Crootin’: Iowa Football Recruit Performance Recap, Week 8

Things got started in Hawkeye commit-land with a stellar performance by WR commit Gavin Holmes. Holmes hauled in 7 grabs for 152 yards on Thursday night as his Justin Northwest squad took down Fort Worth Boswell. That brings his season totals to 1,083 yards on 55 catches with 11 TDs. The Texans are now 7-0.

Peyton Mansell had himself a hell of a night Friday. He finished 25-33 with 339 passing yards and 4 passing TDs. He added 130 yards and a TD on the ground as his Belton Tigers fell to Midway 49-42 in OT. On the season, Mansell is up to 1,549 passing yards and 19 TDs with 4 interceptions on 127-180 passing. He’s added 641 rushing yards and 9 TDs on 93 carries.

Mansell’s ability to run and throw is looking fantastic. While it’s assumed that Nate Stanley is the heir-apparent to CJ Beathard following this season, I think Mansell could have something to say about that. If nothing else, he can provide some excellent competition and perhaps redshirt to become the heir to Stanley as a RS Junior in 2020. Only a couple more to go before we get to the end of KF’s contract.

Things didn’t look quite as good for Mansell’s two other pass-catching options on Friday. Opposing defenses perhaps have noticed that Beau Corrales and Brandon Smith are pretty good and are starting to give them a little more attention. Corrales and the Georgetown Eagles fell to Cedar Park on Friday 41-20. That’s the second consecutive loss for Georgetown, which started the year 6-0. This one came at the hands of the defending class 5A state champions, who have rattled off 23 straight wins.

Cedar Park bottled up Corrales quite well, holding him to only 1 grab for 19 yards. Note that Beau did leave this one during the second quarter with a shoulder injury. We will keep you updated if we learn anything more about the severity of the injury. On the year, Beau has 70 catches for 909 yards and 12 TDs.

Brandon Smith was also held in check as his Lake Cormorant squad fell to West Point 39-17. Smith was limited to just one catch as well for 41 yards. That takes his season total to 45 catches for 926 yards and 10 TDs.

Eno Benjamin is going to Eno Benjamin on just about everybody. Friday was no different. He finished the night with 238 yards and three touchdowns in a 35-21 victory for Wylie East. Let me say that again. TWO HUNDRED THIRTY EIGHT YARDS. That takes him to 1,370 yards and 17 TDs on 187 carries on the year. The kid is a flat out stud. Which is why Iowa fans everywhere have spent the last week or so freaking out about his every tweet. Since this is a performance recap, I won’t kill you with the details here, but we will be putting out a recruiting update later this week.

Finally, fellow RB commit Ivory Kelly-Martin continued to do his thing Friday. Kelly-Martin finished with 26 carries for 130 yards and a pair of TDs in a 60-28 win over Minooka. On the season, Ivory now has 1,046 rushing yards and 17 TDs on 144 carries. For those of you counting at home, that makes 2,416 yards and 34 TDs on 331 carries for the pair of RBs (7.3 YPC). This recruiting class looks pretty damn good.