Is This a Perfect Storm Recruiting Year?

I

iowalaw

Banned
It has been a full decade since our last banner recruiting year. That year, 2005, we landed:

Bailey - 4 stars
Bain - 4 stars
Christiensen - 4 stars
Doering - 5 stars
Eubanks - 4 stars
Kanellis - 4 stars
Moeaki - 4 stars
Richardson - 4 stars
Yanda - high 3 stars

The reason for this recruiting anomaly, which has never been seen again under Ferentz, may have had a little to do with momentum on the field, but had quite a bit more to do with the coaching changes taking place in the midwest. That year, Illinois, Indiana, Miami (Ohio), Notre Dame, and Pitt all lost their coaches and brought in new staffs, and Nebraska fired its coach the year before. With a wealth of low hanging talent available to be picked, the Hawks were at the right place at the right time to swoop in and haul in a huge class.

This year, midwestern coaches are dropping like flies. Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas, and Colorado State are all in states of flux. The hawks can tout early playing time and are paying their coaches top dollar to get out there and recruit. So isn't this the perfect year to once again land a top 25 recruiting class? Is that too much to ask? So far, we have just one 4 star and zero 5 star recruits signed up. Let's get out there and pick up some decommits from our peers and get in on the top Jr talent in the midwest! People made excuses for our recruiting when we had new coaches...now we have stability and everyone else is in turmoil. It's time to be opportunistic for a change!
 
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Wisconsin seems ripe for the picking. But they do not have a lot of midwest commitments. I know Iowa is going after the DE out of St. Louis.
 
drew003 said:
Wisconsin seems ripe for the picking. But they do not have a lot of midwest commitments. I know Iowa is going after the DE out of St. Louis.
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Wisconsin is in trouble.. but not due to Iowa.

It's due to their 2015 class having a significant number of commits from outside the local area.

Several Florida, NJ recruits might have 2nd thoughts. Many California commits likely to follow Andersen to OrSt. Not to mention the star Dual Threat from Utah I'm sure comes with him as well.

I'd be worried about what coach (and system) Wisconsin DOES hire and whether they try to flip Nate Stanley from our 2016 class.
 
The question that comes to mind when reading this post is why the heck can't we land several Florida, NJ, and California. If they can get kids to come to Madison, you better believe they would come to Iowa City. The difference...Wisc has better recruiters. Period.


Churlish79 said:
Wisconsin is in trouble.. but not due to Iowa.

It's due to their 2015 class having a significant number of commits from outside the local area.

Several Florida, NJ recruits might have 2nd thoughts. Many California commits likely to follow Andersen to OrSt. Not to mention the star Dual Threat from Utah I'm sure comes with him as well.

I'd be worried about what coach (and system) Wisconsin DOES hire and whether they try to flip Nate Stanley from our 2016 class.
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iowalaw said:
The question that comes to mind when reading this post is why the heck can't we land several Florida, NJ, and California. If they can get kids to come to Madison, you better believe they would come to Iowa City. The difference...Wisc has better recruiters. Period.
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I think the Cali and Utah (and apparently Samoa) recruits for Wisconsin were directly related to Andersen's area of expertise being the west coast.

We've shown we're back in Florida of late. And obviously Texas has become an important area for us. Our Atlantic region recruiting has seemed to have dipped with assistant changes though.
 
To answer your question, YES! Expect our average star rating to increase by at least .01 star this year because of it.
 
iowalaw said:
It has been a full decade since our last banner recruiting year. That year, 2005, we landed:

Bailey - 4 stars
Bain - 4 stars
Christiensen - 4 stars
Doering - 5 stars
Eubanks - 4 stars
Kanellis - 4 stars
Moeaki - 4 stars
Richardson - 4 stars
Yanda - high 3 stars

The reason for this recruiting anomaly, which has never been seen again under Ferentz, may have had a little to do with momentum on the field, but had quite a bit more to do with the coaching changes taking place in the midwest. That year, Illinois, Indiana, Miami (Ohio), Notre Dame, and Pitt all lost their coaches and brought in new staffs, and Nebraska fired its coach the year before. With a wealth of low hanging talent available to be picked, the Hawks were at the right place at the right time to swoop in and haul in a huge class.

This year, midwestern coaches are dropping like flies. Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas, and Colorado State are all in states of flux. The hawks can tout early playing time and are paying their coaches top dollar to get out there and recruit. So isn't this the perfect year to once again land a top 25 recruiting class? Is that too much to ask? So far, we have just one 4 star and zero 5 star recruits signed up. Let's get out there and pick up some decommits from our peers!
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I guess but, seriously, how'd that class work out? Moeaki and Yanda are pros. Kanellis and Richardson were injury plagued, tho, Dace finally had a solid year as a senior. Raf didn't do much until he was a senior. As far as impact and contribution, the rest were busts.

The whole concept is underscored by the legit question, When has der KirkFer ever done anything with elite talent he actually does have?
(That's before considering the whole G.d.G.D. albatross -- or maybe that's vice versa and it's G.d.G.D. with the albatross.)

and that "early playing time" ... under der KirkFer!?? You serious?! That only happens if the skills and talent are so undeniable you'd have to be a total chimp to keep the player sidelined.
 
I think three consecutive Top 8 finishes in polls was important. Plus we were a new fresh staff yet who was only rising- no down year yet. Ferentz was hot commodity in NFL and all these kids dream of going there. We had multiple POY players at various positions winning awards like Maxwell. Outland, Grozza, etc.

the coaching change helped but much diff perception of Iowa program today than 05.
 
