 Marc MorehouseHi, I'm Marc Morehouse. I've covered sports for more than 15 years, mostly in Eastern Iowa. I've had Hayden Fry [...] |
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Notes from HawkeyeReport.com . . .
With around 19 scholarships available, Iowa looks for LBs, playmakers
Chaparral's Jake Roh, left, and Zach Skeen celebrate a touchdown in the second quarter during the Division II semifinals at North Canyon High School in Phoenix, Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. Roh received a scholarship offer from the Hawkeyes recently. [Matt Pavelek/ For the Tribune
As you know, Iowa has 15 commitments and is very near the 85 scholarship limit for next season. How many more? My guess would be 20 or 21 on the high end and 18 or 19 on the low.
Yes, I know Iowa is maybe one off the 85, but Iowa can “oversign” by three.
How does that work?
The Big Ten requires programs to make an honest assessment of how many scholarship slots will be available for next year. This includes those who finished eligibility, early NFL entrants, quitting and transfers and etc. Once the school has that number, it’s allowed to add three. That’s how many recruits it can bring in.
If the schools intend to oversign, the conference wants to be notified before it happens.
Iowa will lose 19 seniors, including at least 16 on scholarship. There could be more departures, for a variety of reasons, but right now Iowa’s scholarship number is 19 for 2013.
So, Iowa could oversign by three players as long as it documents how it can fall below the 85-man scholarship limit. It has to do that before camp opens in August.
So, 19, give or take.
Here’s HawkeyeReport.com publisher Tom Kakert with a recruiting update:
With only a few spots left to fill in the Class of 2013, Kirk Ferentz and his staff have to be selective in which recruits they pursue and offer.
Last week during his end of the season press conference, Ferentz confirmed once again that there were only three or four spots left in this recruiting class. When pressed about which positions were the biggest need, Ferentz didn’t duck the question.
“I think just looking at some defensive needs right now. We have three senior linebackers, but we’re thin and we’ve been depleted there medically. So that is certainly a concern. Then on the offensive side, guys that could score touchdowns would be a good thing. We’ve got a couple, so if we could get some more, that would be great,” he said.
Basically, Ferentz said they were looking to add one or two linebackers and one or two playmakers on the offensive side of the ball.
The Hawkeyes have a commit from John Kenney, a three star linebacker prospect from Indiana. Kenney was feeling some pressure from other prospects in Indiana to flip to the Hoosiers, but he resisted that temptation and will graduating early and enrolling at Iowa in January. Iowa also has a verbal commitment from Des Moines Lincoln prep Trevon Young, who is currently listed as a linebacker. But, at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, the three star prospect could end up growing into a defensive end.
The Hawkeyes are currently making a strong push for a couple of linebacker prospects. Reggie Spearman, a three star prospect from Chicago currently committed to Illinois, visited Iowa City in early November and is still weighing his options. The Hawkeyes also recently extended a scholarship offer to Jake Roh, a 6-foot-3 and 200 pound linebacker prospect from Arizona. Iowa linebacker coach LeVar Woods visited Roh last week to extend the scholarship offer and he will visit Iowa this week (Thursday-Saturday) before also visiting Boise State. Roh’s older brother, Craig, played at Michigan. Could that help the Hawkeyes?
“My brother, just from playing there against them, says Iowa would be a great place to play,” Jake Roh said. “He says it’s a real college town with a lot of tradition.”
One final name to watch is Levonte Robinson, who made an official visit this past weekend. The 5-foot-11 and 215 pound linebacker is a high school teammate of current Iowa commit Solomon Warfield, who also made his official visit this past weekend. Iowa recently picked up their interest in Robinson, who currently holds offers Eastern Michigan and Toledo, but the Hawkeyes have not offered. Iowa told him this weekend that they hope he will stay patient with them as they wait to hear from other prospects who have offers.
The other need area is obviously at the skill positions and the Hawkeyes are still making a push to land either a running back or wide receiver. Currently, Ferentz does not have a commitment from a running back in the Class of 2013. They recently pulled a scholarship offer to three star athlete Berkley Edwards, who committed to Minnesota last week. It should be noted that Iowa will be putting Mark Weisman on scholarship in January as a running back. The Hawkeyes did offer Boston College commit LeShun Daniels last week. The Eagles recently fired their head coach and the Ohio native is thinking about making an official visit to Iowa, but says he remains committed to Boston College.
