After a fairly long lull -- Iowa's last football commit for the 2015 recruiting class was Brady Reiff back in late April -- the Hawkeyes added another member to their '15 class, picking up in-state lineman Brett Waechter.
Proud to say I'm upping the 2015 #NWIAHawkeyes commit count to 4!! #EnterTheBlack #GoHawks #BigBoys @JacobNewborg58 @lpaulsen51 @lpaulsen51
— Brett Waechter (@Brett_Is_Hungry) June 12, 2014
Waechter, listed in the 6-5, 250 range (Rivals lists him at 265, 24/7 at 255, and Scout at 250), is another small-school recruit, coming to Iowa from Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn (all hail the hyphen!). Waechter's the ninth member of Iowa's 2015 recruiting class and the fourth recruit from northwest Iowa, joining the Paulsen twins from Woodbury Central and Jake Newborg from West Lyon. Coincidentally, all four players are also linemen; Iowa's offensive line could have a strong NW IA flavor in a few years.
Waechter is a curious recruit. Neither Rivals nor Scout nor 24/7 have given him a star rating yet. 24/7 lists Iowa as his only offer, while Rivals lists an Iowa offer as well as an offer from South Dakota. But they also list interest from the likes of Iowa State, Minnesota, and Nebraska. In fact, he camped with Nebraska a few days ago. Then he got an Iowa offer on Tuesday and committed on Wednesday. Give Waechter credit: he's certainly not indecisive.
On paper, Waechter looks like the sort of recruit Iowa may have been able to get later in the process, or as a grayshirt or possibly even as a walk-on. Then again, he did have reported interest from multiple other BCS schools and it's certainly plausible that he slipped through the cracks with the recruiting services -- it's possible that more offers (and recruiting stars) were coming soon.
Scout and 24/7 officially list Waechter as a defensive end, while Rivals lists him as an offensive tackle. Iowa does indeed appear to be looking at him as a potential tackle:
#Iowa wants to being new commitment Brett Waechter on as an offensive lineman, most likely a tackle. http://t.co/nBzNP9kupk
— Andrew Kulha (@AKonSports) June 12, 2014
Offensive tackle is one of the bigger areas of need for Iowa's 2015 recruiting class, so adding another body there is no surprise. Given his measurements and his small-school background, Waechter is likely a name to file away for a few years; he's going to need an incubation period with Chris Doyle and Brian and Kirk Ferentz before he's ready to contribute at Iowa. But despite his lack of offers or recruiting accolades, don't be surprised if Waechter is turning up on depth charts in a few years and pushing for playing time shortly after that. Ferentz has a pretty good track record with guys like Waechter -- lightly-recruited in-state offensive linemen -- so even if he's a bit light on typical recruiting bona fides, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and look forward to seeing what we can do for Iowa few years from now. Welcome aboard, Mr. Waechter.
Highlights via Hudl: