It has been several years since we have had much success recruiting Chicago. With a very rabid alumni base here we have a built in advantage in my opinion to luring recruits to Chicago. I may be wrong on this # but Iowa I believe has the 2nd highest alumni base in Chicago. Anywhere you travel whether in the 'burbs or the city you will likely run into either a Hawkeye bar or someone wearing the hawkeye colors. Why do I bring this up? When we signed JJ's class I remember asking teenage kids about the University of Iowa and the comments I received back were "Iowa is a cool campus!! "Love Iowa City," etc. etc. They havfe an instant connection to IC. That in itself is a huge built in recruiting advantage for us when it comes to recruiting the area. Kids know Iowa so DISTANCE plays no factor in going after these kids. I understand tha winning cures may ills but this staff has lacked the ability to close the deal with kids here for over 3 yrs. I would love the Hawks to revaluate who recruits Chicago and make it a "must" when it comes to recruiting. There is not one Big Ten team dominating Chicago these days. As someone who has lived here for over 20 years I follow the local recruiting scene very closely. There is no reason why we cannot become a dominant player here. The city of Chicago is the 3rd largest metro area in the US. It just makes sense to make this area a priority. There are no real excuses to not make Chi-town a priority. The # of offers out there for the 2016 class is somewhat limited thus far. 2016 by all accounts seems to be a strong year for recruiting in the area. I hope the staff is connecting with the local coaching world up here. The summer camp they had last year should help. Losing out to MSU just kills me. Their fan base here is similiar but the passion for their team does not nearly match what the Iowa fan base brings. As this has been posted before this a critical year for Ferentz. No more excuses for a coach that is vastly overpaid.
Football recruiting in Chicago
- Thread starter Hawk87
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