Why is Iowa football recruiting on a roll?
Why have the Hawkeyes gotten on a roll in recruiting? Kirk Ferentz is one of the reasons.
Tom Kakert • HawkeyeReport
Publisher
@hawkeyereport
If you cover college football recruiting long enough, you will see just about everything.
You will see crazy runs, like what Iowa put together in the month of June in 2015 when the Hawkeyes received 15 verbal commits over the course of 22 days. By the way, some of the prospects who committed to Iowa in that run included T.J. Hockenson, Cole Banwart, Nick Niemann, Amani Hooker, Austin Schulte, Amani Jones, and Barrington Wade.
You also see classes like 2005, which was the perfect storm year for Hawkeye football. Iowa was in the midst of a strong run of success on the field and other major Midwest programs like Notre Dame were in a state of flux. That led to the Hawkeyes to landing one five star recruit, seven four star prospects, and an overall class that ended up being ranked 11th in the country by Rivals.com. That still stands as the highest rated class signed by Kirk Ferentz. It’s worth noting, that with all the stars in that class, the gem ended up being a little known JUCO offensive lineman named Marshal Yanda, who just concluded his long NFL career and should eventually be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.
As you may have noticed, Kirk Ferentz and his staff are on a little bit of a run in the last two weeks. They have received verbal commitments from six prospects since April 14th to bring the total pledges to the Class of 2021 to 14. Even more impressive is the fact that as of Friday afternoon, Rivals.com had the Hawkeyes as having the 6th best recruiting class in the country.
Now, Iowa’s probably not going to end up sixth in the country in 2021. Other schools will eventually catch up and star reeling in four and five star prospects and jump past the Hawkeyes, but the view from near the top is pretty nice for the Iowa program.
The question is how are the Hawkeyes doing it? Why have they suddenly caught fire in the middle of a global pandemic and risen up the national recruiting rankings?
The story really kind of begins last year. If you follow recruiting closely, you know that with each passing year, Iowa has seemed to essentially finish the bulk of their recruiting work earlier and earlier. That has been especially true since the start of the December signing period, when many prospects moved up their decision timelines. Schools can also host official visits in the spring and Iowa has taken advantage of that option and it’s worked very well.
Last year, had 20 verbal commitments by July 10th, so their work was basically done with only two more commitments to add in the class. What that allowed the Iowa coaches to do is turn their focus to the Class of 2021. Sure they had to do their regular contacts and visits with the 2020 group, but they were a tight group and the Hawkeye coaches could really zero in on their evaluations and person contacts with the 2021 prospects.
That head start and those relationships have paid dividends and Rivals.com Midwest recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt saw it coming.
“At the beginning of the recruiting shutdown in March I did an article on the two teams that it would hurt and the two that it would help in the Big Ten. The schools I felt it would help were Iowa and Ohio State because they were off to a strong start and because they had been doing work on the 2021 class for a while and they had gotten those prospects on campus,” he said. “Now they are reaping the benefits of those relationships.”
Ohio State currently has the top ranked recruiting class in the county by a pretty wide margin. As mentioned earlier, Iowa is was up to 6th once Brody Brecht made his verbal commitment on Friday afternoon.
Part of the reason for Iowa’s run could also be tied to the fact that they were off to a strong start and that allows them to sell the fact that if you want to be a Hawkeye, you better act soon or your spot could vanish.
“When you look at a school like Iowa, they have limited scholarships now and have a bunch of commitments, so they know the door is going to close and If Iowa is where they want to be, then they better not wait or they could lose their spot,” Helmholdt said.
One factor that has certainly helped Iowa to this strong start to the Class of 2021 is that the crop of in-state prospects is as strong as many observers have seen in decades. Helmholdt says that in his twenty years of covering recruiting in the Midwest, this is the deepest pool of talent he has seen come out of the state of Iowa.
The Class of 2021 in the state of Iowa has 20 prospects who have power five offers, including three four star prospects and 16 three star standouts. The only other years when the state of Iowa had three four star players was 2009 and 2014 and neither of those years had anything close to this level of depth power five offers.
And as you might expect, Iowa has cleaned up when it comes to receiving verbal commitments from the top in-state talent. According to the Rivals rankings, Iowa has commitments from 8 of the top 10 players in Iowa in the Class of 2021. They are still in the running for one of the two prospects, Thomas Findone, a four star tight end, and they have been eliminated from competition for four star defensive end T.J. Bollers.
Bottom line, in terms of the talent base in the state of Iowa, this was a perfect storm year for the Hawkeyes and given the restrictions on recruiting this spring, it’s a great time to have a strong group of in-state recruits.
One final factor that has probably helped the Hawkeyes secure so many high level commitments this quickly is Kirk Ferentz. Visits aren’t happening right now and we don’t know when they will resume. We are in the middle of a pandemic and as high school prospects are looking at their options, their parents, more than ever, are looking for a safe and secure place to send their child where they know their health and welfare will be at the top of the agenda for the head coach. They also want to know that the head coach will be there all four or five years and no one in the country comes close to Ferentz as far as longevity.
“Coaching stability is always going to be a positive in recruiting. There’s no team in the Big Ten that can show coaching stability better than Iowa can,” Helmholdt said. “With recruits making decisions now with more limited information than they normally would have at this time, knowing that the coaching staff is going to be around is a comforting thought when you make an early decision.”
