where it doesn't matter if 4* recruits decommit. Sigh.

Football is very hard to rank players. Sure, on occasion a guy who is an absolute freak, like Randy Moss or Vince Young or [insert first name here] Clowney, will come out and be clearly a stud (and perhaps a scholar as well). But there are a lot of guys who you simply can't make a great assessment on - they are 17 year old kids. Have they physically peaked already? They look good against HS talent, but how will they look against college talent? Etc. In basketball you get a guy like Jok who is ranked the number 3 player in the country and you know he's going to be legit because he took it to everyone in a whole bunch of national camps. While those camps exist for football, it just isn't the same. I mean honestly, who makes up the football ratings? Is it Tom Lemming? An ex postman from Palatine, Illinois anoints some kid as a God and then we are supposed to believe that the fate of our football program rests in that kid's hands? I don't buy it.

Alabama, LSU, OSU and a few others are good because they get a huge number of the sure things or very close to sure things. It seems like a lot of the times Iowa gets these "very close to sure thing" players (4 stars) they get AIRBHGed (Garmon), injured (Doerring), suck (Christensen), get kicked out of school (Everson), or are just pedestrian caliber college players (Nielsen and that kid from Roosevelt whose name slips my mind - played safety for like a year). Sure, there have been some exceptions (generally on the lines), but I trust the Cap'n's judgment in finding kids who he can mold two or three years down the road into solid ball players. I just don't get the fatalism when we lose one of these guys.

JJ Watt was a freaking 2 star who went to Central Michigan before transferring to Wisconsin and going beast mode. There are tons of dudes like that out there. Kurt needs to find them.

 

[RocknRollface]

Iowa has lost an abnormally large amount of highly rated talent the last 2/3 years.

And yet in my mind that in no way excuses the last 3 years where the majority of losses have come against equal or worse teams.

 

[HawkinGoferLand]

I think for Iowa it is less about attracting 4-star kids, but rather keeping the 3 and 2-star kids that we bring to campus. We are a developmental program that relies heavily on RS players contributing their 3rd/4th/5th year on campus. We had a lot of turnover in the 2008-10 classes. DL was hit especially hard.

 

[wundergrape]

Derby as a QB is worthless, as a middle linebacker, where Iowa wanted him to play, he would have been a monster.

Gordon is certainly good too.

Congratulations. You have no idea if this is true.

 

[RocknRollface]

Congratulations. You have no idea if this is true.

I feel comfortable making that assumption on a message board.

 

[DesMoinesHawki]

This is digging deep. You list four guys over four seasons. That is nothing to be in panic mode about. This is not a "trend." This is the recruiting world in 2013.

 

[HawkinGoferLand]

Here is a list of Iowa HS kids that left the state over the past 12 years:

2013 SAM RARIDON 3-STAR - WISC
2013 JESSIE ERTZ 2-STAR - KSU
2013 DREW SCOTT 2-STAR - KSU
2012 AMARAH DARBOH 4-STAR - MICHIGAN
2011 CHRISTIAN FRENCH 3-STAR - OREGON
2010 MATT HOCH 3-STAR - MISSOURI
2010 JAKE FARLEY 2-STAR - KANSAS
2009 DAVID BARRENT 3-STAR MSU
2008 ZACH DAVISON - UNRATED - WISCONSIN
2007 MATT BENTLER - 2-STAR - STANFORD
2006 DORIAN DAVIS - 3-STAR - TENNESEE
2005 MATT PIPHO - 3 STAR - MIAMI
2005 CHRIS MENSEN 2-STAR - MINNESOTA
2004 ADRIAN ARRINGTON - 4-STAR - MICHIGAN
2004 JARED PARKER - 3-STAR - KSU
2004 MAURICE CANTRELL 2-STAR - COLORADO
2003 ZACH HOOD 2-STAR -KANSAS
2002 JON COCHRAN 3-STAR - STANFORD


The only ones on the list I recall giving Hawk fans alot of heartburn were Arrington, Darboh, French and Barrent.

Fans seemed split on French IIRC as a raw athlete, but the fact that Oregon thought he was worthy of scholie got alot of people ticked we didn't get him. 6'5" 242 lb DE for the Ducks with 12 career TKLs as a RS FR. We could use him....

Barrent flipped to MSU after some off-field transgressions by Hawkeye players gave Dantonio some negative recruiting opportunities. His career was cut short.

