Crootin’: Iowa Football Recruit Performance Recap, Week 6

I’m going to just act like Saturday didn’t happen. Yeah, I think that’s best for everyone involved. Instead, I’m going to block out everything that occurs on Saturdays from here until next fall and focus instead on the future and Friday (and the occasional Thursday) nights.

Iowa’s class of 2017 got started on Thursday night as Peyton Mansell and the Belton Tigers put a thumpin’ on Killeen. Mansell finished 15-21 for 147 yards and a TD through the air with 54 yards on the ground and a TD on 9 carries. Belton won 56-9 and Mansell didn’t have to do much as his teammate, Garrison Vaughn, came away with 4 interceptions, including 2 for TDs. The Tigers were able to run all over Killeen and had plenty of short fields to work with.

Mansell will have plenty of weapons to work with when he makes it to Iowa City. Fellow Texans (I’d say pun intended but I don’t think it counts if nobody knows what the hell you’re talking about - Holmes plays for the Justin Northwest Texans) and WR commits Gavin Holmes and Beau Corrales are looking fantastic. Corrales finished Friday night with 10 grabs for 175 yards and 3 TDs. He also showed off some nice moves in the process.

Stars be damned, I’m excited to see this kid in Iowa City.

Not to be outdone, Holmes hauled in 9 grabs for 185 yards and a TD Friday night. The two are neck and neck on the year. Corrales has 58 grabs for 780 yards and 9 scores. That’s pretty damn good for Texas class 5A. Almost as good as Holmes’ 781 yards on 41 grabs and 7 TDs. Mansell has to be licking his chops. And that’s to say nothing of Mississippi 3-star WR Brandon Smith, who is easily forgotten among all the talent from Texas. Smith’s Lake Cormorant squad torched Lewisburg 55-6 Friday night. Smith finished with 7 grabs for 100 yards and a pair of TDs. That takes his season totals to 712 receiving yards on 37 catches with 8 TDs.

Things didn’t go quite as well for RB commit Ivory Kelly-Martin Friday night. Kelly-Martin and Oswego East took their first loss of the season to cross-town Oswego HS. Ivory did his part with 101 yards on 22 carries, but couldn’t find the end zone. He came within inches on a 37 yard run, but came up just short and Oswego’s D held strong. East lost 21-3 and Kelly-martin was shut out of the end zone for the first time all year.

Eno Benjamin and Wylie East had the week off, but that didn’t stop him from taking center stage. Things started heating up on Tuesday when Benjamin sent out the following tweet:

That was followed up Wednesday with this gem:

When I went out Thursday to get my bleach in prep for the weekend, everywhere in Iowa City seemed to be sold out. Eno has since put much of the speculation to rest, and I remain steadfast in my belief that the kid is one of the best recruits Iowa has had and probably the best recruiter as well.

In other news, AJ Epenesa is good at football.

I don’t typically update you on how things are going for Tristan Whirfs up in Mount Vernon and that’s because as much as Iowa has been built in the trenches people don’t tend to give a damn about blocking stats. Friday night Whirfs got himself into the endzone on a pick-six. I wish I had some video. That is a large human being rumblin’, stumblin’ into the endzone.

Off the gridiron, there was a bit of other news. Brandon Smith cancelled his planned visit to Vandy this weekend. Iowa played host to 4-star JUCO DE Andrew Van Ginkel on Saturday while current 4-star DB commit Chevin Calloway was in Lincoln. Iowa City West 4-star WR Oliver Martin managed to avoid the disaster in Iowa City Saturday and instead watched Michigan take down Wisconsin. Pass the bleach.