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Newest commitment, TE/LB

another flat out stud and even better.........wait for it: he helps Iowa's national recruiting ranking by beating out one of those 5.2 two star recruits. Take a screen capture if Iowa sneaks into the Top 20. Maybe Iowa will have a movie night at Kinnick to celebrate.
 
Well....6'4" 220 pound bodies that can run 4.52 are hard to come by. Let's put our faith in Doyle that he can add 30 pounds to this kid and take .1 or better off of that forty....and then you have something
 
You know 4.52 is extremely fast for a LB, right? Hell, I've seen (a lot of) 1st-round WRs his size that couldn't run that (assuming his speed is accurate, of course).
 
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Well....6'4" 220 pound bodies that can run 4.52 are hard to come by. Let's put our faith in Doyle that he can add 30 pounds to this kid and take .1 or better off of that forty....and then you have something
I like this guys potential. He could be a bigtime player for the Hawks in a few years. Welcome to the Hawkeye football Kristian!
 
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Its really sad that the posters here who apparently detest Ferentz feel the need to slam just about any new recruit who commits to play football at the University of Iowa but is not ranked high enough by Rivals to meet their satisfaction, or based on the quality of their offer list. I would be the first to admit that the rankings and offers have some value but they don't tell the whole story.

The interesting part is this: almost inevitably, the posters who do this know virtually nothing about the recruits they denigrate. They never met them, have never seen them play, did not observe or evaluate them at camps and/or workouts. Never conducted any background with his coaches, etc.

So you get the back-handed insult - "flat-out stud". Or the "broken hearted FCS schools" knock to show that this guy is lousy. Fact is, no one knows for sure, right now, whether Kristian Welch will be a bust or whether he will develop into a star player, or something in between.

Nathan Bazata's only other offer was South Dakota State and he is listed as a starting DT as a sophomore. Same with Ben Niemann who, besides Iowa, listed 3 other FCS school offers and he presently is listed as a starting LB also. There are other examples as well.

Do we know for sure that Bazata and/ or Niemann will excel as starters? NO! - and that's the point - you can't honestly evaluate a recruit until they have a body of work to judge. Same for Welch. Maybe it would be better to save any conclusive judgments, especially derogatory comments, until you see them play as a Hawkeye .... 2,3, or 4 years from now.
 
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Its really sad that the posters here who apparently detest Ferentz feel the need to slam just about any new recruit who commits to play football at the University of Iowa but is not ranked high enough by Rivals to meet their satisfaction, or based on the quality of their offer list. I would be the first to admit that the rankings and offers have some value but they don't tell the whole story.

The interesting part is this: almost inevitably, the posters who do this know virtually nothing about the recruits they denigrate. They never met them, have never seen them play, did not observe or evaluate them at camps and/or workouts. Never conducted any background with his coaches, etc.

So you get the back-handed insult - "flat-out stud". Or the "broken hearted FCS schools" knock to show that this guy is lousy. Fact is, no one knows for sure, right now, whether Kristian Welch will be a bust or whether he will develop into a star player, or something in between.

Nathan Bazata's only other offer was South Dakota State and he is listed as a starting DT as a sophomore. Same with Ben Niemann who, besides Iowa, listed 3 other FCS school offers and he presently is listed as a starting LB also. There are other examples as well.

Do we know for sure that Bazata and/ or Niemann will excel as starters? NO! - and that's the point - you can't honestly evaluate a recruit until they have a body of work to judge. Same for Welch. Maybe it would be better to save any conclusive judgments, especially derogatory comments, until you see them play as a Hawkeye .... 2,3, or 4 years from now.

Name dropping starters on a mediocre to low Power 5 team with no offers isn't helping to prove your point. If anything, it shows how bad recruiting has been. The cupboard is not bare, but we've been short on groceries for a while.
 
Name dropping starters on a mediocre to low Power 5 team with no offers isn't helping to prove your point. If anything, it shows how bad recruiting has been. The cupboard is not bare, but we've been short on groceries for a while.

Prove my point? Let me slow it down for you a little.

