Ken O'Keefe is BACK! (in the recruiting game for Iowa)

[ghostOfHomer777]

For those who are fellow recruitniks, in prior years it probably seemed ironic that as MSU and Michigan continued to mine the talent of Ohio (as Meyer extended OSU's recruiting profile nation-wide) ... Iowa cast a smaller and smaller recruiting shadow in the state. Why?

The primary Ohio recruiter we had for the '13-'17 recruiting classes was Phil Parker ... and, even then, he mostly has a loose string of contacts there. Early on, Brian recruited Ohio his first year or two on the staff ... but then his recruiting geography got shifted over more to the greater Chicago area. From '13-'17 we landed:

'13: (all were Brian's recruits - many were possibly prior O'Keefe or Parker targets)
Sean Welsh, Brant Gressel, LeShun Daniels, Solomon Warfield
'14: (only guy was a joint B. Ferentz/White recruit)
CJ Hilliard
'15: (only guy listed as a target of Brian)
James Daniels
'16: (only guy listed as a target of Phil)
Lance Billings - never really hit campus (so he barely counts)
'17:
NONE
'18:
NONE

Even if you track the offers we had out ... during those years, we had surprisingly few offers out to guys in Ohio. Now that Ken O'Keefe is back ... now we have a TON of offers out to Ohio preps. Mind you, Jestin Jacobs is a commit and his lead recruiters are listed as Wallace and Bell ... but maybe it was reflective of us mining some of Ken's contacts?

For whatever reason, Iowa is back to recruiting the state of Ohio a little more aggressively ... and I like it!

 

[OutbackBowl2017]

 

[Dick Rambone]

O Keefe was the primary recruiter for Petras too . He looks like the head QB recruiter going forward it seems.

 

[clayborn_94]

Would be nice to add Bazelak qb and either Fulton or Eichenberg at LB into the fold too along with Jacobs. That would give us 3 guys in the top 25 in the state of Ohio. Would like to see that every year.

 

[Blair Sanderson]

KOK is indeed back recruiting in NE Ohio as well at Connecticut. Then he recruits all QBs obviously, which has taken him all over the country, including California, Utah, Texas, Ohio, Minnesota, and Georgia just to name a few stops over the past year.

For Jestin Jacobs, who is from Clayton, OH, Kelvin Bell was the first lead contact and then Seth Wallace kind of took over his recruiting once he became a top LB target for Iowa. Those two deserve all the credit there.

 

[bumpstock]

KOK is indeed back recruiting in NE Ohio as well at Connecticut. Then he recruits all QBs obviously, which has taken him all over the country, including California, Utah, Texas, Ohio, Minnesota, and Georgia just to name a few stops over the past year.

For Jestin Jacobs, who is from Clayton, OH, Kelvin Bell was the first lead contact and then Seth Wallace kind of took over his recruiting once he became a top LB target for Iowa. Those two deserve all the credit there.

Tell KF to have KOK layover in Phoenix for a day on his way to Calif, and layover in Las Vegas for a day on his way from Calif. Outstanding potential for landing QBs and WRs!

 

[Blair Sanderson]

Tell KF to have KOK layover in Phoenix for a day on his way to Calif, and layover in Las Vegas for a day on his way from Calif. Outstanding potential for landing QBs and WRs!

He's not making regular trips there. Just going where the QBs are that have mutual interest. Those are some of the locations over the last year that I listed. Anyway, I really like that approach better than trying to find the best remaining QB in Texas or just the Midwest, etc. It's what led them to Spencer Petras last year.

 

[Harbinger273]

Very good thing to have KOK back in the saddle again. He knows what he is doing and has an experienced presence with QB's and all offensive guys. He'll only be with the program a few more years so they are making the most of them.

 

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

It’s funny, i didnt hear anyone complain about KOK after the OSU game.

 

[GoldandBold]

Maybe because our recruiting focus switched to Ind/Ill.