Recruiting Disconnect

BSpringsteen

BSpringsteen

Well-Known Member
We all saw what Wisconsins was able to accomplish this year with a world class offensive line...

My question is this...

It has been purported that we have the following:

1. One of the great strength and conditioning coaches in all of sports.
2. Every TE that has started for us since 2000 has wound up in the NFL
3. Widely regarded as the place to go if you are an O-Lineman with NFL aspirations.

I guess I don't understand how we don't reload into a world class O-Line every year.

I understand with skill positions and all, but with this I don't?

Shouldn't there be 5 Star recruits knocking down our door to play on our O-Line?

Basically Iowa is the closest thing the NCAA has to a minor league NFL team. We run pro style schemes, have a pro style coach, and send a disproportionate number of players to the NFL given our on the field successes and defeats.

I guess I am just a bit surprised that this hasn't manifested itself in a consistently great O-Line.

This also isn't a dig at this years line... I am just curious how that ever becomes a concern at Iowa which it was prior to the season starting.
 
Problem is you are dealing with 18 year old kids who want to be told what they want. Our staff is not going to boost up their ego. They tell all recruits up front whats going to happen, they do not pander to their ego.
 
Never mind that a lot of Wisconsins success this year was based on them having 17 senior starters. If there was ever a year for them to put everything together, it was this year.
 
Our offensive line recruiting has actually taken a major tick upwards in the last couple of years. We did have 5-star recruit Dan Doering in 2005 but he never panned out. Aside from that debacle, we had 4-star OL Andrew Donnal join the team last year (pretty sure they redshirted him this season), and this year we got Austin Blythe, a 4-star OL who projects at center and 4-star OL Jordan Walsh who has been called the top OL prospect in the entire country by a writer at Scout. We're looking at having 3 4-star recruits in the inside of our OL. We're also in the top 3 for Cyrus Kouandjio, 5-star tackle.

The only problem with your assertion is that there simply aren't that many 5-star offensive linemen year to year. There's only one this year besides Kouandjio. There were 3 last year, and we were in on one of them until the end (Seantrel Henderson). There were only 2 in 2009. We've developed a reputation as THE school to go to if you want to play offensive line in the NFL, now it's just a matter of getting the guys who are on the roster to perform to their ability in order to solidify that reputation.
 
I might get hammered for syaing this but a friend of mine said to me that KF is kind of like Lickliter in that he recruits kids that fit his system. KF doesn't chase after kids like other schools do. KF does a fine job of recruiting as well as the others that do that job but could there be more 4-5 star guys on the o-line, I sure think so considering that is what KF is known for.
 
blkngoldUofI said:
I might get hammered for syaing this but a friend of mine said to me that KF is kind of like Lickliter in that he recruits kids that fit his system. KF doesn't chase after kids like other schools do. KF does a fine job of recruiting as well as the others that do that job but could there be more 4-5 star guys on the o-line, I sure think so considering that is what KF is known for.
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Cause we've been soooo unsuccessful???? If KF doesn't recruit guys that fit his system (which EVERY coach in the country does), we wouldn't be winning more than 6 games any year.

Iowa teams that have won 9,10 and 11 games have had other programs talk about how you might know it's coming, but that doesn't stop what Iowa does to you.

Most coaches who have been around know what is coming, it's about execution.
 
blkngoldUofI said:
I might get hammered for syaing this but a friend of mine said to me that KF is kind of like Lickliter in that he recruits kids that fit his system. KF doesn't chase after kids like other schools do. KF does a fine job of recruiting as well as the others that do that job but could there be more 4-5 star guys on the o-line, I sure think so considering that is what KF is known for.
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This is known as "discipline". Look at what we did this recruiting season. Darrian Miller was all ready to become a Hawkeye. Kid was a world-beater in high school and the coaches were after him all recruiting season. He screws up at home and they pull his scholarship by sunrise. Could we have used his talent in the backfield? HELL YES. But we are more concerned about getting the RIGHT kid than getting the best player.