Nathan Bazata was lightly recruited (no other Division 1 offers, only other offer was an FCS school, SDSU). Bazata has won a starting position at DT over a Rivals 4-star recruit, namely: Faith Ekakatie. Ekakatie was heavily recruited and had a long list of BCS offers (Arizona, Wisconsin, Oregon, Stanford, West Virgina, Georgia Tech, and many others). By any measure, Ekakatie was not a bad recruit.

My point was pretty clear: no one knows for sure how any recruit will develop and evaluation only makes sense after they suit-up as a Hawkeye, compete on the field and accumulate a body of work.

Here is what we know: right now, coaches have determined that lightly recruited Nathan Bazata is a better player than highly recruited Faith Ekakatie. And just so you know, you won't be able to convince me that you are a better talent evaluator than Reese Morgan.
 
I'm sure about 3 of the 18 verbals with no other offers will turn out to be good players. So 3 of the 18 underated kids plus the 3 kids that have verballed that have solid offers gives Iowa 6 decent players in the class. You need more than 6 players in a class to make a solid program and given Iowa's history, 1 or 2 of the kids with decent offers will end up leaving the program. I'm just looking at past history.
 
Its really sad that the posters here who apparently detest Ferentz feel the need to slam just about any new recruit who commits to play football at the University of Iowa but is not ranked high enough by Rivals to meet their satisfaction, or based on the quality of their offer list. I would be the first to admit that the rankings and offers have some value but they don't tell the whole story.

The interesting part is this: almost inevitably, the posters who do this know virtually nothing about the recruits they denigrate. They never met them, have never seen them play, did not observe or evaluate them at camps and/or workouts. Never conducted any background with his coaches, etc.

So you get the back-handed insult - "flat-out stud". Or the "broken hearted FCS schools" knock to show that this guy is lousy. Fact is, no one knows for sure, right now, whether Kristian Welch will be a bust or whether he will develop into a star player, or something in between.

Nathan Bazata's only other offer was South Dakota State and he is listed as a starting DT as a sophomore. Same with Ben Niemann who, besides Iowa, listed 3 other FCS school offers and he presently is listed as a starting LB also. There are other examples as well.

Do we know for sure that Bazata and/ or Niemann will excel as starters? NO! - and that's the point - you can't honestly evaluate a recruit until they have a body of work to judge. Same for Welch. Maybe it would be better to save any conclusive judgments, especially derogatory comments, until you see them play as a Hawkeye .... 2,3, or 4 years from now.

You are correct stars don't always tell the story however offers tell a lot. Look the offers Michigan TE recruit Sean McKeon has he's only a rivals ** 5.4 are you going to tell me all those power 5 offers mean nothing ? If you plan on competing with OSU,MSU,PSU and Michigan then you better start matching their talent level. 2016 and 2017 is going to be a huge wake up call for a lot Hawk fans.
Its really sad that the posters here who apparently detest Ferentz feel the need to slam just about any new recruit who commits to play football at the University of Iowa but is not ranked high enough by Rivals to meet their satisfaction, or based on the quality of their offer list. I would be the first to admit that the rankings and offers have some value but they don't tell the whole story.

The interesting part is this: almost inevitably, the posters who do this know virtually nothing about the recruits they denigrate. They never met them, have never seen them play, did not observe or evaluate them at camps and/or workouts. Never conducted any background with his coaches, etc.

So you get the back-handed insult - "flat-out stud". Or the "broken hearted FCS schools" knock to show that this guy is lousy. Fact is, no one knows for sure, right now, whether Kristian Welch will be a bust or whether he will develop into a star player, or something in between.

Nathan Bazata's only other offer was South Dakota State and he is listed as a starting DT as a sophomore. Same with Ben Niemann who, besides Iowa, listed 3 other FCS school offers and he presently is listed as a starting LB also. There are other examples as well.

Do we know for sure that Bazata and/ or Niemann will excel as starters? NO! - and that's the point - you can't honestly evaluate a recruit until they have a body of work to judge. Same for Welch. Maybe it would be better to save any conclusive judgments, especially derogatory comments, until you see them play as a Hawkeye .... 2,3, or 4 years from now.

I hope this kid is the next Dallas Clark or Chad Greenway I really do but the odds say it's not in the cards. Now if you have your sites set on Illinois, Indiana, Purdue and Rutgers all is well.
 
