Crootin’: Iowa Football Recruit Performance Recap, Week 9

Well, Saturday didn’t look great on the field in Kinnick. The Iowa offense got back to it’s old self and looked almost entirely inept for most of the day. Luckily for Hawkeye fans, one of the biggest positions of weakness (WR) continued to look like a major strength in this year’s recruiting class.

Gavin Holmes and the Northwest HS (Justin) Texans took down Chisholm Trail 57-14 en route to an 8-0 start to their season Friday night. It was a relatively quiet night by Holmes’ standards as he was held to just 3 catches. But with those three catches he rattled off 85 yards and a pair of TDs. Oh, and he also had a 95 yard kickoff return for a TD. Had the Texans not been up 50-14 (and all 3 of Holme’s TDs accounted for) by halftime, those numbers would have been even better. On the season, that takes him to 58 catches for 1,168 yards and 13 TDs. Take a look at the season highlights to date.

In Mississippi, Brandon Smith had the unquestioned performance of the week. The 6’3” 205 pound WR gained more yardage the the Iowa Hawkeyes did on Saturday and he scored more touchdowns than the Hawkeyes and Badgers combined. Well all was said nad done, Smith finished with 8 catches for 290 yards and 5 TDs. Two hundred and ninety yards. Five TDs. TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY YARDS AND FIVE TOUCHDOWNS. IN ONE GAME. Yeah, Lake Cormorant won 43-21 over Center Hill. On the season, Smith now has 53 catches for 1,216 yards and 15 TDs. Seriously, can these guys just graduate early and get on campus now?

Back in Texas, QB commit Peyton Mansell had a relatively quiet night. Mostly because he only played half a game. He finished 9-12 for 137 yards and 3 TDs as the Belton Tigers rolled to a 56-0 win of Shoemaker (wow, that sounds like some of my HS games - not in a good way). On the season, Mansell is now 136-192 (71% completion percentage) 1,686 yards and 22 TDs with only 4 INTs.

Apparently teams have caught on to the fact that Beau Corrales is pretty good at football. Cedar Creek gave him plenty of attention Friday night (much like we saw last week). Corrales was actually held without a catch. That opened things up for a couple of his teammates, Caden Leggett (who looks like a Corrales clone on film BTW) and Nic Crombie, who combined for 7 catches, 153 yards and 3 TDs. Georgetown was also to get their running game going and rolled Cedar Creek 47-3.

RB commit Ivory Kelly-Martin did his part to help his Oswego East Wolves move to 8-1 and into the Illinois class 8A playoffs with a 46-6 win over Plainfield East on Friday. Kelly-Martin finished with 4 TDs. We will update you as we see more on his final stats from Friday night.

Things didn’t go quite as well for Eno Benjamin and Wylie East. West Mesquite spoiled homecoming and apparently brought some defense in a 7-0 loss for Wylie East. Benjamin finished with 20 carries for 65 yards and no TDs. On the season, Eno is up to 1,435 yards and 17 TDs on 207 carries (6.9 yards per carry). I guess the loss and tough outing really got into Eno’s head as he took to Twitter last night to inform the world he is no longer committed to the University of Iowa. Oh, well maybe we will look into that at some point? Yay for the future!