Iowa Football Well Positioned for Nebraska Athlete Keagan Johnson

Hawkeyes among three finalists for 2021 playmaker:

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I saw on twitter you will be doing a mailbag pod. One thing I have noticed with Klieman at Kansas St. is that Iowa now seems to be butting heads with them a lot on the recruiting trail. Not only is Klieman an upper-midwest guy, but I imagine they are looking for a lot of the same kinds of athletes. How big of a recruiting rival do you think they will become? On par with Nebraska?
 
Anytime Iowa can get a Nebraska kid to come to Iowa it's a good thing. The Hawks have done well there over the past few years.
 
It seems like we have been fortunate to grab some really great Nebraska kids that have fallen through the cracks either initially or altogether with Nebbie. Coaching changes and oversight have both been our friends in this regard.

I find it hard to believe that if Frost puts on the full court press to nab this legacy recruit that he gets out of the state.....
 
It seems like we have been fortunate to grab some really great Nebraska kids that have fallen through the cracks either initially or altogether with Nebbie. Coaching changes and oversight have both been our friends in this regard.

I find it hard to believe that if Frost puts on the full court press to nab this legacy recruit that he gets out of the state.....
Yes, Iowa doesn't get many, just the good ones (and the smart ones). In the past dozen years, Nebraskans who have avoided the downward spiral of the Huskers include Noah Fant, Drew Ott, Cole Fisher, Nathan Bazata and Shaun Prater. Not too shabby.
 
Yes, Iowa doesn't get many, just the good ones (and the smart ones). In the past dozen years, Nebraskans who have avoided the downward spiral of the Huskers include Noah Fant, Drew Ott, Cole Fisher, Nathan Bazata and Shaun Prater. Not too shabby.
All of whom Nebbie got into late or not at all. Does not sound like Sleepy Scott Frost is making that mistake with this young man.....
 
Lock this kid up and then Fidone and we'll have locked in a better then top 10 class for sure. Nebraska just stinks. Why would any kid want to go get thrown under the bus by their HC like Frost often has?
 
Lock this kid up and then Fidone and we'll have locked in a better then top 10 class for sure. Nebraska just stinks. Why would any kid want to go get thrown under the bus by their HC like Frost often has?

Top 10......no
Top 20 ......possible with a few other surprises but not likely

My bet would be in the 20-30 range........which is still very good for Iowa
 
Anytime Iowa can get a Nebraska kid to come to Iowa it's a good thing. The Hawks have done well there over the past few years.
The players have done well at Iowa also.
KF has really gone to bat for a couple of players that have come out of Nebraska.
 
Top 10......no
Top 20 ......possible with a few other surprises but not likely

My bet would be in the 20-30 range........which is still very good for Iowa
Currently we are 6th... I don't think we'll fall all that far once the other schools lock in more of theirs. I suspect we'll drop down to 10thish or so just depending. But not much further. We have a hell of a class with a few more hopefully to get.
 
Johnson is now 86% Iowa and 14% Nebraska based on the 7 experts following him on 247. One of the Nebraska experts switch to Iowa yesterday and Wiltfong went from undecided to Iowa earlier today. I like the trend.
 
Top 10......no
Top 20 ......possible with a few other surprises but not likely

My bet would be in the 20-30 range........which is still very good for Iowa
Currently we are 6th... I don't think we'll fall all that far once the other schools lock in more of theirs. I suspect we'll drop down to 10thish or so just depending. But not much further. We have a hell of a class with a few more hopefully to get.
I’m with Ohhawk on this one. Top 25 range seems more realistic. If we landed Fidone and Benny we’d maybe have a shot at Top 15.

Gotta understand we have a lot of commits already. LSU, Texas, ND, Georgia, Oregon, Texas A&M, Oklahoma all sit behind us currently with way less commits. They along with others will pass us when their classes fill up.

Either way it’s going to be a top 3 class in KF’s tenure, which is awesome considering how well we’ve done in the last few cycles.
 
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Johnson is now 86% Iowa and 14% Nebraska based on the 7 experts following him on 247. One of the Nebraska experts switch to Iowa yesterday and Wiltfong went from undecided to Iowa earlier today. I like the trend.
Up to 89%. Looks like the only one predicting Nebbie dropped his pick in December. Everyone else appears to have very recently made their pick and are going with Iowa. I am guessing the information has leaked out. Very promising.
 
I talked about the recruiting in last week's mailbag podcast. I don't see this group being the highest rated of the KF Era, which was 11 in '05, which you can see HERE

That class had seven 4 stars and a 5 star (Dan Doering) among 23 commitments.

The current class has three 4 stars at the top of its rankings among 14 verbals.

As Nike stated, Iowa is among the leaders in volume of verbals to date, which is a component of the rankings. I would expect Penn State and Michigan to pass Iowa among Big Ten teams and Minnesota could as well.

I think the Hawkeyes ending up in the 20s is realistic and that's real good from a rankings standpoint. And that's what we're discussing. This class certainly could perform better than its ranking. That's pretty common around here.
 
I think if we can pick up:

1. WR Keagan Johnson
2. TE Thomas Fidone
3. RB Ricky Parks
4. WR Skyler Bell
5. OL Michael Myslinski
6. DB Jordan Young
7. RB Markeise Irving
8. DL Austin Booker

That puts us at 22 commits, which sounds about right. I think that'll end up being good for somewhere around 15-20 in the ranking once it's all said and done. The problem we're having this year, that we haven't had in recent years, is a lack of a QB. Usually we have a QB within the first 2 or 3 commits. Right now, we don't have any. I know we're looking at Donovan McCulley out of Indy, but I'd be surprised if he comes here as he's listed as a dual threat. Maybe the staff likes what they have and don't feel the need for one in '21.
 
I have seen no talk of a Top prospect QB. Seems odd given that most stellar classes are usually anchored by a great QB prospect. Are we looking at anyone at QB?
 
I think if we can pick up:

1. WR Keagan Johnson
2. TE Thomas Fidone
3. RB Ricky Parks
4. WR Skyler Bell
5. OL Michael Myslinski
6. DB Jordan Young
7. RB Markeise Irving
8. DL Austin Booker

That puts us at 22 commits, which sounds about right. I think that'll end up being good for somewhere around 15-20 in the ranking once it's all said and done. The problem we're having this year, that we haven't had in recent years, is a lack of a QB. Usually we have a QB within the first 2 or 3 commits. Right now, we don't have any. I know we're looking at Donovan McCulley out of Indy, but I'd be surprised if he comes here as he's listed as a dual threat. Maybe the staff likes what they have and don't feel the need for one in '21.
I think Iowa is only going to take one RB in this class from the sounds of it. They are all in and sit very well on a potential high 4*star type back Arlen Harris Jr from Missouri in the 2022 class, and that may be a selling point. Kid has offers from LSU, Penn State, and Michigan already.
 

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