It's recruiting, folks!

[DougERot]

The truth of the matter is that Iowa's recruiting hasn't been very good the last few years and it showed during the Rose Bowl. Player development, coaching and weight training work fine against Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern but when Iowa plays an elite program, the lack of talent and speed rears its ugly head. Stars do matter if you want to compete against the best and signing recruiting classes in the 50's will not get it done. The Rose Bowl was ugly but if Iowa had made the playoff, Alabama, Oklahoma and Clemson would have ran up and down the field and scored at will.
I was ecstatic with the success Iowa had this year but the fantastic season was based on Iowa not beating themselves, CJ making plays when needed and doing enough to outlast their opponents down the stretch. The coaches need to land some playmakers ie stud linebackers, pass rushers and wide receivers to take us to the next level.

 

[TouchdownHawks]

Agree! Our recruiting has been as much development as it is disappointing.. Development is at best 50/50, and we've had some big misses! Hopefully our success will show up in a few years with higher rated recruits especially at skill positions..

 

[patread]

So what can we all do to support better recruiting? Certainly, being a naysayer doesn't help! University of Iowa is a great institution of higher learning, Iowa City is a super college town, we now have fabulous facilities, leadership on all levels (players and coaches) is admirable, we have terrific fans and we place so many of our players in the NFL. Why wouldn't a young man not want to play for THE University of Iowa?

 

[Forgery5]

It starts with the product we put on the field. Until this year, our extremely boring run right, run left, 2 yard pass doesn't impress high school kids. We were better this year, but far from great offensively and our defense looked a lot more aggressive and that should pay off if we can do it again next year. Stars do matter and if we can appeal to them on the field for a change that's a great start. Upgrading our facilities will also help and for 55 million, we should get a second look from the higher caliber athletes.
Finally, it's a sales job by the coaching staff. If we have poor salesman, we're not going to win those recruiting battles for the top kids and frankly, I can't remember our last big signing we've gotten. I think the new recruiting coordinator has stepped up our game considerably and I'm hoping for big things in the future, but if we resort back to playing 1980's football, the greatest facilities in the country is only going to get us MAC level talent.
If Lincoln Nebraska can get 4 star athletes to come there, Iowa City shouldn't have a problem!

 

[Qued18]

Over the years we had Kaz,Rhabdo,City Boyz etc that hurt us. We are a development program and have had good success with it. I love the young players we have now but they got thrown to the wolves last year and somewhat this year. We have to keep kids in the program and build them up,which seems to be working as of now. Guys like Josey Jewel,Parker Hesse are doing a great job but on an elite team they play special teams until their junior year. Next year should be another good to great year and I hope the backups continue to have faith and commitment to this program. Getting some playmakers from juco ranks for wr would also help.

 

[IFlyEm]

Do people still think Cowherd was wrong?

 

[Hawks_Rock_12]

Do people still think Cowherd was wrong?

No, Cowherd was right. We played a soft regular season schedule and that was exposed in the CCG and Rose bowl. Show me one top level program that lost two games in a row at the end of the year.

 

[Qued18]

No, Cowherd was right. We played a soft regular season schedule and that was exposed in the CCG and Rose bowl. Show me one top level program that lost two games in a row at the end of the year.

Iowa
UNC
Florida
Oklahoma St

 

[Hawks_Rock_12]

Iowa
UNC
Florida
Oklahoma St

By trying to make your point you made mine. Iowa, UNC and Ok St aren't top programs. I will give you Florida. My definition of a top level program is one that plays for or wins National Championships regularly.

 

[Qued18]

How about USC are they up to your liking? They also lost the last 2

 

[scotthawk1964]

Of course your right, all we have to do is get the blue chippers to come to Iowa instead of Alabama, Ohio State, USC, LSU ect. ect. ect, then the planets will align and the Hawkeyes will become this unstoppable force that no college power dare face on the field of battle. I'm all in, so how do we get these blue chippers to choose Iowa over Bama, or tOSU? Sounds great in theory, but don't you think we have been trying to to recruit them? I'm sure even Hayden recruited them. I know, if we recruit them, they will come......RIGHT? Well, this is not the field of dreams people. Dreaming is great, but there is a difference between dreaming and reality, and reality says that IOWA IS NOT AN ELITE PROGRAM. They never have been and probably never will be one. It is what it is. If 12-2 is not good enough for you at Iowa, then you need to buy an Alabama shirt and start singing Roll Tide. Good lord people, buy some smelling salts and get with reality.

