2017 IOWA FOOTBALL RECRUITING: RECAP, RANKINGS, & WHAT'S NEXT?

After a flurry of verbal commitments over the last few days, let's take a moment to catch our breath, take stock of this class, and see what might be next for Iowa. If you missed any of our commitment articles for the newest additions to Iowa's 2017 class, you can get caught up below:

DB Camron Harrell
WR Brandon Smith
WR Gavin Holmes
DB Matt Hankins

And if you want to catch up on Iowa's previous commits for 2017:

QB Peyton Mansell
RB Eno Benjamin
RB Ivory Kelly-Martin
TE Jacob Coons
OL Mark Kallenberger
OL Tristan Wirfs
DL A.J. Epenesa
DL Levi Duwa
DL Coy Kirkpatrick
DB Djimon Colbert

1) So where's this class rank, nationally?

Iowa's 2017 class is ranked 20th by Rivals, 16th per 247, and 23rd per Scout.  Good times! Can Iowa maintain that ranking as recruiting rolls on?  TBD.

2) Is there more black and gold treasure in that Texas-to-Iowa pipeline?

Maybe. Iowa added two Texas recruits yesterday (Gavin Holmes and Matt Hankins) and has landed three in a little over a week (including Peyton Mansell from last week) and those new commits were hinting yesterday that they were might be more coming.  After giving his verbal commitment yesterday afternoon, Hankins teased that Iowa could be adding more Texans.

And Eno fanned the flames as well:

Camron Buckley is a 4* recruit  from Cedar Hill, TX, with a big offer list (Auburn, Houston, Miami, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, TCU, and Texas, among others). He'd be a very good get and another bright gem in this recruiting class.

3) How many spots are left in the 2017 class?

Iowa has 14 commits for 2017 right now.  2016 in-state prospect Noah Clayberg accepted a grayshirt offer last year, meaning that Iowa really has 15 players coming in 2017 at the moment. Overall, 84 of the 85 available scholarships for that season are presently accounted for.  That said, that doesn't mean that Iowa is only going to take one more player in their 2017 class.  As we've seen over the last several months (and over the last decade-plus), attrition is simply a fact of life at Iowa (and all college football programs) -- guys depart for more playing time or for academic issues or legal concerns or (occasionally) for career-ending injuries.  So Iowa is going to have more than a 15-person class in 2017 -- something around 18-20 seems more likely.  That's still on the smaller end for Iowa of late, but it does mean that there are probably around 4-5 more spots in this year's class.

4) So what positions is Iowa still looking to fill in the 2017 class?

Iowa doesn't appear to be targeting any players at QB, RB, or TE. They've landed players at those positions already and are focusing their efforts on other positions now.

WR: Iowa went from zero wide receivers in their 2017 class to two receivers in the span of 24 hours, but they're still looking to add more at that position -- probably 1-2 more players. The aforementioned Buckley is a top target there, as is local kid Oliver Martin (Iowa City West), a 3* recruit who just received an Iowa offer last week and has offers from several other Big 10 schools (Wisconsin, Michigan State, Minnesota, Indiana).

OL: Iowa has two offensive linemen in the fold already, in-state prospects Mark Kallenberger and Tristan Wirfs. They added at least seven offensive linemen in the last two recruiting classes, so they're probably not looking to add too many more this year. If the right prospect came along, though, they'd likely snap him up.

DL: Iowa has three defensive linemen in this year's class -- in-state prospects Coy Kirkpatrick and Levi Duwa and mega-prospect A.J. Epenesa -- but they're still looking for more help along the defensive line and will probably end up with at least one, and maybe two, more players there.  The big target is JUCO DE Andrew Van Ginkel at Iowa Western Community College; he has 12 Power 5 offers (including Wisconsin, West Virginia, Nebraska, Minnesota, Cal, Louisville, and Kansas State).

LB: At present Iowa has no linebackers in their 2017 class but there isn't a burning need for linebackers right now, either. None of Iowa's projected starters this year at linebacker are seniors and they added several LB prospects in last year's recruiting class.  They probably won't go an entire class without ANY linebacker prospects, but there likely isn't room for more than one linebacker in the class.

DB: Iowa has three defensive backs in the fold already for 2017 (recent commits Matt Hankins and Camron Harrell, as well as Djimon Colbert from a few months ago), but they're likely to add 1-2 more players in the defensive backfield, too. One intriguing possibility is current Texas commit Kobe Boyce, a 3* CB prospect from Corinth, TX. He's expressed some Iowa interest lately and could be another part of the Texas-to-Iowa pipeline.

Busy times in Caring is Creepy-land, to be sure.