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I'm sure about 3 of the 18 verbals with no other offers will turn out to be good players. So 3 of the 18 underated kids plus the 3 kids that have verballed that have solid offers gives Iowa 6 decent players in the class. You need more than 6 players in a class to make a solid program and given Iowa's history, 1 or 2 of the kids with decent offers will end up leaving the program. I'm just looking at past history.
Go root for ISU
 
He reminds me of AJ Edds
I'll be the first to admit I like a stacked offers list, that said. With his size, and if the speed is legit, great get.
Who knows, others might come calling as the year goes on. Hope we can get him signed.
 
Go root for ISU
He won't need to. With a few more classes like this we'll be right there. (I love it when someone tells another to go root for another school when the said person is not happy that we rank 14 out of 14 B1G schools in avg star ranking.)
 
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He won't need to. With a few more classes like this we'll be right there. (I love it when someone tells another to go root for another school when the said person is not happy that we rank 14 out of 14 B1G schools in avg star ranking.)
Agreed. The difference between 2.62 and 3 is like a chasm. A hopeless abyss.
 
kid is also a good basketball player and a very good long jumper. He is a very good athlete. Noticed they have been getting a lot of guys with position flexibility
 
Trash trashing recruits:
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So some of you think KF isn't offering higher rated kids? He is offering, the rest is up to them. The point is stop bashing the kids, KF and coaching staff are fair game though.
 
Prove my point? Let me slow it down for you a little.

Nathan Bazata was lightly recruited (no other Division 1 offers, only other offer was an FCS school, SDSU). Bazata has won a starting position at DT over a Rivals 4-star recruit, namely: Faith Ekakatie. Ekakatie was heavily recruited and had a long list of BCS offers (Arizona, Wisconsin, Oregon, Stanford, West Virgina, Georgia Tech, and many others). By any measure, Ekakatie was not a bad recruit.

My point was pretty clear: no one knows for sure how any recruit will develop and evaluation only makes sense after they suit-up as a Hawkeye, compete on the field and accumulate a body of work.

Here is what we know: right now, coaches have determined that lightly recruited Nathan Bazata is a better player than highly recruited Faith Ekakatie. And just so you know, you won't be able to convince me that you are a better talent evaluator than Reese Morgan.

The bottom line is we are 34-30 overall as of late. I won't bash any kid who decides to don the black and gold. Any fan frustration is we are 34-30 ... something is not working.
 
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You can't teach that type of speed with his frame. I am not a Ferentz fan but I will support the players and new recruits. I like this kids potential.
 
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I agree the kid has potential if he can truly run a 4.52. All of these recruits have potential otherwise the coaching staff wouldn't have offered them. But you can't consistently win with a team full of recruits that have potential. About a third or a fourth of the kids are going to leave the program given Iowas history. From what is left maybe half of the kids with potential end up being solid players and 1 or 2 of them are all big ten material. It all comes down to NOT ENOUGH TALENT. I'm not bashing any recruits. I am bashing the coaches strategy to go after a bunch of kids with potential and with no other offers and get them locked up early
 
Kid is way underrated. Probably because he didn't go to camps. But for that size to have that kind of athletic ability he should be rated higher. 247 has him as a high 3 star and one of Iowa's top recruits.

This is what 247's Barton Simmons said about Welch. He is the director of scouting for them.

"Welch out of Iola (Wisc.) Iola-Scandanavia is a guy I've been fascinated by of late. At just over 6-2, and in that 220 pound range, Welch could project as a "move" tight end, an H-back or a linebacker on the next level. At Iowa's camp, he ran a sub-4.6 in the 40 at that size but that wasn't a flukey athletic performance. He also happens to be one of the top long-jumper in Wisconsin and has jumped just under 23 feet at 22-10.5. That's a ridiculous number for a jumbo athlete. While Welch had offers from the likes of Bowling Green and South Dakota State, the Hawkeyes are now the clear team to beat with their offer. Hailing from a small school in a lightly trafficked state, it's no surprise that his offer list is limited but Welch looks like a big-time find by the Iowa staff."
 
Kid is way underrated. Probably because he didn't go to camps. But for that size to have that kind of athletic ability he should be rated higher. 247 has him as a high 3 star and one of Iowa's top recruits.

This is what 247's Barton Simmons said about Welch. He is the director of scouting for them.

