Why can't we recruit higher rated players?

1

1hawkifan

Well-Known Member
I'm curious why?? Top 25 Athletic Department, Top Facilities, Great Fan Base, and over the last 5 years, we are tied for 1st with Ohio State with number of players in the NFL. With all that said, why do we struggle getting top flight players to come to Iowa? Is it because we're in the Midwest? We're Iowa? We have no beaches? It's not 70-80 degrees everyday? Demographics?

If you were going to make a business decision that could increase your percentages of taking your football career to the next level, why wouldn't you play football for Iowa?

Why don't kids see this? Why go to play for a team because they have better weather, a beach, prettier girls if your chances of going to the next lever is less than it is by going to play for Iowa? It's only 4-5 years of your life and you give yourself a better chance of playing professionally?

If it were me, I'd go play for someone that has a history of developing me and taking my game to the next level. I wouldn't care about all the above things that have nothing to do with football.

I guess I'm curious why we struggle with this? Is it the way kids think nowadays?
 




1hawkifan said:
I'm curious why?? Top 25 Athletic Department, Top Facilities, Great Fan Base, and over the last 5 years, we are tied for 1st with Ohio State with number of players in the NFL. With all that said, why do we struggle getting top flight players to come to Iowa? Is it because we're in the Midwest? We're Iowa? We have no beaches? It's not 70-80 degrees everyday? Demographics?

If you were going to make a business decision that could increase your percentages of taking your football career to the next level, why wouldn't you play football for Iowa?

Why don't kids see this? Why go to play for a team because they have better weather, a beach, prettier girls if your chances of going to the next lever is less than it is by going to play for Iowa? It's only 4-5 years of your life and you give yourself a better chance of playing professionally?

If it were me, I'd go play for someone that has a history of developing me and taking my game to the next level. I wouldn't care about all the above things that have nothing to do with football.

I guess I'm curious why we struggle with this? Is it the way kids think nowadays?
Click to expand...

This has been discussed several times since 2010. Welcome back to the board.
 


4 star and 5 star kids are high maintenance...why would we recruit those guys. I often think about the way 18 year olds think, and I say, "wonder what they are thinking"...

good first post.
 


Kids these days just don't have the common sense that they once did. For the reasons you pointed out Iowa should be on on the top of the list for any young man. I think this is starting to change though. Juan committed, and I believe that AJ will too.
 


I'm sure that there are a lot of things to go into it. Weather, demographics, etc. all play a part. If I were a betting man, though, I would put my money on 4 main issues:

1) W/L. We have been a pretty average team (record wise, as well as on the field) for years now. Most highly rated players probably aren't looking to be part of average teams.

2) Lack of publicity. ES(ec)PN constantly touts how great the SEC is and loves to talk about the SEC teams. With the exception of Ohio State and Michigan, you don't hear about the B1G teams much - and you certainly don't hear about Iowa. When Iowa does have some success, they just talk about how down the B1G is. And, of course, we ALWAYS throw away some stupid early out-of-conference game to make ourselves look even worse than we are.

3) Up until this year, our recruiting hasn't seemed like it inspired much excitement. KF, for better or worse, seems to prefer to try to remain pretty even-keeled when talking about the program. His shtick is pretty much "we come out, we do our job". That attitude is great for showing consistency. When you are winning 10 games a year, I sure it works great. When you are pretty average, you need to "sell" a bit harder, focusing on what you are going to do different to get better.

4) Iowa really is a small state, with a small number of potentially elite players. We just don't have many higher ranked players that have grown up as Hawkeye fans. We have to fight that much harder to overcome those childhood preferences. Something that is a LOT easier to do when you have a great deal of success on the field.

JMO, but I think that consistently winning on the field will do a lot to improve recruiting. And it isn't jsut winning, but also how you win. We need to throw down some ***-kickings against some of these weak opponents that we face. Treating the game as a practice may be the civil, kind thing to do. But beating the living hell out of them gets you the ESPN publicity.
 


1hawkifan said:
I'm curious why?? Top 25 Athletic Department, Top Facilities, Great Fan Base, and over the last 5 years, we are tied for 1st with Ohio State with number of players in the NFL. With all that said, why do we struggle getting top flight players to come to Iowa? Is it because we're in the Midwest? We're Iowa? We have no beaches? It's not 70-80 degrees everyday? Demographics?

If you were going to make a business decision that could increase your percentages of taking your football career to the next level, why wouldn't you play football for Iowa?

Why don't kids see this? Why go to play for a team because they have better weather, a beach, prettier girls if your chances of going to the next lever is less than it is by going to play for Iowa? It's only 4-5 years of your life and you give yourself a better chance of playing professionally?

If it were me, I'd go play for someone that has a history of developing me and taking my game to the next level. I wouldn't care about all the above things that have nothing to do with football.

I guess I'm curious why we struggle with this? Is it the way kids think nowadays?
Click to expand...


I bolded the one attribute that they really need to nail when recruiting and I'm sure they do. They really need to drive home that Iowa will get the player to the NFL with hard work and it's not that they will get you to the NFL, it's that a lot of what Iowa does resembles NFL. Often the players from Iowa are NFL ready and ready to contribute right away. That is the selling point for Iowa. The midwest is a difficult sell, but this is Iowa's main recruiting point, that and Ferentz's contacts in the NFL.
 


Iowa has 3 4 star commits in the 2017 class already....oops, never mind that is just Juan Harris committing 3 times.
 