 

[win1forthe]

The university, athletic department and football program raised the stakes and expectations of the program by soliciting and spending millions of dollars for state-of-the-art facilities. It was built to be used as a tool to bring better athletes into the program. If the coaches and athletic department wants to stay with the status quo of 2/3 star recruits, then they wasted literally millions of donated dollars.

 

[scotthawk1964]

The university, athletic department and football program raised the stakes and expectations of the program by soliciting and spending millions of dollars for state-of-the-art facilities. It was built to be used as a tool to bring better athletes into the program. If the coaches and athletic department wants to stay with the status quo of 2/3 star recruits, then they wasted literally millions of donated dollars.

Your correct, 12-2 is totally unacceptable.

 

[win1forthe]

Your correct, 12-2 is totally unacceptable.

Got it, recruiting doesn't need to improve.

 

[laidbackdude2011]

So what can we all do to support better recruiting? Certainly, being a naysayer doesn't help! University of Iowa is a great institution of higher learning, Iowa City is a super college town, we now have fabulous facilities, leadership on all levels (players and coaches) is admirable, we have terrific fans and we place so many of our players in the NFL. Why wouldn't a young man not want to play for THE University of Iowa?

Everything that you stated applies to Michigan, Wisky, OSU and a bunch of other schools. The difference is that we don't have much in terms of a legacy of consistent wins. Michigan can be 8-5 and still have a top 20 recruiting class.

 

[mlb1399]

I think this season is a good step in the right direction. If we can parlay the success this year with another great season, we will see a spike in recruiting. After our 2002-04 success, we saw an increase in recruits that lead to our 2009 season. I think what hurt us was the disappointment of 2010 and the not being relevant on any stage until this year.

We're never going to compete with OSU or Michigan. That's ok. If we can nab some more top tier talent coupled with our core blue collar type players, we can compete at a high level. Our 2009 team proved that.

 

[Golfer51031]

I don't know about you. But, some of the guys on the field Friday are no where near Division 1 caliber talent alone. Can't kick xp's. Dropped passes right in the gut. Sloppy tackling. Can't block etc.

 

[millhawk]

The coaches, the last few years, should have been urgently looking for wr talent. Especially in the jucos. The oline looked terrible the last couple of games.

The facilities should have been built years ago. Recruiting looks better going forward, good start to '17 need to capitalize now.

 

[scotthawk1964]

I don't know about you. But, some of the guys on the field Friday are no where near Division 1 caliber talent alone. Can't kick xp's. Dropped passes right in the gut. Sloppy tackling. Can't block etc.

Maybe they aare not D1 caliber but they were good enough to win more games then any hawkeye team in HISTORY, Big West champions and seconds away from the Big champion. My guess is that Michigan State does not have D1 recruits either since they were pasted 38-0, right? And we talk about how delusional Nebby fans are...........Sad

 

[Old_wrestling_fan]

The university, athletic department and football program raised the stakes and expectations of the program by soliciting and spending millions of dollars for state-of-the-art facilities. It was built to be used as a tool to bring better athletes into the program. If the coaches and athletic department wants to stay with the status quo of 2/3 star recruits, then they wasted literally millions of donated dollars.

If you donated mega money under the illusion that a new weight room, etc, on the UI campus would realign the college football world...then there you weren't being very realistic IMO. I presume that you are aware that other institutions can do, and have already done, the same thing, no?

 

[Hawgguy1]

Global warming could help.

Seriously, we are never going to be able to compete with schools that have such a huge recruiting advantage. The Elite programs have Tradition and/or Geography and/or Population going for them. They have good coaches and good facilities, too.

The best we can hope for is to consistently win 8 or 9 games every year, be ranked in the Top Twenty and continue to recruit young men of high character with 3 star talent. Work them hard, coach them up and play in Bowl games we can win.

Since the 1959 Rose Bowl win, we've gone to 6 Major Bowl Games....two Orange Bowls and four Rose Bowls and have come away with one 10 point win over a one dimensional Georgia Tech team. In the 5 losses we've been out scored by 107 points.

Nope, I'm satisfied with Iowa going to a Florida News Years Day Bowl Game with a chance to win.

Would I like us to win a National Championship? Hell, yes! But, it's not going to happen running a Clean Program like we do.

 

[win1forthe]

If you donated mega money under the illusion that a new weight room, etc, on the UI campus would realign the college football world...then there you weren't being very realistic IMO. I presume that you are aware that other institutions can do, and have already done, the same thing, no?

