Unless this a class loaded with diamonds in the rough, at least. Thank God for the very good in-state talent. The main problem is that we’re not getting much love from out-of-state recruits. Iowa obviously doesn’t produce enough elite talent to fill out an entire recruiting class w/o going outside the borders. As for why we’re getting no love from the out-of-state kids… I think it’s the culmination of a few factors.

— We were pretty unimpressive on the field in the 2-3 years (depending on your feelings re: 2005) before this one.
— We’ve had a lot of bad publicity off the field. Recruiting relationships begin before this fall and the image of Iowa football prior to this fall wasn’t too hot.
— The summer flood knocked out the football camp they always hold to evaluate prospects and develop relationships.

Hopefully the success of this year will pay dividends with recruits next year and in the future. And there are apparently a few recruits still being pursued that would be pretty nice gets and make this class look a bit better. That said, I do think the staff probably needs to tweak their approach a little bit — seems like we offer later than other teams a lot of the time and I hate the fact that the coaches prefer to bring recruits in for campus visits after the season rather than on game weekends. I know it’s maybe more of a nuisance to have them around then, but the Kinnick Stadium gameday atmosphere is by far one of our best selling points and it’s a shame it doesn’t get utilized more. And, hell, it’s a lot nicer to visit Iowa City in October than December.

Nothing more. But with basketball sucking and football being over, it’s about all that is left. Maybe I’ll try to get into wrestling since we look to be on our way to another National Championship.

Leroy Smith is his uncle. :)

To compare schools on their individual recruiting class rankings is a meaningless endeavor and one that should not cause any concern. This is particularly true with the bread and butter of Iowa’s program, the two and three star athletes. Once you get outside the “elite” players, most of these kids get only a minimal amount of actual evaluation, if any. At that point the kids are valued based on (a) physical stats (height, weight, 40 time, etc) and (b) game stats. In forming the ranks on these “non-studs,” they don’t watch these kids play a full game or practice, not mention talk to their coaches or find out about a kid’s potential to put an weight and change positions. Want a sampling of two stars over the past couple of years: Hampton (183rd running back accordin to ESPN) Fletcher, Godfrey, Elgin (as a linebacker), Spievey 2 stars. And lest we forget a certain Doak walker winner, that’s right Green got 2 stars. Pretty much nailed those assessments didn’t they. Would it be great if the ranks were filled with 4 and 5 stars prospects, of course. But guess what, that is not going to happen. Ever. So, sit back, trust that Ferentz and his staff know what they are doing with talent assessment, smoke ’em if you got em and patiently wait the 234 days till kick off.

Who needs Google? Now, name the the four QBs that started at Notre Dame and in the Super Bowl?

If you get that one, then name the only two MLB players in history to ever get 100 hits from BOTH sides of the plate in the same season (as in switch hitters).

Lamonica?

Ok, I cheated on that last one.

I realize I am going to make a kind of deduction here based on some slanted logic, but go along with me for a minute here.

In a way in college sports of today, the 3 stars are as good and even arguably better for creating a team than the 5 star guys. I know this has been debated before by some actual “experts” but I can’t remember where I saw it, and am too lazy to provide any stats to back it up on my own so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Basically the argument is that with the 3 and 4 star guys, they buy into the team element more, are more coachable, and work harder. Not only that, but they will be around for 5 years most of the time (including the Red Shirt) so they really learn the system well and are more familiar with each other. In college sports, everyone knows experience is very valuable.

The way I am looking at it is:
sure, we “only have some yellow chippers”, but we have some exciting guys coming in with some huge potential. Every 5 minutes on ESPN, the “more prestigious” programs are losing all their 5 star players to the NFL. For every new 5 star recruit many of those programs land, it is just to replace the former 5 star guy that left early and would have had more experience and been better…thus evening it out and making them equivilent to us anyway… in my book.

So USC had Dirty Sanchez at QB for a few years…whoopty doo? 5 Star Guy. Now all of a sudden they have to start an inexperienced QB against us in the 2010 Rose Bowl because Mr. 5 Star left them hangin. Balances it out a bit right?

I would rather face the new 5 star recruits instead of the old PJ Hill or Beanie Wells, Etc. So I am glad that happens here way less often (broke my heart Shonn)…they can have those guys. We have proven we can compete with our guys and system, and I think very good years are ahead.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t like the entire All-American team to commit to Iowa, I am just saying there are other ways to win, so I am not worried. 3 star recuits with some 4 star guys sprinkled in, hard work and exectution is the Iowa way.

I think that NorseHawk is correctomundo. We offer our share of 5 star and 4 star kids scholarships. They just don’t come. I kind of get it in a way. We are not in a great location for families from the football hotbeds to see their boy play (unless they are from the midwest-ish). You have to take a puddle jumper from Chicago just to get to CR and it racks up the cost and seems small time.

We also don’t play enough non-conference games in the areas where we would like to attract some recruits…like SoCal, Florida, Texas, and NJ. If we played non-conference games in SoCal, Florida or Texas (instead of Arizona!) we could get some publicity with these recruits.

I think the product we put on the field is fine. We prepare every position with the exception of maybe wide outs for the pros as well as anyone. Our head coach is a good guy, our campus is beautiful 2/5ths of the year and reasonably attractive another 1/5th (fugly as hell the other 2/5ths).

Football is a big deal in the state and great players become legends. We play in good bowl games, often even better than we deserve. The academics are first rate but not impossibly demanding. There are more than a few good burger joints near campus, although the tang is average.

I don’t know…it is what it is I guess. Although, how did Nebraska get all those studs for years? We have a better package than that shithole.