1hawkifan said:
I'm curious why?? Top 25 Athletic Department, Top Facilities, Great Fan Base, and over the last 5 years, we are tied for 1st with Ohio State with number of players in the NFL. With all that said, why do we struggle getting top flight players to come to Iowa? Is it because we're in the Midwest? We're Iowa? We have no beaches? It's not 70-80 degrees everyday? Demographics?

If you were going to make a business decision that could increase your percentages of taking your football career to the next level, why wouldn't you play football for Iowa?

Why don't kids see this? Why go to play for a team because they have better weather, a beach, prettier girls if your chances of going to the next lever is less than it is by going to play for Iowa? It's only 4-5 years of your life and you give yourself a better chance of playing professionally?

If it were me, I'd go play for someone that has a history of developing me and taking my game to the next level. I wouldn't care about all the above things that have nothing to do with football.

I guess I'm curious why we struggle with this? Is it the way kids think nowadays?
Click to expand...

The answer is that we can and we have. In 2005 we had the 7th ranked recruiting class in the nation with three 5 star recruits and six 4 star recruits in the class. That was a big time class and proved it on the field in 2009. I think the better question is how did we do it and what does it take to do it again? I really think that problem lies in first the production on the field which has been poor lately and secondly coaches who are not current with the rest of the country when it comes to recruiting. Recruiting has shown an uptick with Seth Wallace at the helm, but it really helps when the coach has the same enthusiasm and shows it though avenues such as social media. Great examples are with Bret Bielema and Butch Jones who seem to be all over Twitter advocating their schools relentlessly. Seth Wallace is on Twitter but Seth Wallace is not Kirk Ferentz. I'm going to let the football season begin and I am truly giving my Hawks a clean slate to start the year, but if we start losing to teams like Iowa State, Minnesota, Illinois State, Northwestern again I think we NEED an overhaul. I think we need a new coach and the best choice would be Bret Bielema. I wouldn't want Bob Stoops because I think he would be more of the same. Other choices to consider would be Tom Herman or PJ Fleck two young coaches who are on the rise who would definitely recruit well and with good recruits be able to subsequently (hopefully) show it on the field. So YES Iowa is in my opinion a good overall football program who has done it before and can do it again but right now I think things have gone very stale and may be unsalvageable but we'll find out starting on September 5th against a very good Illinois State team.

http://iowa.247sports.com/Season/2005-Football/Commits

attachment.php
attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2015-07-28 at 2.05.57 PM.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-07-28 at 2.05.57 PM.jpg
    22.7 KB · Views: 88
  • Screen Shot 2015-07-28 at 2.11.35 PM.jpg
    Screen Shot 2015-07-28 at 2.11.35 PM.jpg
    21.2 KB · Views: 90
Last edited:


WinOneThisCentury said:
4 star and 5 star kids are high maintenance...why would we recruit those guys. I often think about the way 18 year olds think, and I say, "wonder what they are thinking"...

good first post.
Click to expand...


Would like to see a quality study concerning '4-5 star' recruits v. '2-3 star' and how they end up at the end of their college career or 6 years after their initial verbal commitment. Like to see it based on what they are rated when they first verbally commit to a school. Too many rating services automatically change a 3 to a 4 as soon as they visit OSU, ND, Bama, etc.

How many Iowa NFL were 3 stars or less??? Almost all
 




MiniMoeHawk said:
Good recruits don't want to lose to ISU and Directional Michigan schools
Click to expand...

Would you take a loss occasionally if you knew you were in a good developmental program that has better odds than mists schools to take you to the next level?

If you knew you could get promoted in your job but before you do, you have to live in bfe first. Would you make the move?
 














hawkdrummer1 said:
Dude, merge those two images into one. I'll print up the T-shirts and split the profits with you. We'll sell a few thousand on opening day.
Click to expand...


Here you go drummer........maybe put the survey on the back of the shirt.....Run the Program the Right Way, Graduate Players, or Win??? Or, perhaps, list the infamous boneheaded play calls and personal decisions like Kneeling down at the Shoe in 09, Getting fake punt punked by Wisconsin in 10, Weisman...a fullback playing tailback running the stretch play over and over again, Greg Davis Horizonal Offense, playing McCann over Banks in 01, Jake over Stanzi in 08, Rudock over Beathard in 14, etc?

NoRiskKirk.jpg
 
Last edited:


Even with the numbers of Iowa players playing on Sundays I don't believe a lot of highly ranked high school players give Iowa a second thought unless there's a tie-in somehow; legacy or the rare in-state kid wanting to stay close to home. Many of the others are looking at the bluebloods thinking no matter how much competition they'll have to see the field they'll be the ones who win out. Worked out for Ross P. so far.

Schools like Nebby (much smaller state-same crappy winters) can shine up their trophies and sell a kid on returning them to the glory days. There's also this mentality among some fans that golly, gosh, gee-whiz I remember all those losing years so we'll gladly take 6 or 7 wins a year and be happy. It's not just Barta or Ferentz with lowered expectations. Do you think a 5 * is impressed with that?

With recruiting itself putting Seth Wallace in charge of things seems like a step in the right direction. However IIRC does he still not report directly to Ferentz but to a position coach? What is up with that?
There needs to be a recruiting coordinator with no coaching duties on equal rank of any assistant on staff reporting only to the HC. That I believe is how most other schools, certainly other B1G schools organize things.

Then too with the high 4 and 5* kids bagmen are in play. Sad fact of life in modern-day CFB.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.


Latest posts

Share this page






Top