I'm not sure anyone ever asked or expected, and I know I didn't use those words, to realign the football world. But I do believe the facility is used to help with recruiting and a reasonable thought is that it might just attract more talented players. And, yes, I'm aware other schools do the same thing, and I'm assuming one reason they do it is to attract better athletes/football players.

 

[FloridaHawk82]

Recruiting ALWAYS has been, and always will be a tremendous challenge at Iowa, for all the reasons we all know.

The job this staff has done, in regards to development and coaching, is nothing short of remarkable. When you consider the sheer numbers we have sent to the NFL, compared to where each player started, the entire country respects us.

But, we understandably have higher aspirations, sometimes maybe even unrealistic ones as fans, but that is sports.

Yes, to take our program to the next level, we will need to bring in a few more players who are high level game ready when they arrive. We will NEVER get the sheer volume of 4/5 star players as some programs, but in our system, we only need a handful each year.

I'm cautiously optimistic we will start to see us land a few more highly regarded recruits, especially at the skill positions. Already hearing great things regarding Wallace as our new recruiting coordinator. B Ferentz is also infusing a breath of fire and youth, the new facilities are amazing, and following this 12 win season with another 10+ win season next year should reap benefits. At least that's this proud Hawkeye's hope!

 

[J_Heater]

By trying to make your point you made mine. Iowa, UNC and Ok St aren't top programs. I will give you Florida. My definition of a top level program is one that plays for or wins National Championships regularly.

Is anyone saying Iowa is a top level program? Cowherd's point was Iowa was over rated. They weren't. If going 12-0 was so easy why didn't more teams do it. Iowa had the 59th toughest schedule. So why didn't the other 50 plus teams that had easier schedules go unbeaten.

They got beat by Stanford pretty soundly. Look you guys waited a long time to bitch about a loss. I give you credit for your patience.

 

[j0nnyhb_Prime]

Recruiting better athletes would help, but it isn't that easy ... It wasn't speed that killed Iowa in the Rose Bowl, it was our OL and DL got dominated, which was very surprising. I think that problem is correctable. We do need a few more dynamic WRs to stretch the field.

 

[Hawks_Rock_12]

Is anyone saying Iowa is a top level program? Cowherd's point was Iowa was over rated. They weren't. If going 12-0 was so easy why didn't more teams do it. Iowa had the 59th toughest schedule. So why didn't the other 50 plus teams that had easier schedules go unbeaten.

They got beat by Stanford pretty soundly. Look you guys waited a long time to bitch about a loss. I give you credit for your patience.

The conversation was about two loses in a row not the lone loss to Stanford. You do remember the loss to MSU ? Yep that same MSU that got " beat pretty soundly " by Bama. How do you think it looks when both Iowa and MSU get destroyed in their Bowl games ? Yes, it makes them both look over rated.

 

[R1950]

If you look at the traditional football powers today, every one of them has a strong HS recruiting base in their state or neighboring states. That's why college teams in Florida, Texas, California, Ohio, and Georgia (the 5 top recruiting talent states) SHOULD have solid teams every year and if they don't, have no one to blame but themselves. True, every once and a while a team will flourish for 3 to 4 years but for the successful long haul, the distance from one of those recruiting hubs is critical. Unless a school is a traditional power (OSU, Alabama, USC.....) it's extremely hard to persuade a true BLUE-CHIP-4 and 5 STAR kid to travel hundreds of miles to play college ball. Some need to let that sink in !

 

[doughudd]

How about USC are they up to your liking? They also lost the last 2

Nice. That got no response.

 

[doughudd]

The university, athletic department and football program raised the stakes and expectations of the program by soliciting and spending millions of dollars for state-of-the-art facilities. It was built to be used as a tool to bring better athletes into the program. If the coaches and athletic department wants to stay with the status quo of 2/3 star recruits, then they wasted literally millions of donated dollars.

After almost a complete year in the new facility we should have championships damit.

 

[ottumwan in tx]

It would be tough to recruit big city kids to iowa

 

[Golfer51031]

Maybe they aare not D1 caliber but they were good enough to win more games then any hawkeye team in HISTORY, Big West champions and seconds away from the Big champion. My guess is that Michigan State does not have D1 recruits either since they were pasted 38-0, right? And we talk about how delusional Nebby fans are...........Sad

Agree. But, in front of a national stage and in front of future elite recruits. They embarrassed the university. Young kids see that and either want to come play for us or run away altogether imo.

 

[hawkosx]

Got it, recruiting doesn't need to improve.

The iq on this board is pathetic. Even USC, Bama, LSU, OU, OSU and every program in the country would like to improve their recruiting. So the point of this thread is?