Other schools chase after kids because they are insecure in their gameplan. They see a talented kid as the "answer" to their problems. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I think it works out best for us to go get the athlete that works best in our system rather than trying to adjust the system to fit the athletes. It's like KF says, "Get the kid on the bus and worry about finding him a seat afterward."
 
I think our O-line success has been fine. Consistently good, if not excellent. Rarely bad. This year's O-line was supposed to be our biggest weakness (maybe along side LB) and I would say it may have been the most solid aspect of the team. In fact, that's for sure what i'd say.
 
I think Kirk Ferentz throws the "rating" system out the door. He wants hard working- good football IQ players (just like the NE Pats Draft). In almost a "hoosier-movie" like way have them all play as a unit - then they can be pretty invincible. However that is not how most fans would like it.
 
I think our scheme plays at least a small bit in what OL types we recruit. Due to all the zone schemes we run I think we are looking first for guys that have decent feet over guys who are just massive. I think this also plays in to why we "Doyle-ize" bigger athletes who played elsewhere in high school.
 
OSU doesn't have an elite line every year. PSU had three first team all big ten OL in 2008, and won 11 games. The last two years, huge drop off. Michigan has a good OL this year, but the last two years not so much.

Iowa's OL next year should be one of the two or three best in the B10. This year, they were the smallest, but played better than I expected.
 
JonDMiller said:
OSU doesn't have an elite line every year. PSU had three first team all big ten OL in 2008, and won 11 games. The last two years, huge drop off. Michigan has a good OL this year, but the last two years not so much.

Iowa's OL next year should be one of the two or three best in the B10. This year, they were the smallest, but played better than I expected.
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But at the beginning of the year, many people thought this was gonna be a strength for us. What's to say next year won't be the same?
 
JonDMiller said:
OSU doesn't have an elite line every year. PSU had three first team all big ten OL in 2008, and won 11 games. The last two years, huge drop off. Michigan has a good OL this year, but the last two years not so much.

Iowa's OL next year should be one of the two or three best in the B10. This year, they were the smallest, but played better than I expected.
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OK Jon - but my point is, that Jim Tressel, Rich Rod, and Joe Paterno don't have Tom Lemming saying if you are an OL recruit and you want to play in the NFL you go to Iowa.

I am so sick of this, we're not Penn State Ohio State or Michigan BS. Either is Nebraska and they seem to recruit just fine. So does Wisconsin. Weren't you going to respond to my Li'l Ole Iowa post because being honest Jon, you seem to be the one banging that drum the loudest these days.
 
LDHawkfan said:
But at the beginning of the year, many people thought this was gonna be a strength for us. What's to say next year won't be the same?
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Who? If I recall this was everyone's biggest concern. Followed by LB (obviously didn't forsee that happening). But everyone thought our RBs were going to be great. OLine was a huge concern.
 
BSpringsteen said:
OK Jon - but my point is, that Jim Tressel, Rich Rod, and Joe Paterno don't have Tom Lemming saying if you are an OL recruit and you want to play in the NFL you go to Iowa.

I am so sick of this, we're not Penn State Ohio State or Michigan BS. Either is Nebraska and they seem to recruit just fine. So does Wisconsin. Weren't you going to respond to my Li'l Ole Iowa post because being honest Jon, you seem to be the one banging that drum the loudest these days.
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Just because Tom Lemming says it doesn't mean it's a fact. You don't think that there are other programs that have great O-line coaches? I can't imagine there are not other schools that have produced just as many NFL O-lineman in the last 12 years.

A person who knows a lot more about getting recruits to Iowa, Hayden Fry, has said multiple times that it is difficult getting the talent that other schools do. Those other schools you mention have a lot longer history of greatness, minus Wisconsin, than Iowa does. They've won national titles. If you don't think that plays into getting good players, then you're fooling yourself. Iowa does fine recruiting compared to Wisconsin. Check the rankings based on the number of stars for each recruit from 2002-2010. We had the #1 O-line recruiting class in 2005 according to rivals.com. That really paid dividends, didn't it?
 
Iowa is stockpiling more talent right now then at any point in the Ferentz era. The quality of recruits has been markedly higher in the last couple years.

The O-line played about how people expected this year. Young and inconsistent, especially early (Arizona).
 
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