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Iowa is #1 when comparing Recruiting Ranks to NFL Draft Production

As you can see, for 3 straight cycles Iowa has been in the top 2 spots.

The conclusion, as you can see below: Coach Ferentz & Kyle Whittingham and their staffs have built strong program cultures, identify talent to fit their winning schemes, and develop players better than anyone in college football.

This can't be right? Our culture is so, "anti player" isn't it? o_O
 
Yup. This weekend is the pinnacle for Iowa football fans besides an occasional schedule aided west title. Who's ready to party?!!!!🤘

Why do you follow Iowa? If I was a fan of something that irritated me so badly that I had to make condescending, shitty, snarky remarks all the time. Id punch myself in the face… I mean it’s purely the definition of an idiot!
 
i'm sure i'm not the only one, but i view the recruit rankings as how college game ready a player is.

some 2 and 3 stars have more potential than their 4 and 5 star peers. its just not obviously apparent at 18 years of age.

not all 2 and 3 stars are still 2 and 3 stars when they graduate/leave school, just as not all 5 stars stay 5 stars... when compared to their peers.

the nfl is the final judge, not rivals.
 
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i'm sure i'm not the only one, but i view the recruit rankings as how college game ready a player is.

some 2 and 3 stars have more potential than their 4 and 5 star peers. its just not obviously apparent at 18 years of age.

not all 2 and 3 stars are still 2 and 3 stars when they graduate/leave school, just as not all 5 stars stay 5 stars... when compared to their peers.

the nfl is the final judge, not rivals.

I agree with most of this. The last sentence is mostly correct, but there are some players that can be outstanding in college but they're play just doesn't translate to the NFL. Someone who's an all American who just never does much in the NFL is still a 5 star at the end of their college career.
 
Anyone that has played sports in Jr High and HS remembers the kid that was bigger and more talented than everyone else. He dominated 7th - 9th grade, better in every way.

By 11th-12th grade, everyone had physically caught up to him, and superstar was no longer anything special - might not even be playing for one reason or another.

Same goes for college recruiting. You recruit a kid that is 16 years old and someone rated a 5 star. Plays varsity as a freshman or soph, physical beyond his years. Some of them get to college and they find out they are just another guy.

KF recruits kids that WANT to get better - bigger, stronger, faster. Kids that are willing to take care of themselves to achieve results. Hard work in the off season, film study, drills, etc. Strive to hit the goals for measurables that have been established. He looks for kids with an edge - wanting to be as good as he can be - and not just talk. Because if you don't get better, you will get beat.

If a 5 star guy is ready to do everything he can to improve, I'd love to have him. One that just does whatever is required so he can play football on Saturday - pass.
 
Anyone that has played sports in Jr High and HS remembers the kid that was bigger and more talented than everyone else. He dominated 7th - 9th grade, better in every way.

By 11th-12th grade, everyone had physically caught up to him, and superstar was no longer anything special - might not even be playing for one reason or another.

Same goes for college recruiting. You recruit a kid that is 16 years old and someone rated a 5 star. Plays varsity as a freshman or soph, physical beyond his years. Some of them get to college and they find out they are just another guy.

KF recruits kids that WANT to get better - bigger, stronger, faster. Kids that are willing to take care of themselves to achieve results. Hard work in the off season, film study, drills, etc. Strive to hit the goals for measurables that have been established. He looks for kids with an edge - wanting to be as good as he can be - and not just talk. Because if you don't get better, you will get beat.

If a 5 star guy is ready to do everything he can to improve, I'd love to have him. One that just does whatever is required so he can play football on Saturday - pass.
Hmmm, so what your saying is "hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard"? I think I've heard that one somewhere......
 
Hmmm, so what your saying is "hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard"? I think I've heard that one somewhere......
Absolutely.

But sometimes it's genetics. Some kids can work their asses off and not get any better. Other kids blossom into physical freaks out of nowhere.

Look no further than Bob Sanders. Hardly recruited. But he became a physical freak with an unlimited attitude for punishing the other guy, That doesn't really show up on a recruiting profile - but KF and his staff saw something.

Another thing - some guys are really good at football. Some guys absolutely live, breathe and eat football. I'd rather have the guy that has a passion for football over a guy that is simply talented.
 
This is pretty sweet. I think many of us would also like to see the "production" happen before the NFL. Can we just have a little of both?
 
This is pretty sweet. I think many of us would also like to see the "production" happen before the NFL. Can we just have a little of both?