Davis IIRC was considered not a good fit for Iowa with non-football baggage. He was dismissed from Vols team for rules violations, landed at Cincy were he was also dismissed....

Matt Pipho was probably a casualty of Iowa having a top 10 class in 2005 with 5-Stars Dan Doering, Dace Richardson. 4-Star Rafael Eubanks, plus Marshall Yanda (Pro Bowler), and 3-Stars Andy Kuempel, Kyle Calloway all in that class. Played sparingly until his SR yr at Miami, went on to med school so might have been a great Hawk too. Good article here

 

[HomerChampless]

These players were lost through attrition by transferring or were kicked off the team. The whole point of the thread was to discuss Iowa's lack of keeping 4* commits the past two/three years, not kids already on campus.

Yet, another way for KF to attrite talent at Iowa.

 

[HomerChampless]

I think for Iowa it is less about attracting 4-star kids, but rather keeping the 3 and 2-star kids that we bring to campus. We are a developmental program that relies heavily on RS players contributing their 3rd/4th/5th year on campus. We had a lot of turnover in the 2008-10 classes. DL was hit especially hard.

Why? 'cause KF forces Iowa players to play as a highly-structured team. Hardly anyone is allowed to show their athletic talent. Which is why KF is good at taking low-level star players and turning them into a good team using his system, but because of KF's highly-structured team concept, lots of high-star players bolt 'cause they usually aren't allowed to show their talent. Iowa bleeds talent to mold players into KF's style of highly-structured team. If you can live with KF's style of coaching, you'd better not care about getting (or keeping) the high-star recruits... 'cause you usually won't.

 

[Xerxes]

I agree it is frustrating, but here are 4-star recruits that committed to Iowa AND signed:

2012 - Faith Ekakatie - 4 star DT
2012 - Greg Garmon - 4 star RB
2012- Jaleel Johnson - 4 star DT
2011 - Jordan Walsch - 4 star OG
2011 - Darrian Cooper - 4 star DT
2011 - Rodney Coe - 4 star RB/OLB now DE didn't qualify out of HS
2011 - Nico Law - 4 star S
2010 - CJ Fiedorowicz - 4 star TE
2010 - Andrew Donnal 4 star OT

And 7/9 on that list have stuck around. Remains to be seen if Garmon and Coe can play at a BCS level but at this point its hard to get too bent out of shape that they're gone.

Iowa hasn't struggled the last 2 1/2 years because of a lack of commits or poor commits. . They have struggled because the high number of committed players that signed LOI and haven't made it to campus or washed out after a year or two.

What RP did was far better for Iowa than what Coe/Garmon did because Iowa can replace him with another player immediately. If they dip into Ohio, Michigan, Texas, or Jersey that player will probably be better than RP anyway.

 

[dave3912]

Yet, another way for KF to attrite talent at Iowa.

No one is talking about attrition. Seriously, do you read the threads or just purposely stir the pot?

 

[HomerChampless]

No one is talking about attrition. Seriously, do you read the threads or just purposely stir the pot?

Why do you care about commitments to Iowa? Especially in light of the loss of P. to Alabama? And you have to admit attrition, along with getting the recruit is definitely a problem at Iowa. 'cause it's just too cold?

 

[dave3912]

Why do you care about commitments to Iowa? Especially in light of the loss of P. to Alabama? And you have to admit attrition, along with getting the recruit is definitely a problem at Iowa. 'cause it's just too cold?

Homer, I agree that attrition at Iowa is a serious issue. But it seems to have been handled. Cameron Wilson is leaving because he isn't seeing the playing time early on he thought he would. Beyond him who else has left?

As for the decommits, I provided a response to each one as to why they left. If you don't agree with each players reasoning then that is on you. Iowa can't make Ross P. not want to play for the back to back NC team who seems to have no indications of slowing down. Delano Hill decommitted for his dream school, again not Iowa's fault. David Kenney decommitted to play at Indiana where his dad was hired as an assistant coach.

Again, do you read these threads or just stir the pot? You're trying to make non-issues into huge ones. Some of the people on this site need to relax and let this team, this staff for this season do their jobs before freaking out.

 

[HomerChampless]

Dave....I've given you a quick, easy, and concise explanation of why Iowa has systemic problems in recruiting, and why Iowa, under KF, uses lower level recruits and is successful doing so (but not when using higher level recruits). I'm here to explain away your trepidations.... I don't demand you post things in a way acceptable to me. Why do you think you have that right?