Swarm 19 - Final Grades

[NikeHawk21]

So it appears this class is done as far as high school seniors. The staff is still in pursuit of some grad transfers along with the punter who signed but that may take some time.

I’ve maintained I really like this class, here’s how I see it.

QB - B (Padilla another solid piece in the QB room. Held a Georgia offer)

RB - B (The staff really wanted Goodson, so this grade might be somewhat conservative. Byrd has some potential)

WR - D (Only one commit who appears a bit of a project. Granted the staff didn’t go after many as we signed a few last year. Even so we were all in on David Bell and couldn’t get it done)

TE - A- (Logan Lee and Miamen both had big time offer lists and look like future great Iowa TEs)

OL - A- (Miller and Endres are rated as 4* by 247. Miller seems like one of the best we have gotten in a few years. The Britt injury was a setback but he looks like a good one on the interior as well)

DL - C+ (Hunt is a good looking DT prospect who should be solid when Doyle bulks him up. The other DEs were fairly lightly recruited. The late signee McCall has good potential but I still think this group is fairly underwhelming)

LB - B+ (Jacobs is likely the best we’ve landed at LB and Campbell looks solid. Jeudy is a project who has some potential)

DB - B (Castro and Belton are good looking safety prospects. The two corners have some potential but aren’t as heralded as Hankins, Brents, and Johnson)

Overall Grade - B+

I like this class. I think it’s another step in the right direction which follows a good 2018 class. Without a legit WR I can’t give this an A rating but it’s fairly close. Iowa’s offensive line, secondary, linebacker and quarterback groups look to be in a very good place for the coming years. 2020 should be focused on Dline and WRs, and judging by the offers we’ve seen go out thus far that appears to be the case. I like what we’ve done on the recruiting trail as of late and hope we keep it rolling.

 

[spliff45]

and 0 felons...

 

[GesterHawk]

I am not going to say if I agree or not with your rankings, but great job getting this out before IowaLaw's Biased Non-Objective Review comes out.

 

[NikeHawk21]

I am not going to say if I agree or not with your rankings, but great job getting this out before IowaLaw's Biased Non-Objective Review comes out.

He did one earlier before the class closed. The thread had some pretty good discussion after his OP got trashed pretty good.

 

[GesterHawk]

He did one earlier before the class closed. The thread had some pretty good discussion after his OP got trashed pretty good.

I know, but do you think he is going to pass up a chance to voice his drivel again?

 

[Lumberman]

OL has the potential to be A+. By the time there will be a spot open for Britt, he will have totally rehabbed the ACL and been “Doyled”.

Miller, Endres and Britt could all be special on th OL for us someday.

Having left Fenske out, almost assures that HE will be the best of the group! LOL

 

[NCHawker]

one of these days I'll "get it" they recruit who they recruit and the national rankings put them in the 30's or 40's. And the on the field product is rankings in the 20's

 

[NikeHawk21]

OL has the potential to be A+. By the time there will be a spot open for Britt, he will have totally rehabbed the ACL and been “Doyled”.

Miller, Endres and Britt could all be special on th OL for us someday.

Having left Fenske out, almost assures that HE will be the best of the group! LOL

I think the Oline is the headliner of this group if you will, which is part of the reason this class isn’t as exciting for some.

With that said it seems our Oline recruiting and play has faltered a bit in recent years so it would be nice to get that going again. If we can land Volk in 2020 you have to like how our Oline looks over the next few years.

 

[NikeHawk21]

one of these days I'll "get it" they recruit who they recruit and the national rankings put them in the 30's or 40's. And the on the field product is rankings in the 20's

The interesting thing to me is that although our ranking has remained in the 30-40 level it seems to me we are landing better players.

I don’t recall landing QBs with Georgia offers, TEs with Michigan and Notre Dame offers, linebackers with Ohio State offers. It seems to over the last few cycles we’ve brought in some better looking recruits, maybe I’m mistaken. The way I follow recruiting now I pay zero attention to the “team rankings” numbers.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

I am not going to say if I agree or not with your rankings, but great job getting this out before IowaLaw's Biased Non-Objective Review comes out.

Something just flew out of my nose and onto my computer screen.

 

[homes]

The interesting thing to me is that although our ranking has remained in the 30-40 level it seems to me we are landing better players.

I don’t recall landing QBs with Georgia offers, TEs with Michigan and Notre Dame offers, linebackers with Ohio State offers. It seems to over the last few cycles we’ve brought in some better looking recruits, maybe I’m mistaken. The way I follow recruiting now I pay zero attention to the “team rankings” numbers.