Don’t we…. Few of them are able to play well in the NFL if they didn’t play well here, right?
 
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Absolutely.

But sometimes it's genetics. Some kids can work their asses off and not get any better. Other kids blossom into physical freaks out of nowhere.

Look no further than Bob Sanders. Hardly recruited. But he became a physical freak with an unlimited attitude for punishing the other guy, That doesn't really show up on a recruiting profile - but KF and his staff saw something.

Another thing - some guys are really good at football. Some guys absolutely live, breathe and eat football. I'd rather have the guy that has a passion for football over a guy that is simply talented.

Hard-core training and focus affects everybody differently…. And some people are just naturally strong and then get in the program & they explode, as you said!

With that said there is still so much ambiguity in the rankings….the exposure how hard you work for the exposure etc. etc. honestly we have brought in way too many kids that were able to star from season one, on campus!

Point being I’ve always suggested this Staff was even better at identifying and projecting talent than they are developers…

Some of these kids were sensational athletes & just needed a position and some direction! We find kids that are under estimated, under appreciated, overlooked & needing a coach.

Many have been pretty capable from the start!
 
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Absolutely.

But sometimes it's genetics. Some kids can work their asses off and not get any better. Other kids blossom into physical freaks out of nowhere.

Look no further than Bob Sanders. Hardly recruited. But he became a physical freak with an unlimited attitude for punishing the other guy, That doesn't really show up on a recruiting profile - but KF and his staff saw something.

Another thing - some guys are really good at football. Some guys absolutely live, breathe and eat football. I'd rather have the guy that has a passion for football over a guy that is simply talented.

This really is a fascinating topic to me… The developer versus the evaluator! Are they the same? Are they similar? Can you have one without the other? And I think probably you could…

I mean let’s really think about it; Alabama isn’t just offering every four-star in the world they’re still very selective about what they’re looking for, right?

We are too and we’ve gotten better at finding it. Sometimes it’s still undersized or undervalued per se. But we’re getting plenty of big-time football players that have great numbers and still just got overlooked for some reason…

Our reaches used to be 5.4 guys, that admittedly many many many have gone on to the NFL! But when we took 10 or more in a class we were in trouble when we took five or six it’s amazing how many of them went on to star.

On a similar note the ones that did “star“ usually hit the field pretty early on. It didn’t take them to their redshirt junior year to make an impact. Meaning they still were very good athletes. They just were men without a position, without a direction or needed to be momentarily remade?

A funny thing happened when the recruiting game changed though… We got really serious about offering early in the process and lo and behold these kids that were maybe a tiny bit obscure & weren’t ranked or two stars, a year out. Suddenly they were jumping up into the 5.6s and better range.

Quite frankly fellas we have never pulled in better talent than we are right now.All across the board but Defense in particular!

Its been a pretty fun time to be an Iowa fan the last several years, for the most part.
 
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Great stuff in this thread...really good. I'd still like to sign more 4 and 5 star players. Like others said, we develop players better than almost any other school...but we often have holes (think OL last year) that could be plugged with a guy that is ready to go (think Proctor) in those years where injuries and attrition create weakness.

Proctor is a huge, huge get for 2023. He's a plug and play at right tackle...and it keeps Colby at guard and puts the other three positions, well two because Richmond is a stud, into a 5 players competing for two spots...all positive. Pull in Proctor and the OL will be a major strength.
 
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Great stuff in this thread...really good. I'd still like to sign more 4 and 5 star players. Like others said, we develop players better than almost any other school...but we often have holes (think OL last year) that could be plugged with a guy that is ready to go (think Proctor) in those years where injuries and attrition create weakness.

Proctor is a huge, huge get for 2023. He's a plug and play at right tackle...and it keeps Colby at guard and puts the other three positions, well two because Richmond is a stud, into a 5 players competing for two spots...all positive. Pull in Proctor and the OL will be a major strength.
My dream would be some combination of Richmond, Myslinski, Davidkov, Proctor, and Ince on the line. That would be stacked.
 
My dream would be some combination of Richmond, Myslinski, Davidkov, Proctor, and Ince on the line. That would be stacked.
Colby will likely be a first rounder in a few years. He's got natural size and his best years are ahead of him as he gets bigger and stronger. I like the Myslinski and Davidikov adds though...Logan Jones though is going to be a tough guy to beat out...or he could move over to guard is Myslinski proves to be as good as some say.
 
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