LB is the last position to JUCO recruit IMO. Iowa will have twenty one (21) LBs in camp this Fall. Out of that group, only 2 are seniors = Hockaday and Mends. 19 of the 21 have at least 2 years of eligibility, a majority (12) are underclassmen eligibility wise. Iowa brought in two JUCO LBs this Spring from IWCC. The coaches must believe that at least 5 or 6 players will emerge from that group of 19 LBs with multiple years of eligibility that they previously recruited to campus.
If Iowa decides to recruit a 2019 JUCO LB it will essentially mean that underclassmen with at least two years in the program, players such as Barrington Wade, Nick Niemann, Kyle Taylor, Djimon Colbert, and Nate Weiland, have been unable to sufficiently develop to the satisfaction of the coaches and that the incoming class of scholarship LBs such as Jayden McDonald, Dillon Doyle, Seth Benson, and Logan Klemp are at least two years away from contributing.
I am assuming the coaches are sufficiently pleased with the performance of juniors Kristian Welch and Amani Jones so far. There has also been talk about Amani Hooker moving from Safety to LB.
Iowa just received a commitment from 2019 LB Jack Campbell and they are supposedly sitting pretty well with Nick Heinrich and Jack Kiser, among others.
There may be a AA JUCO with strong interest in Iowa that would certainly be worth looking at. You never know about attrition but at some point you have to have faith that the LB group recruited to campus is sufficiently stocked to produce 5 or 6 game day players. IMO a roster with 23-24 roster LBs is more than enough - in fact, it is ridiculously high. Otherwise, coaches Wallace and Parker, and probably Doyle as well, have failed miserably, monumentally.
