I look at it this way. Say he doesn't give Patrick and Connor scholarships. He pays for their tuitions and he has 5 open scholarships with 10 players already on the roster for this late '18 period and the '19 class. If he fills all 5 scholarship players that's 15 total players on the roster, plus Till and Ash and they even have an open walk-on spot.....we're talking about an 18 player BASKETBALL roster. That's insane. I think 15 is a lot already. I'm a Fran supporter (not the point of the post), but my one critique is that he plays too many guys and then we're asking him to have 18 players on his roster and most are expecting those 5 scholarships to be filled with even better players than we have already? We would have a 15 player rotation (not actually...I'd hope). Not to mention what it would look like for future recruits and incoming 2020 recruits (Foster, Suggs, etc.) who we have good relationships with already. I can only imagine what that conversation sounds like, "Hey we can field an entire football team, offense and defense, but you should come to Iowa. There's ample of playing time with the other 17 guys we have on the roster."
All jokes aside, I understand where people are coming from, but think about the kind of prospect Iowa could get this late in the process for '18. Grad transfers are already deciding (I know he could've tried sooner), but he didn't so what are the other options? The only HS recruit you're going to get right now is someone who's decommitted late in the process or a project, late bloomer (i.e. Maishe Dailey) which fans would not be happy with because of immediate help. The only prospect I've seen Iowa could potentially have a chance with if they were to engage at this point that would be a good prospect is Ed Chang. Athletic, legit 3 man from Nebraska. Played on Barnstormers with Joe Wieskamp and seems to be pretty good friends with PMac.
Juco transfer doesn't seem likely either, especially if it's a PG cause that takes away from Carton.
So what is FM supposed to go after at this point in the process?