Remember when Iowa football didn't have any verbal commitments yet for its 2013 class? Oh, those long dark days of... ten days ago. On the heels of their open practice yesterday, Iowa landed a verbal from Delano Hill, a defensive back prospect out of Michigan. I guess Mr. Hill liked seeing Nico Law do his thing.
Hill is a consensus 3* prospect who chose Iowa over offers from Illinois and Syracuse (as well as alleged interest from Michigan, Michigan State, and Wisconsin, depending on the recruiting service). Rivals and Scout both list him as a safety, while 247 just lists him as an Athlete. (ESPN hasn't gotten around to assessing him yet.) He has pretty typical size for a safety (6-1, 190) and a listed 40 time of 4.59 and his highlights certainly look very safety-ish. He does a nice job in run support (he even wraps up on his tackles, a welcome sight indeed) and displays some nice ball skills in his deflections and interceptions.
Hill also represents the latest addition from Iowa's burgeoning pipeline at Cass Tech in Detroit. A year ago, Iowa pulled Laron Taylor and Ruben Lile out of Cass Tech (Taylor, in fact, tweeted news of Hill's commitment yesterday) and this year they added Hill. Cass Tech produces a lot of good football players, so continuing to develop a good relationship there is good news. Hill is the first defensive back recruit of this class, but DB is an area Iowa has hit hard in recent classes -- 9 total cornerbacks or safeties in the last two classes (although guys like Lile or Reese Fleming may find themselves at wide receiver when they get on campus). Still, the two-deeps at DB are heavy on upperclassmen (Nico Law and Jordan Lomax are the only players listed there who are sophomores or younger). By the time Hill arrives on campus, Law will be a junior and Tanner Miller will be a senior; it's not like Hill's potential path to the starting lineup looks too blocked (although it might be nice to redshirt him in 2013, if possible).