I think they are better. The rankings are somewhat useful at the top, but as you go down the list, for example, the difference between No. 20 and No. 30 or even 40 seems fairly subjective, at least as it relates to overall performance of the teams.

 

[uihawk82]

The interesting thing to me is that although our ranking has remained in the 30-40 level it seems to me we are landing better players.

I don’t recall landing QBs with Georgia offers, TEs with Michigan and Notre Dame offers, linebackers with Ohio State offers. It seems to over the last few cycles we’ve brought in some better looking recruits, maybe I’m mistaken. The way I follow recruiting now I pay zero attention to the “team rankings” numbers.

to look at the positions you mentioned, Rudock and CJB going on to the pros, and with Stanley putting up big TD numbers I can see why some really good high school qbs want to come to Iowa.

Iowa is TE Univ. so a top rated TE who likes Iowa, the culture, the U, Iowa City it is a no brainer they would want to be a hawk, Kirksey, Hitchens, Jewell, some good, recent Lbkr draft choices. And usually the Off line is pretty stacked. Cornerback has been well represented and a fair number of D backs make it as safeties in the NFL.

 

[Robowe]

and 0 felons...

 

[BVHawk95]

I think the Oline is the headliner of this group if you will, which is part of the reason this class isn’t as exciting for some.

With that said it seems our Oline recruiting and play has faltered a bit in recent years so it would be nice to get that going again. If we can land Volk in 2020 you have to like how our Oline looks over the next few years.

Probably still some lasting effects of the GD era, where we went really heavy on skill players who largely fizzled and struck out on some of our top OL targets. Boone Myers and Ike Boettger were both results of that, as though they were solid players, they were Guards playing out of position at Tackle.

 

[deanvogs]

Recruiting rankings are not the end all beat all. From '13-'17 recruiting class rankings here is top 11 best average recruiting rankings. In parenthesis is the total wins from '13-now

1) Bama (78)
2) Ohio St. (74)
3) Florida St. (59)
4) LSU (54)
5) Georgia (60)
6) USC (53)
7) Auburn (53)
8) Notre Dame (53)
9) Texas A&M (49)
10) Florida (44)
11) Clemson (76)

Lets look at the next tier

12) Tennessee (39)
13) Oklahoma (65)
14) UCLA (41)
15) Miami (49)
16) Ole Miss (43)
16) Texas (41)
18) Michigan (50)
18) S. Carolina (43)
20) Oregon (53)
21) Penn St. (52)
22) Nebraska (41)
23) Miss. St. (49)
24) Stanford (58)
25) Arkansas (31)
25 Kentucky (36)

I don't see a super high correlation with winning and recruiting rankings in the teens and twenties. As a matter of fact only OU, Standford and Oregon have more wins over the last 5 years than Iowa does in the teams ranked from #12-#26.

Iowa comes in at #49 in these average ratings from '13-17. Yet from '13-now Iowa has 52 wins and that is the same or more than 14 of the top 25 recruiting teams.

Sure we all know that the top, top classes of the blue bloods rankings means a whole lot. You aren't going to win a national title unless you consistently rank in the top 15 in the recruiting rankings. That said, you can have an average recruiting ranking of #49 and you can still out produce over 1/2 of the teams that are recruiting at a top 25 level.

 

[NikeHawk21]

Probably still some lasting effects of the GD era, where we went really heavy on skill players who largely fizzled and struck out on some of our top OL targets. Boone Myers and Ike Boettger were both results of that, as though they were solid players, they were Guards playing out of position at Tackle.

Good point. Although they are great kids and great hawks, I think most would agree the Paulsen’s haven’t really panned out, so that set our Oline back a bit as well.

Right now we are recruiting pretty well at every position sans WR and maybe RB. If we could somehow land some higher level WRs we’d be in really good shape. Maybe one of our QBs can attract some WRs.

 

[Mrke1]

and 0 felons...

I'd take some 5* WR felons right now tbh.

 

[HuckFinn]

May need some follow-up on this post. I saw the way too early rankings for next fall and Iowa was at number 16. And, the only BT teams ahead of them in the rankings that factored in new recruits were Mich and OSU. We were ahead of Penn St., Nebr., Wisconsin, in the rankings. Rest of the BT teams were not listed in the top 25. I cannot recall the source but maybe Rivals? Any help/corrections are welcome. Will try to double check.

 

[MoseSchrute]

and 0 felons...

So no National Championships....again.

 

[NikeHawk21]

https://247sports.com/college/iowa/...y-2019-Meet-Class-for-Kirk-Ferentz-126576575/

Here is a good synopsis of each commit in the 2019 class and their outlook. Hadn’t heard much buzz about LaPorta but that article makes it sound like he could be a real steal.