Official 2014 Recruiting thread

[HFCS]

Matt Nelson just commited to Iowa over Stanford and Notre Dame (and us, I suppose per the offer) per rivals. He was just on a visit out to Stanford too per Rivals. Damn surprised he picked Iowa. If Stanford comes knocking, how do you turn that down?

If I were a top college football recruit the four California Pac 12 schools would probably be at the top of the list out of everybody unless one of them was horrendously down. They're all great schools, USC/UCLA has the women and the weather, Stanford/Cal is just an awesome area to be in college and top 10 world universities.

 

[PhiCy]

Matt Nelson just commited to Iowa over Stanford and Notre Dame (and us, I suppose per the offer) per rivals. He was just on a visit out to Stanford too per Rivals. Damn surprised he picked Iowa. If Stanford comes knocking, how do you turn that down?

The same way Lazard did.

 

[dfwcy]

The same way Lazard did.

Yep, and both kids had a similar offer list. Interesting

 

[ameslurker]

If I were a top college football recruit the four California Pac 12 schools would probably be at the top of the list out of everybody unless one of them was horrendously down. They're all great schools, USC/UCLA has the women and the weather, Stanford/Cal is just an awesome area to be in college and top 10 world universities.

I don't know why buy UCLA never appealed to me and I have a blinding hatred for USC, but Stanford would be pretty tough to turn down.

 

[djcubby]

I don't know why buy UCLA never appealed to me and I have a blinding hatred for USC, but Stanford would be pretty tough to turn down.

Not to mention Lane Kiffin is the Scott Drew of college football. No one can under achieve with more talent like he can.

 

[State43]

Good pickup for Iowa again. Goes to show ISU still has a long ways to go when landing instate talent. But then again, ISU is far better at recruiting Florida and Texas than Iowa.

 

[ameslurker]

Not to mention Lane Kiffin is the Scott Drew of college football. No one can under achieve with more talent like he can.

Wow, I even forgot about Kiffin. He and USC deserve each other.

 

[RunDMCyclone]

If I were a top college football recruit the four California Pac 12 schools would probably be at the top of the list out of everybody unless one of them was horrendously down. They're all great schools, USC/UCLA has the women and the weather, Stanford/Cal is just an awesome area to be in college and top 10 world universities.

Some people prefer to stay closer to home even if it is less glamorous!

 

[bigsag]

Some people prefer to stay closer to home even if it is less glamorous!

That's why Gaelin Elmore decided to play at Minnesota. It was close by so that his family could watch him play college football. Happens frequently................

 

[Nuts4Cy]

Good pickup for Iowa again. Goes to show ISU still has a long ways to go when landing instate talent. But then again, ISU is far better at recruiting Florida and Texas than Iowa.

And Iowa recruits better in the state of Iowa (this coming year 2014), Illinois and New Jersey than Iowa State. You're point? They are tearings us a new one in state this year. At least we got the top recruit from the state, but losing on 5/6 of the top 6 in-state recruits isn't good.

 

[CyTwins]

And Iowa recruits better in the state of Iowa (this coming year 2014), Illinois and New Jersey than Iowa State. You're point? They are tearings us a new one in state this year. At least we got the top recruit from the state, but losing on 5/6 of the top 6 in-state recruits isn't good.

It's not new they hammer home in state recruits...last year's recruiting classes were ranked near each other overall.

 

[djcubby]

And Iowa recruits better in the state of Iowa (this coming year 2014), Illinois and New Jersey than Iowa State. You're point? They are tearings us a new one in state this year. At least we got the top recruit from the state, but losing on 5/6 of the top 6 in-state recruits isn't good.

Don't we have this same conversation every year? Not saying it's not important, but winning the recruiting battle in the the state of Iowa is not going to make or break a recruiting class. Sure, I'd enjoy having kids like Pierschbacher and Scheel play for the good guys, but like Rhoads has said, and people have quoted ad nauseum, it's not the kids you miss on that hurt you the most. It's the kids you get and don't pan out that hurt you. (Bevins for ISU, Wheger for Iowa are great examples)

 

[Aclone]

And Iowa recruits better in the state of Iowa (this coming year 2014), Illinois and New Jersey than Iowa State. You're point? They are tearings us a new one in state this year. At least we got the top recruit from the state, but losing on 5/6 of the top 6 in-state recruits isn't good.

"Tearing us a new one"? There were three good recruits instate this year. Two of them were in Iowa's traditional recruiting sweet spots. We got one of the three. I'm not complaining.

 

[PabloDiablo]

Some people prefer to stay closer to home even if it is less glamorous!

Iowa has a pretty good track record with tight ends, too. Stanford has had a lot of recent success with putting TE's in the league but you can't argue with guys like Clark, Moeaki and hell even Chandler getting PT on NFL rosters

 

[Stewo]

Iowa has a pretty good track record with tight ends, too. Stanford has had a lot of recent success with putting TE's in the league but you can't argue with guys like Clark, Moeaki and hell even Chandler getting PT on NFL rosters

Nelson is going to be a DE at iowa.

 

[TigerCyJM]

Iowa is just taking advantage of a crazy amount of talent in hawkeye country. 4 guys in eastern iowa, all hawks. However we are 1/2 in central iowa.

 

[rholtgraves]

This year is a really good year for instate talent.
The top four are all really good.

 

[Aclone]

This year is a really good year for instate talent.
The top four are all really good.

"Four"? If you're considering Nelson one of the top four, his best asset that has Stanford and ND interested is his grades, not sheer athleticism...

 

[isu81]

"Four"? If you're considering Nelson one of the top four, his best asset that has Stanford and ND interested is his grades, not sheer athleticism...

Gotta disagree on this one. Nelson has offers from Notre Dame, Stanford, Nebraska, Arkansas, Wisconsin. That's a pretty good list. And while Render may or may not turn out to be a great one, we offered, so it's not like we didn't want him.

 

[UncleCy]

And Iowa recruits better in the state of Iowa (this coming year 2014), Illinois and New Jersey than Iowa State. You're point? They are tearings us a new one in state this year. At least we got the top recruit from the state, but losing on 5/6 of the top 6 in-state recruits isn't good.

You always want to win the battle for local talent, but I will gladly trade IL and NJ recruits for those from FL, TX, and CA. In 2013, the top 3 states for D1 recruits were TX (368), FL (350), and CA (349). IL was 8[SUP]th[/SUP] with 82, NJ was 11[SUP]th[/SUP] with 63, and IA was tied for 33[SUP]rd[/SUP] with 13 (Football Signing Day - MaxPreps).

Another interesting stat is the ratio of high school football players to D1 signees. This reference is a couple years old (RivalsHigh - Talent pool: Where the DI signees come from), but in 2011 FL was tops with a ratio of 111 (to 1). The ratio in CA was 412 and in TX it was 454. The 3 states where UI is hammering us? NJ had a ratio of 575, IL's was 679 and IA's was 2161. I don’t have data to support this assertion, but if you look at big-school football in FL, the ratio is A LOT more favorable than 111. I saw Coach Mess at a spring game in FL this year and there were at least 5 kids with ISU offers playing in the game. Since the talent density is 6 times higher in FL than in IL your recruiting dollar (and time) go a lot further. I recognize that there is a lot of competition for those kids, but if you can get them on campus for a visit the program sells itself.

It looks to me like CPR is fishing in better waters than Ferentz. I think we should keep fighting for the in-state kids, but with the exception of a few select recruits the Hawks can have NJ and IL.