A Look at Iowa's 2008 Recruiting

[The Man]

Iowa Hawkeyes

This isn't 2005 anymore...... The Iowa Hawkeyes had their best recruiting year (* wise at least) in history in 2005 when they pulled 5* kids Doering, Richardson, and Moeaki out of Illinois and added in seven other 4*'s for good measure. Many Iowa fans believed that recruiting haul was the beginning of something big for coach Kirk Ferentz in Iowa City. Well, things have changed since then. Illinois coach Ron Zook and Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis have taken back Illinois and in essence a fertile portion of Iowa's recruiting hotbed. The 2006 and 2007 classes were pretty average and 2008 is is starting the same way.

Iowa's first commit this year was DE Riley Reiff (Scout 3*, #41 DE) from Parkston, SD. He is a three time state wrestling champ with only one career defeat. He should help add some depth at DL which has been a tough position of late for Iowa to pull in blue-chip kids, with DT especially being a problem. The next player to pull the trigger for Iowa was a 2* center with a familiar last name. OL James Ferentz committed to Iowa and his father toward the end of April. James, a center prospect from Iowa City, was on the watch list for the AA game earlier this year so this kid can play. He is a bit undersized at 6'2" 250 but has the frame to add some weight. June 20th Iowa added their biggest verbal to date for 2008 when RB Jason Ford from Belleville, IL (Scout 4*, 28th RB) pledged to the Hawks. He chose Iowa over Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas St., and Kansas to name a few. Ford has good size at 5'10" 215 with reported 40 times in the 4.4 range. The depth issues after this year at RB could lead to Ford playing early on.

June 20th rolled around and Iowa picked up commits from three CB's on the same day. DeMarco Paine, Jack Swanson, and Shaun Prater. Paine, from St. Louis, MO, is a 3* while the others are rated 2*'s by Scout. Swanson is from Naples, FL and Prater is from Omaha, NE. The latest commit for Ferentz was a PK by the name of Trent Mossbrucker from Mooresville, IN. He plays multiple positions for his high school but plans on being a PK at the next level. He had a 49-yard FG last year and is 19-27 for his career on FG chances.

Iowa has offers out to most of the top midwestern prospects, but unfortunately none seem to list Iowa a their leader or a serious contender. DL Willie Mobley seems to be their best chance right now at landing a highly recruited prospect. As mentioned earlier Iowa is in need of yound DT's, but so far of the four that have an Iowa offer, 3 are already headed elsewhere (Garrett Goebel, Mike Martin, and Sean Cwynar) and Mobley seems a long shot. Some other highly rated kids with an Iowa offer and legit interest include RB Carlton Thomas from FL, LB J.B. Fitzgerald from NJ, WR Brandon Green from IL, and WR/CB DJ Woods from OH.

Coach Kirk Ferentz is known for getting the most out of his kids and he needs to. Iowa City is a tough place to get kids to come play, yet to his credit he has commitments from 7 kids from 7 different states. OL/DL recruiting seems to be a pressing need in '08 since they have brought in some skill player the last few years, yet there are very few offers out from the Iowa staff at these positions. The lack of offers has Iowa fans scrathing their heads. That said it appears to be an average year for Iowa recruiting so far and unless they get some very nice surprises they will probably finish the year with a class ranked around the middle of the Big 10.