Top 20 classes...

HawkeyeWalker

HawkeyeWalker

Well-Known Member
Just saw a rundown of the top 25 classes where they show the top 5 players in each class. Outside of Michigan and Oklahoma, 3 to 4 of every teams top 5 either came within the state or a neighbor state.

Location, local talent pool....it matters...a lot.

That said, really like Iowa's class. Coaches did a great job. Another good/great year, I think we crack the top 30 team recruiting rankings for '17.

I would contend if our exact same '16 class was at a "blue blood"....we'd be top 30 this year....

Stars still matter, but I still believe the "right" 3.2 star is far better than the "wrong" 4.1 star.
 
Iowa had a good recruiter in Wallace. Iowa has a good coaching staff. Iowa has top flight training staff etc. Iowa has the 9th best class in the BIG.............
 
BILLYBOBSTEXAS said:
Iowa had a good recruiter in Wallace. Iowa has a good coaching staff. Iowa has top flight training staff etc. Iowa has the 9th best class in the BIG.............
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Iowa has the 9th "ranked" class, subjective whether it's the 9th best, won't really know that for a couple years. The difference between 5-9 is negligible as far as "rank" goes.

That said, with another good/great year, I would suspect Iowa will be in the top 4-5 ranked classes. Very rarely will we ever crack the top 3.

I would like to see us get consistently inside the top 30-35 nationally, top half of the B1G. But more than that I want to keep finding the right guys.

We haven't had a class in the top 50 for over 4 years and went 12-0 last year (admittedly with a favorable schedule). Once you get outside of the top 15-20...ranking shmanking.

That said, always want the best talent possible.
 
I guess I'm not down so much on this class as I am disturbed at not being able to attract higher valued recruits with our new shiny practice facility.
 
BILLYBOBSTEXAS said:
I guess I'm not down so much on this class as I am disturbed at not being able to attract higher valued recruits with our new shiny practice facility.
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the shiny new facility wasn't in place when this class was in the starts of being recruited. '17 is the first class for that.

when does the recruitment of a class begin?? when was the facility complete?

some people would complain if they were hung with a new rope...being from texas, you should get that line.
 
imported_ankle23 said:
the shiny new facility wasn't in place when this class was in the starts of being recruited. '17 is the first class for that.

when does the recruitment of a class begin?? when was the facility complete?

some people would complain if they were hung with a new rope...being from texas, you should get that line.
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LOL, eastern Iowa ankle, living in AZ. Went to Billy Bobs Texas once. Interesting place. And yes, tall oak tree and a short piece of rope!
 
Also I did work in construction. This facility did not appear overnight. The staff undoubtable used pictures of the finished product in recruiting.
 
BILLYBOBSTEXAS said:
Also I did work in construction. This facility did not appear overnight. The staff undoubtable used pictures of the finished product in recruiting.
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When I was 18, i can tell you that I was not all that excited to look at artist's renderings and architectural drawings of a building that wasn't built yet. And look at the next class. Already paying dividends in Epenesa's verbal and Eno Benjamin's strong interest.
 
BILLYBOBSTEXAS said:
I guess I'm not down so much on this class as I am disturbed at not being able to attract higher valued recruits with our new shiny practice facility.
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O$U's facilities are old and antiquated. They are far below those of most of the teams in the B1G. However, they have no trouble recruiting. New shiny facilities are over hyped by people on message boards. Its about location & reputation. There is very little talent in Iowa & the neighboring states. I'd gladly trade the Hawk's new shiny facilities for O$U's in-state talent.
 
I think they got a solid class that we typical get at Iowa. Stars in 3 to 4 years don't mean as much as they may right now. We get our players up to 4 or 5 stars by time they leave. The problem is depth. The higher star recruits are ready to play and can fill in when needed. We usually have a drop off after our first and second teams. What probably diatribes me the most is looking at what Nebraska did getting Iowa no. 1 recruit plus other border states.

Nebraska did a nice job adhering to its philosophy of recruiting in a 500-mile radius of Lincoln. The Huskers signed the No. 1 Rivals.com player in Iowa (John Raridon) and South Dakota (Matt Farniok), Mr. Football in Minnesota (JD Spielman), the St. Louis Post Dispatch Player of the year (Tre Bryant) and the Colorado player of the year (JoJo Domann). - See more at: http://btn.com/2016/02/04/dienhart-...om-national-signing-day/#sthash.Gk1fRSCE.dpuf
 
WVHawk said:
I think they got a solid class that we typical get at Iowa. Stars in 3 to 4 years don't mean as much as they may right now. We get our players up to 4 or 5 stars by time they leave. The problem is depth. The higher star recruits are ready to play and can fill in when needed. We usually have a drop off after our first and second teams. What probably diatribes me the most is looking at what Nebraska did getting Iowa no. 1 recruit plus other border states.

Nebraska did a nice job adhering to its philosophy of recruiting in a 500-mile radius of Lincoln. The Huskers signed the No. 1 Rivals.com player in Iowa (John Raridon) and South Dakota (Matt Farniok), Mr. Football in Minnesota (JD Spielman), the St. Louis Post Dispatch Player of the year (Tre Bryant) and the Colorado player of the year (JoJo Domann). - See more at: http://btn.com/2016/02/04/dienhart-...om-national-signing-day/#sthash.Gk1fRSCE.dpuf
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They can have Raridon....he was overrated.
 
ColumbusHawk said:
O$U's facilities are old and antiquated. They are far below those of most of the teams in the B1G. However, they have no trouble recruiting. New shiny facilities are over hyped by people on message boards. Its about location & reputation. There is very little talent in Iowa & the neighboring states. I'd gladly trade the Hawk's new shiny facilities for O$U's in-state talent.
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It is hard to beat decades and decades of positioning yourself as "the" university for your well-populated state and having your biggest rival be in another state. Oh, and to have decades and decades of success in football. Has Ohio State ever had a bad year in football?
 
Hawknigh said:
It is hard to beat decades and decades of positioning yourself as "the" university for your well-populated state and having your biggest rival be in another state. Oh, and to have decades and decades of success in football. Has Ohio State ever had a bad year in football?
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It's all relative isn't it? By the way, not much gets said about the impact of people to the recruiting equation especially when those people or staff members have some strong sales traits. Even the MI's and OSU's of the world can ratchet things up even higher with some even stronger sales skills from a new leader and/or staff members. Though elements of a program may remain the same (location, long term tradition, facilities, etc.) there are examples every year of a regime change that begins to up their talent (and the program's success) via their recruiting success. A good sales team can accomplish a lot.

I think it will be interesting to see who the next Recruiting Coordinator will be at Iowa. I would think we're in a good position right now to be attracting some strong candidates. I think some regular new blood with new ideas such as our experience with Wallace would be good.
 
nationalchamps said:
They can have Raridon....he was overrated.
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At best he will be an undersized but competent guard. Has had the benefit of great coaching and all the training, etc. money could buy. The loss of an offensive lineman to Nebraska is of little consequence. They are replaceable with what we have access to-a skilled position player not so much!
 
It kinda of appears that Kirk and Co like these kind of recruits, they are not fall backs, but the first choices. IMO, Kirk feels he has better success going after under the radar recruits. I'm sure some down years has something to do with it, but when Wallace became the recruiting coordinator, everyone saw the up tick in recruiting. I even think they decided to go back to Florida, down in Alabama now.

Something has awaken this staff to shoot for the top, starting next year in recruiting. Just didn't show up in this years recruiting, but you've all seen it, they are focused on making Iowa better.
 
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