At the receiver position, Iowa has three commitments from Rock Island prep Derek Willies, and St. Louis area natives Derrick Mitchell Jr. and Andre Harris. One name to watch could be three star receiver Brian Lemelle from Pennsylvania, who is still considering an official visit to Iowa and perhaps Dan Monteroso, who is a verbal commit to Boston College. The Ohio native chose the Eagles over the Hawkeyes in the summer.
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Looking for playmakers huh? I would wish them luck but anyone recruited this year will not play for, on average, at least two to three years in the strict seniority system Iowa uses and thus be of no use. Anyone whose been in the program one or more years ahead of you at your position will apparently play no matter how much better player you’ve worked and built yourself into. With very dubious to no merit recognition and following this year’s fiasco season recruiting is likely to be a fools errand anyway. Many of these kids know a sinking ship when they see it and will always be drawn to a program that plays to win. Winning is always more fun… remember?
As ususal, I sincerely hope I’m proven wrong with all this, but a person’s gotta be a realist.
Uhhh… Did you not notice all the freshmen and sophomores that were playing this year? One of the team’s huge problems was all the attrition in past recruiting classes forcing us to play underclassmen who weren’t ready.
I think your complaint is that the underclassmen YOU wanted to see play did not. But plenty of this year’s recruits will get a chance to play soon.
John H:
You’re correct about this year and even last season – there were a lot (record amount?) of true and redshirt freshmen playing for Ferentz. However, Paul’s also correct: traditionally under KF, seniority is king when it comes to PT. The other issue is that when you constantly recruit 90%+ of your players as “developmental”, they’re not ready to make contributions at this level for at least 2-3 years. That’s why, even though there were tons of youngster on the field this year, there still weren’t a lot of plays being made.
Iowa needs playmakers. Period. If they want/need them to play immediately or as a redshirt frosh, they need to recruit less projects and put more effort into more highly-developed/college-ready athletes. That would be more difficult, yes, but not because of the “we’re just poor, cold, little Iowa” – their own self-created program mantra; it would be because of the fanatically low-risk, low-reward approach that Iowa employs on both sides of the ball.
Again we’re a BigTen school with deep pockets playing in the richest conference in America, who draw with the Nation’s best in attendance…..and we’re competing with Boston College and Toledo for recruits. Any word when these two are joining the conference.
Lon.. Here’s a clue for you….not every 4-5 star recruit pans out. Iowa’s pulled in 4-5 star recruits before…remember Dace Richardson? Ryan Bain? How’d those work out?
You also seem to forget that some of the greatest Hawkeyes that have played for Iowa..were either completely ignored by major college programs or were recruited by mid-major programs.
Dallas Clark was a walk-on. Chad Greenway played 8-man football in South Dakota and was only recruited by some Div II programs. Bob Sanders wasn’t even given the time of day by Div I programs until Iowa saw the ability he possessed.
Plus, those players possessed the two biggest things that Ferentz and the Iowa coaching staff values in prospective players–work ethic and desire.
A huge problem that you see out of a lot of the 4-5 star recruits these days..is an entitlement mentality. They think because they get all the recognition and spotlight shown on them that they “deserve” to be starting or getting tons of playing time.
Ferentz has the same philosophy that Hayden Fry did–getting to play on that field is something that is earned–not given. Kids who come to Iowa expecting to be playing because they’re player “X”–they’re in for a rude awakening.
That’s why Iowa has been so successful at finding talent that other schools ignore. They find those kids who have the drive and the desire to succeed.
Hi Todd:
The players you mention were all gone by the end of the 2005 season – one season after the greatest run in Iowa football history. Nothing that Ferentz has done since has come close to matching his success (1 1/2 seasons in 08-09 aren’t close). There’s lots of reasons why, but playing not-to-lose with highly similar schemes/philosophies, disappearance of meaningful special teams contributions, and repeated game management mistakes are the biggest ones. This “developmental” program thing gets old when 7-5/8-4 become “up” years.