 

[Qued18]

I

The iq on this board is pathetic. Even USC, Bama, LSU, OU, OSU and every program in the country would like to improve their recruiting. So the point of this thread is?

id like to have just one of their recruiting classes every 4 years.

 

[doughudd]

Do people still think Cowherd was wrong?

Before or after he admitted he was wrong?

 

[Freyvet]

Maybe they aare not D1 caliber but they were good enough to win more games then any hawkeye team in HISTORY, Big West champions and seconds away from the Big champion. My guess is that Michigan State does not have D1 recruits either since they were pasted 38-0, right? And we talk about how delusional Nebby fans are...........Sad

Amen brother!

 

[IFlyEm]

Before or after he admitted he was wrong?

Based on the Michigan State game. Apparently, Michigan State wasn't what he thought either.

 

[IFlyEm]

Is anyone saying Iowa is a top level program? Cowherd's point was Iowa was over rated. They weren't. If going 12-0 was so easy why didn't more teams do it. Iowa had the 59th toughest schedule. So why didn't the other 50 plus teams that had easier schedules go unbeaten.

They got beat by Stanford pretty soundly. Look you guys waited a long time to bitch about a loss. I give you credit for your patience.

Wasn't Stanford ranked behind us? And I'm not sure "soundly" is a strong adjective. At no point were we ever remotely in the game from the first play on. Herbsteit even said we looked like a pop warner football team. I think it's safe to say we may have been riding a bit of an overrated bubble.

 

[KFsdisciple]

If i was going to rank all that went wrong in the rose bowl I don't think recruiting makes the list.

These were the same 2 and 3 star players that went 12-0 in the regular season. That's not a fluke. And the players who went 12-0 didn't suddenly realize they weren't 4-5 star players and forget how to run, jump, etc.

The list of what went wrong for me is this:

The lights -- stanford has played in 3 of the last 4 Rose Bowls... Iowa has played in a couple Orange Bowls in the KF era but a non-playoff Orange Bowl is still nothing like a Rose Bowl...and Iowa didn't have a player with on the roster who had played in a major bowl game. The stage was big and bright and I don't think we handled it very well.

Preparation -- Iowa got caught with their pants down in the prep department. Instead of being ready for anything, we appeared to be ready for nothing. I honestly don't think its all the players fault here, I don't know if Stanford was doing things they didn't show on film or if we had a terrible strategy to combat what they showed, but everything Stanford did seemed to surprise Iowa on both sides of the ball.

In-game adjustments -- There is a difference between panicking and getting away from who you are, and seeing what your opponent is doing working around that. We kept trying the same things over and over and expected a different result.

Layoff -- This can be a problem for a lot of teams, but they layoff after the BTTG a month of not going full speed...then to play a team that has someone as dynamic as McCaffery who we couldn't simulate and he hit us on the first play of the game and Iowa was stunned... The last time I recall something like this was the PSU game of 2009, Iowa was able to settle down and recover from that... but points 1-3 prohibited that.

 

[Ladell-hawk]

The truth of the matter is that Iowa's recruiting hasn't been very good the last few years and it showed during the Rose Bowl. Player development, coaching and weight training work fine against Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern but when Iowa plays an elite program, the lack of talent and speed rears its ugly head. Stars do matter if you want to compete against the best and signing recruiting classes in the 50's will not get it done. The Rose Bowl was ugly but if Iowa had made the playoff, Alabama, Oklahoma and Clemson would have ran up and down the field and scored at will.
I was ecstatic with the success Iowa had this year but the fantastic season was based on Iowa not beating themselves, CJ making plays when needed and doing enough to outlast their opponents down the stretch. The coaches need to land some playmakers ie stud linebackers, pass rushers and wide receivers to take us to the next level.

Our coaches did a great job with our team this year, pretty much got everything and more out of the team we had. This should help recruiting. I still think that on a good day, we could compete with Stanford, but they certainly are an elite team talent wise. That pick 6 when we were moving the ball and only down 14-0 was a killer, can't believe CJ threw it. But this was one of our best season's ever and was a lot of fun. Go Hawks!

 

[Tim Dodge Rules]

For chrissakes we didn't lose because of lack of speed, or being overrated... we lost because we weren't prepared AT ALL. They caught us sleeping... CJ throws a pick 6 at the WORST possible time... and that's all she wrote. And part of not being prepared was the Mich St. COMPLETELY deflated us... that was the real end of the season.

And if Lincoln could get it done back in the day, there's no reason Iowa City can't do it.

I can't wait for Sept. 3rd.