"Welch out of Iola (Wisc.) Iola-Scandanavia is a guy I've been fascinated by of late. At just over 6-2, and in that 220 pound range, Welch could project as a "move" tight end, an H-back or a linebacker on the next level. At Iowa's camp, he ran a sub-4.6 in the 40 at that size but that wasn't a flukey athletic performance. He also happens to be one of the top long-jumper in Wisconsin and has jumped just under 23 feet at 22-10.5. That's a ridiculous number for a jumbo athlete. While Welch had offers from the likes of Bowling Green and South Dakota State, the Hawkeyes are now the clear team to beat with their offer. Hailing from a small school in a lightly trafficked state, it's no surprise that his offer list is limited but Welch looks like a big-time find by the Iowa staff."

Wow that long jump distance is pretty impressive especially for a kid his size. Looking at Iowa state track meet only 1 or 2 kids would have beat him in all the classes with his best jump. I wonder if Iowa sees him like a Jake Duzey type of player if he plays offense.

3 Wisky recruits now only 1 with Wisconsin offer our QB Stanley. Wonder if they offer if any would bolt for them?
 
NFL #7 overall pick Beasley ran 4.53.
#17 Armstead ran 5.1(???!?!??!) ignore this one.
#22 Dupree 4.56
#25 Shaq 4.64
#31 Anthony 4.56

I understand that NFL draft combine 40s are more accurately timed than high schoolers, but it gives context to his time. If its legit, its a fabulous time.

The guy finished 3rd in the state in the 100m, long jump, and 4x400. As a 6'4", 220 lber.

I like the addition.
 
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AJ Edds was a 4 star, US Army All American with offers from the who's who of college football. This guy is a 2 star with one power 5 conference offer, Iowa. What, other than the fact that this kid is white, is it about him that reminds you of Edds?

He reminds me of AJ Edds
 
And he will more than likely bulk up a bit and may increase his speed. If he does that this kid could be a specimen that helps this program especially on special teams. I would like to have this kid at a fullback position with a burner behind him. Imagine how quick they would get to the hole.
 
Slow players? The Hawks have signed/committed more speed in the last 3 classes than probably the last 10 years combined.

This kid that just committed ran a 4.52.
Ask Tennessee how our speed is working out for us
 
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Ask Tennessee how our speed is working out for us

Nah - it was better to ask Tennessee how good our tackling was ... or about the quality of angles that our LBs were taking. No matter how fast the opponent - if you take bad angles, you've just screwed yourself.

Anyhow, it's been a while since I've seen an Iowa team tackle that poorly, that late in the season. However, I suppose that it shouldn't come that much as a surprise given how poorly we tackled against Minnesota too.
 
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Its really sad that the posters here who apparently detest Ferentz feel the need to slam just about any new recruit who commits to play football at the University of Iowa but is not ranked high enough by Rivals to meet their satisfaction, or based on the quality of their offer list. I would be the first to admit that the rankings and offers have some value but they don't tell the whole story.

The interesting part is this: almost inevitably, the posters who do this know virtually nothing about the recruits they denigrate. They never met them, have never seen them play, did not observe or evaluate them at camps and/or workouts. Never conducted any background with his coaches, etc.

So you get the back-handed insult - "flat-out stud". Or the "broken hearted FCS schools" knock to show that this guy is lousy. Fact is, no one knows for sure, right now, whether Kristian Welch will be a bust or whether he will develop into a star player, or something in between.

Nathan Bazata's only other offer was South Dakota State and he is listed as a starting DT as a sophomore. Same with Ben Niemann who, besides Iowa, listed 3 other FCS school offers and he presently is listed as a starting LB also. There are other examples as well.

Do we know for sure that Bazata and/ or Niemann will excel as starters? NO! - and that's the point - you can't honestly evaluate a recruit until they have a body of work to judge. Same for Welch. Maybe it would be better to save any conclusive judgments, especially derogatory comments, until you see them play as a Hawkeye .... 2,3, or 4 years from now.

Great post! If fans want to complain about "star rating" ... then they have to remember that that is directly related to how much your team is winning. The Hawks aren't drumming enough momentum in the field to quite pull in the talent that some think that we should be landing.

Thus, given the consideration above, fans should appreciate and respect those players who CHOOSE to be a Hawk.
 
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