Ah yes..the armchair coach comes out again. Mr. Miller…if you’re such a great coach..then by all means, please, send a resume to Gary Barta. I’m sure he’d love the entertainment.
To correct your completely and utterly incorrect statements. Iowa has continued to do the same thing with players who were overlooked by major programs to this day.
Brian Bulaga was considered at best a 3 star recruit and was thought to be undersized to be a B1G offensive tackle.
Ricky Stanzi, another 3 star recruit, only had offers on the table from Miami of Ohio and Purdue.
Mike Daniels was 2 star recruit that only had offers from Iowa and Temple.
Pat Angerer was a 3 star recruit that only Northern Illinois and Iowa State, and Iowa recruited.
Marshall Yanda wasn’t even recruited by any D1 schools and went and played for two years at North Iowa Community College.
Ferentz knows how to develop players that other schools choose to ignore–and those players end up moving on to extremely successful NFL careers.
So..go have fun playing armchair coach, Mike. I hear Wisconsin is looking for a new coach. Maybe you’ve got a shot there.
Todd:
Again with the “if you’re so smart, why don’t you coach?” to begin your rebuttal? Hint: it wasn’t particularly relevant or effective the first time you used it, and hasn’t gotten any stronger each successive time you’ve used it.
The players you mentioned were terrific developmental projects – though Bulaga was much closer to a 4 than a 3. Regardless, they’re all on NFL rosters now. Yes, Iowa’s done a good job at times the past 8 years developing players into NFL talent. Yet for the most part of the last 8 seasons, that hasn’t translated into as many victories as all that NFL talent would indicate it SHOULD.
In today’s game and forever, Iowa will always need to develop lower-end guys into top-shelf players. HOWEVER, Iowa can no longer ignore the need for “sudden” guys – players who are playmakers and can “suddenly” change the momentum/outcome of one game in 1 or 2 plays. We haven’t had less than five guys like this on offense throughout KF’s tenure; the defensive side has included some playmakers = even some who made big contributions on special teams. However, when our mantra is to play everyone (regardless of ability) close, then Iowa REALLY REALLY suffers when game management issues rear their heads time after time. With our great teams, they could mostly be overcome; however, many of the teams the past 8 seasons were unable to do so.
So you can continue to accept the mostly mediocre/average showing that Ferentz has put on the field most of the last 8 seasons and continue to relive the glory players of the past (some long past – some are already RETIRED from the NFL!). = I have no problem with your decision. But when you come here and blast people for daring to criticize the head coach/program, you need to bring more facts to the table than just a few players who have excelled at Iowa. Remember the old saying: You are what your record says you are – and Iowa’s/KF’s record for much of the past 8 years ain’t pretty.
“more than five guys like this on offense”….
Todd:
You’re right, a lot of those high-profile guys are just lazy prima donnas. Like Dace, he barely even played! I mean, sure, he did suffer multiple knee injuries as a freshman and sophomore so significant that going into the 2008 season it was announced by KF that Dace was quitting football and everyone was “just hopeful that he can get back to a place where he can have a high quality of life.” And, I guess if I’m forced to be generous, he did work his way all the way back from that to be a starter for the 2009 season until a nasty leg break in the MSU game ended his career (again). But other than that, he was a total loafer and just another highly-rated flameout like Moeaki, Bulaga, Clayborn, Ballard, Mike Jones and Albert Young.
Stories like those of Clark, Greenway and Sanders are nice. And that type of “developmental” player will always be necessary at Iowa due to our smaller recruiting base. But the reason the Clark/Greenway stories are so amazing is because they are so very rare. For every Clark/Greenway/Sanders/etc, there are 3-4 Justin Collinses (2005), Julian Smiths (2006), Zach Furlongs (2007), and Steve Burches (2002). Who are they you ask? The 2-star guys that never panned out, never made a contribution to Iowa football.
A key contributor to the lack of talent Iowa is fielding this year was the fact that the 2008 and 2009 recruiting classes were particularly heavy on the lowly/not rated “developmental” player. Less talent/ability to begin with, coupled with atrocious attrition from these two classes, is why Iowa had very little talent on the field this year from it’s junior and senior classes. Simply going for the lower-talent and hoping it pay off is not a viable strategy.