At least one positive thing came out of Saturday's debacle: Iowa landed the commitment of cornerback recruit Jalen Embry. The 5'11, 180-lb. defensive back out of Detroit's Martin Luther King High picked the Hawkeyes over offers from Wisconsin, Cincinnati, and a handful of MAC schools; Michigan, Michigan State, and West Virginia are actively recruiting him but have not yet offered a scholarship, and Ohio State showed enough interest to earn an unofficial visit late last year. He has earned a consensus three-star rating. Embry is the 15th commitment in Iowa's 2014 class.
Embry is also the fifth defensive back in this year's class, another larger-than-average group for the Hawkeyes. Iowa brought in four defensive backs in each of the last two seasons, as well. Given that Iowa is losing just two senior defensive backs to graduation (B.J. Lowery and Tanner Miller) and two more graduating at the end of 2014 (Law and Lowdermilk), it's safe to say that the coaches aren't particularly excited about their current options in the secondary. After watching Saturday's performance, it's not hard to see why.
Embry's commitment came as a bit of a surprise, and there are a couple of causes for concern here. For one, this weekend's visit to Iowa was Embry's first official visit to any school, and there's no word on whether he intends to make any other visits. There are also some big names, particularly Michigan and Ohio State, who could jump in late and change the calculus; as we saw with Delano Hill last year, the Wolverines are not above that and certainly have pull for a recruit from Detroit.