Bailey - 4 stars
Bain - 4 stars
Christiensen - 4 stars
Doering - 5 stars
Eubanks - 4 stars
Kanellis - 4 stars
Moeaki - 4 stars
Richardson - 4 stars
Yanda - high 3 stars

We may never see this many "stars" again in one recruiting class. Then again, By far and away, Yanda was the biggest contributor, with Moeaki being second(injuries), probably the 2 lowest "stars" of the list. The highest rated 5 recruits of this list either were busts, quit, or were snakebit by injuries. Very disappointing given the promise.

As contrast, the Alabama's, Ohio States, LSU's, etc of the world have just as many "busts" as we did, they just had 10 more 4-5 star recruits every year.

Iowa should always try to recruit better. 30-40 ranked classes should be the norm, with an occasional top 20 class.

If Iowa misses and/or has high levels of attrition, 2007 & 2012 happen. We will always be a developmental program. That's not "accepting mediocrity", that is simply reality.

We should have won AT LEAST 8 games this year, probably 9 - that is squarely on KF and the staff and poor in-game coaching/play strategy. But let's not think Top 20 recruiting class will be common, it won't. Look what it took to get that vaunted list above - 3 consecutive 10-11 win season in a row and a conference title.

Just some thoughts.
 
HawkinGoferLand said:
I think three consecutive Top 8 finishes in polls was important. Plus we were a new fresh staff yet who was only rising- no down year yet. Ferentz was hot commodity in NFL and all these kids dream of going there. We had multiple POY players at various positions winning awards like Maxwell. Outland, Grozza, etc.

the coaching change helped but much diff perception of Iowa program today than 05.
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Truer words never spoken.
 
Our class is almost completely full, and we're ranked like 50th in the country by Rivals. We have like 4 spots left. How on earth are we going to dramatically improve our class before it's over? If you think that we have a lot of room to maneuver at this late date then you don't really understand how recruiting works.
 
MrEHawk said:
Our class is almost completely full, and we're ranked like 50th in the country by Rivals. We have like 4 spots left. How on earth are we going to dramatically improve our class before it's over? If you think that we have a lot of room to maneuver at this late date then you don't really understand how recruiting works.
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I think he's specifically talking about the 2016 class
 
Churlish79 said:
I think he's specifically talking about the 2016 class
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It's pretty clear in the OP that he is talking about the current class. Maybe he just worded it poorly. Either way, while we may get somewhat of an early jump on our competitors for next year, all those teams will have solid coaches in a week or 2, so it's still going to be the same old story as it is almost every year. Iowa's recruiting has sucked for years now. I see no reason at all why that will ever change with Captain Cautious at the controls.
 
HawkinGoferLand said:
I think three consecutive Top 8 finishes in polls was important. Plus we were a new fresh staff yet who was only rising- no down year yet. Ferentz was hot commodity in NFL and all these kids dream of going there. We had multiple POY players at various positions winning awards like Maxwell. Outland, Grozza, etc.

the coaching change helped but much diff perception of Iowa program today than 05.
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This.

It would only be a perfect storm if Iowa, itself, had considerable program momentum which it appears, to the casual observer, it does not.
 
MrEHawk said:
Our class is almost completely full, and we're ranked like 50th in the country by Rivals. We have like 4 spots left. How on earth are we going to dramatically improve our class before it's over? If you think that we have a lot of room to maneuver at this late date then you don't really understand how recruiting works.
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We could yank some offers. The name-callers are absolutely in love with that idea.
 
From the OP "The hawks can tout early playing time"

troll attempt?
If not, how exactly is IA a school that lets young talented athletes take the field? There surely would be an upperclassman, out of position, walk on Kirk could throw out there.
UofI...wasted youth
 
STILLBUSTER said:
.The whole concept is underscored by the legit question, When has der KirkFer ever done anything with elite talent he actually does have?
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I think it somewhat of an unfair critique. The 2005 class that flamed out did so for different reasons. Kanellis and Richardson were injury causalities and that can happen to elite or non-elite recruits, randomly. Bailey was an academic casualty. Doering, like Larson, was was a highly recruited bust.

But we've also hit on a fair amount of our highly rated players: Bulaga, Mike Jones, Matt Roth, Adrian Clayborn, Christian Ballard, Jeremiah Hunter, Drew Tate, Albert Young, Ed Miles, and I'm sure there are others that I'm forgetting.
 
Uhh, how couldn't the Hawks tout early playing time? Do they have any big time stars on the team for next year? Are they not graduating a ton of guys? From an outsider's perspective (one who has not watched every game this year and saw what happened with Bethard and our RBs), Iowa had a down year with a senior laden team and there are great opportunities for early p/t. Whether it happens in practice is another story.


herkish said:
From the OP "The hawks can tout early playing time"

troll attempt?
If not, how exactly is IA a school that lets young talented athletes take the field? There surely would be an upperclassman, out of position, walk on Kirk could throw out there.
UofI...wasted youth
Click to expand...
 
iowalaw said:
Uhh, how couldn't the Hawks tout early playing time? Do they have any big time stars on the team for next year? Are they not graduating a ton of guys? From an outsider's perspective (one who has not watched every game this year and saw what happened with Bethard and our RBs), Iowa had a down year with a senior laden team and there are great opportunities for early p/t. Whether it happens in practice is another story.
Click to expand...


Haha. Now i know you were trolling. good one.

I'll play too. The value of practice is certainly never lost on fat cat. Where the fans foul up is that we only get to see people playing in games and while it's rather obvious who the better talent is in game situations (and by large margins), it's how they practice that matters. This is also, the only thing that matters. Sorry i'd missed the sarcasm in the OP. That was a good one, playing time for underclassman and our better athletes being "out practiced". that's football
 
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