Why have the Hawkeyes gotten on a roll in recruiting? Kirk Ferentz is one of the reasons.
Tom Kakert • HawkeyeReport
Publisher
@hawkeyereport
If you cover college football recruiting long enough, you will see just about everything.
You will see crazy runs, like what Iowa put together in the month of June in 2015 when the Hawkeyes received 15 verbal commits over the course of 22 days. By the way, some of the prospects who committed to Iowa in that run included T.J. Hockenson, Cole Banwart, Nick Niemann, Amani Hooker, Austin Schulte, Amani Jones, and Barrington Wade.
You also see classes like 2005, which was the perfect storm year for Hawkeye football. Iowa was in the midst of a strong run of success on the field and other major Midwest programs like Notre Dame were in a state of flux. That led to the Hawkeyes to landing one five star recruit, seven four star prospects, and an overall class that ended up being ranked 11th in the country by Rivals.com. That still stands as the highest rated class signed by Kirk Ferentz. It’s worth noting, that with all the stars in that class, the gem ended up being a little known JUCO offensive lineman named Marshal Yanda, who just concluded his long NFL career and should eventually be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.
As you may have noticed, Kirk Ferentz and his staff are on a little bit of a run in the last two weeks. They have received verbal commitments from six prospects since April 14th to bring the total pledges to the Class of 2021 to 14. Even more impressive is the fact that as of Friday afternoon, Rivals.com had the Hawkeyes as having the 6th best recruiting class in the country.
Now, Iowa’s probably not going to end up sixth in the country in 2021. Other schools will eventually catch up and star reeling in four and five star prospects and jump past the Hawkeyes, but the view from near the top is pretty nice for the Iowa program.
The question is how are the Hawkeyes doing it? Why have they suddenly caught fire in the middle of a global pandemic and risen up the national recruiting rankings?
The story really kind of begins last year. If you follow recruiting closely, you know that with each passing year, Iowa has seemed to essentially finish the bulk of their recruiting work earlier and earlier. That has been especially true since the start of the December signing period, when many prospects moved up their decision timelines. Schools can also host official visits in the spring and Iowa has taken advantage of that option and it’s worked very well.
Last year, had 20 verbal commitments by July 10th, so their work was basically done with only two more commitments to add in the class. What that allowed the Iowa coaches to do is turn their focus to the Class of 2021. Sure they had to do their regular contacts and visits with the 2020 group, but they were a tight group and the Hawkeye coaches could really zero in on their evaluations and person contacts with the 2021 prospects.
That head start and those relationships have paid dividends and Rivals.com Midwest recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt saw it coming.
“At the beginning of the recruiting shutdown in March I did an article on the two teams that it would hurt and the two that it would help in the Big Ten. The schools I felt it would help were Iowa and Ohio State because they were off to a strong start and because they had been doing work on the 2021 class for a while and they had gotten those prospects on campus,” he said. “Now they are reaping the benefits of those relationships.”
Ohio State currently has the top ranked recruiting class in the county by a pretty wide margin. As mentioned earlier, Iowa is was up to 6th once Brody Brecht made his verbal commitment on Friday afternoon.
Part of the reason for Iowa’s run could also be tied to the fact that they were off to a strong start and that allows them to sell the fact that if you want to be a Hawkeye, you better act soon or your spot could vanish.
“When you look at a school like Iowa, they have limited scholarships now and have a bunch of commitments, so they know the door is going to close and If Iowa is where they want to be, then they better not wait or they could lose their spot,” Helmholdt said.
One factor that has certainly helped Iowa to this strong start to the Class of 2021 is that the crop of in-state prospects is as strong as many observers have seen in decades. Helmholdt says that in his twenty years of covering recruiting in the Midwest, this is the deepest pool of talent he has seen come out of the state of Iowa.
The Class of 2021 in the state of Iowa has 20 prospects who have power five offers, including three four star prospects and 16 three star standouts. The only other years when the state of Iowa had three four star players was 2009 and 2014 and neither of those years had anything close to this level of depth power five offers.
And as you might expect, Iowa has cleaned up when it comes to receiving verbal commitments from the top in-state talent. According to the Rivals rankings, Iowa has commitments from 8 of the top 10 players in Iowa in the Class of 2021. They are still in the running for one of the two prospects, Thomas Findone, a four star tight end, and they have been eliminated from competition for four star defensive end T.J. Bollers.
Bottom line, in terms of the talent base in the state of Iowa, this was a perfect storm year for the Hawkeyes and given the restrictions on recruiting this spring, it’s a great time to have a strong group of in-state recruits.
One final factor that has probably helped the Hawkeyes secure so many high level commitments this quickly is Kirk Ferentz. Visits aren’t happening right now and we don’t know when they will resume. We are in the middle of a pandemic and as high school prospects are looking at their options, their parents, more than ever, are looking for a safe and secure place to send their child where they know their health and welfare will be at the top of the agenda for the head coach. They also want to know that the head coach will be there all four or five years and no one in the country comes close to Ferentz as far as longevity.
“Coaching stability is always going to be a positive in recruiting. There’s no team in the Big Ten that can show coaching stability better than Iowa can,” Helmholdt said. “With recruits making decisions now with more limited information than they normally would have at this time, knowing that the coaching staff is going to be around is a comforting thought when you make an early decision.”
