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While things didn’t end quite they way we had all hoped on Saturday evening, it was still a major recruiting weekend for the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Kirk Ferentz and staff, in addition to taking on a top-20 opponent at home under the lights, played host to more than 60 unofficial visitors spanning the classes of 2019, 2020 and 2021. As incredible as that sounds, the biggest piece of recruiting news from the weekend comes not from one of those visitors, but from a visitor of a few weeks ago.
Illinois tight end Josiah Miamen visited Iowa City for the Hawkeyes’ matchup with Iowa State. He left impressed, but without committing. He then spent the following weekend in Madison, where he saw the Wisconsin Badgers lose at home to BYU. He left again without a commitment.
A week later, with the Badgers playing spoiler to the Hawkeyes on Saturday night and all the focus on this week’s visitors, Miamen took the spotlight back and delivered some great news to Iowa fans as he announced his commitment to the Hawkeyes on Sunday night.
I’d like to thank all the coaches that believed in me as a person as well as a player and recruited me throughout this whole process, with that being said I’m now excited to announce that I will be committing to the University of Iowa #SWARM pic.twitter.com/siKMOvgJyH
— Josiah Miamen (@josiahm24) September 24, 2018
Josiah Miamen is a 6’4”, 225 pound tight end from Dunlap, Illinois. He’s rated as a 3-star by the major recruiting services, but I’m not sure that does him justice. He’s got a prototypical frame for a tight end, but what immediately jumps off the screen when you turn on his film is the plus athleticism.
Miamen looks a lot like a young Noah Fant, though he’s built slightly better than Fant was coming out of high school at 6’5” and only 210 pounds. Like Fant, Miamen has the speed and agility to run by linebackers and safeties and the size to dominate smaller defensive backs.
His highlights, as you would expect, focus on his tremendous ability to catch and run with the ball, but he’s also a capable blocker at the high school level. What’s also immediately evident from his film is that he’s not at all shy about contact. His defensive highlights are nearly as impressive as his offensive ones, though I can’t imagine a scenario where the Hawkeyes would want/need to move him to the other side of the ball.
He’s spent three seasons playing varsity for Dunlap high school (just outside Peoria), but only began playing defense for them as an upperclassman. As an edge rusher, he has a great first step and gets to the QB with regularity. But his best stuff on film is on the offensive side of the ball, where he prefers to play. Dunlap often splits him out wide and he consistently goes up and high points the ball over the top of a would-be defender.
Miamen held 17 offers in total, including most of the Big Ten. Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Wisconsin and several of the Ivy League schools were among those to offer, but it ultimately came down to Iowa and Wisconsin. The Badgers may have won on the field Saturday night, but the Hawkeyes were victorious in this recruiting battle.
With the addition of Miamen, the Iowa recruiting class of 2019 now stands at 15 total commitments. Miamen joins fellow Illinois native Logan Lee as the second tight end commit in the class. While this group has been expected to be small, it’s still possible they take as many as 5 or even 6 more commitments in this class if the right guys want to join the group. Miamen certainly qualifies.
Welcome aboard Josiah Miamen!