2013 Football Recruiting Thread

[douglasbader]

When you have 7 players in your current recruiting class (and soon to be 10 by next week) that can only list Illinois as their absolute best offer collectively, then you don't have a recruiting class worth a shit.

It could turn out to be good because some of the guys seem to be athletes and not just cracker ass Iowa kids, but this class is right in line with 2008-2009.

[L. Wade Childress]

Originally Posted by Gushawk

I think Wade just trolled me. Dammit.

just trying to keep your emotions in check, gus.

[douglasbader]

Iowa pretty much has one single player who was seriously pursued by top level schools. Solomon Warfield has some decent offers, but other than that everyone else had schools like Indiana, Arizona, Kentucky, West Virginia caliber of BCS offers.

[CUIHAWK]

Originally Posted by Gushawk

Is your enthusiasm for this class any less over the top than doug's critique of it? I think BBK is right that this class doesn't blow your hair back, though it might be solid. It also doesn't address key needs.

Talent?

[L. Wade Childress]

If you wouldn't take the bottom 1/3 of this class over the bottom 1/3 in 08 or 09 then don't l know what to tell you.

[StinkyMcFadden]

I've noticed that West Virginia either pursues a lot of the same kids we do or they offer every kid in America.

This class is pretty shitty as a whole.

I'm putting my emotional eggs in the Leshun Daniels basket. He will be Shonn Greene for 4 straight years and will never lift a couch. Law will live up to the hype. Morris was playing hurt all last year. Miller is academically ineligible. JVB was fixing games to pay for med school and changed 99% of the plays at the line of scrimmage. Alvis tore his other ACL in the N Illinois game but toughed it out. Carl Davis has osteoporosis and can no longer stand up straight.

I can't go into a season with no hope. 8-4.

[douglasbader]

Originally Posted by L. Wade Childress

If you wouldn't take the bottom 1/3 of this class over the bottom 1/3 in 08 or 09 then don't l know what to tell you.

You are saying this in complete hindsight. Of course I would take the bottom 1/3 of this class over the bottom 1/3 of 08/09, but anyone would because you already know the outcome of those other classes.

If you want to go by interest and offers, the 2008 class (haven't looked at the 2009 class yet) seemed to be much higher regarded according to their offer list that what they are bringing in this year.

[L. Wade Childress]

No, I am not using hindsight. We all looked at a bunch of white tweeners with no offers and knew they would suck.

[Whatever]

The 2009 class was horrible and then had a ridiculous attrition rate on top of it. This class is way better than 2009.

[douglasbader]

Sorry Stinky, that kid looks a lot closer to Brad Rogers than Shonn Greene.

Did you take a look at his offer list? Sure, he was committed to Boston College, but they are fucking awful right now (they make Iowa look like Ohio State) and his other 2 offers were from Bowling Green and Akron.

[Gushawk]

LeShun Daniels will not get carries in 13, IMO.

I'm most excited about Warfield. Specifically, the day he steps onto the field at safety in 2016.

[douglasbader]

Originally Posted by L. Wade Childress

No, I am not using hindsight. We all looked at a bunch of white tweeners with no offers and knew they would suck.

This was already disproved above as they had better offers by far than what the current comparable members of the 2013 class have. Also over half of those 2* players from 08 were black (7 out of 12) and one (Castillo) was a person of color and son of a NFL coach.

Get your fucking facts straight.

[douglasbader]

Originally Posted by Whatever

The 2009 class was horrible and then had a ridiculous attrition rate on top of it. This class is way better than 2009.

I haven't looked at the 2009 class, but this is again in hindsight. How do you know this years class won't be horrible and have ridiculous attrition?

They haven't even fucking signed yet. The only thing you can go off of at this point is their offer list, and it is clear that half of the current class has jack shit for interest from anyone that matters.

[Hawkeye_Pierce]

Originally Posted by douglasbader

You are saying this in complete hindsight. Of course I would take the bottom 1/3 of this class over the bottom 1/3 of 08/09, but anyone would because you already know the outcome of those other classes.

If you want to go by interest and offers, the 2008 class (haven't looked at the 2009 class yet) seemed to be much higher regarded according to their offer list that what they are bringing in this year.

2009 was god awful. Even taking into account that a 3-star in '13 is like a 2-star in '09, it's still one of the worst recruiting classes that I can remember and that includes the beginning of the KF era. Hyde was the only player that really exceeded expectations. The jury's still out on Cotton but Davis was average, at best. The national ranking of this putrid class was #63, just behind Kent State.

That said, the current national ranking of the '13 class isn't much better at #57. However, at least this class appears, on paper, to feature guys with higher ceilings than in '08 or '09. I just hope we continue to cherry pick some MAC athletes rather than start offering mopes from Iowa that were headed to UNI...

[StinkyMcFadden]

Originally Posted by douglasbader

Sorry Stinky, that kid looks a lot closer to Brad Rogers than Shonn Greene.

Did you take a look at his offer list? Sure, he was committed to Boston College, but they are fucking awful right now (they make Iowa look like Ohio State) and his other 2 offers were from Bowling Green and Akron.

You can't take it away from me.

I also don't see any way he plays in '13 or probably '14.

But he's all I got, dammit.

[Whatever]

Originally Posted by douglasbader

I haven't looked at the 2009 class, but this is again in hindsight. How do you know this years class won't be horrible and have ridiculous attrition?

They haven't even fucking signed yet. The only thing you can go off of at this point is their offer list, and it is clear that half of the current class has jack shit for interest from anyone that matters.

No, it's not in hindsight. It was a shitty class, clearly worse than this year, based on recruiting ratings and offers.

[douglasbader]

I looked at the 2009 class. That should have gotten someone fired and the 2013 class is so much better.

How the fuck does Iowa ever have a class like that one?

[douglasbader]

Originally Posted by Whatever

No, it's not in hindsight. It was a shitty class, clearly worse than this year, based on recruiting ratings and offers.

I had said multiple times that I hadn't looked at the 2009 class and was going off the 2008 class when comparing with L. Wade.

Yes, the 2009 class is clearly the worst I have ever seen Iowa sign. There are only 6 left and only 3 of them play meaningful snaps. Awful.

[Hawkeye_Pierce]

Originally Posted by douglasbader

I looked at the 2009 class. That should have gotten someone fired and the 2013 class is so much better.

How the fuck does Iowa ever have a class like that one?

Good question. And the top "skill" guys in that class happened to be from Iowa. That's the football equivalent of a typical Lickliter class. You almost have to try to fail at recruiting to end up with that shit sandwich. What's even more amusing is half of those turds transferred.

[Whatever]

I agree that the 2008 class is pretty comparable to this year's class. Hopefully this class won't have a 50% attrition rate like that one did. I do think attrition has gotten better. So far, other than Garmon, it's been quiet this off-season.

[DGHawk]

Originally Posted by Gushawk

LeShun Daniels will not get carries in 13, IMO.

I'm most excited about Warfield. Specifically, the day he steps onto the field at safety as a nickel back in 2016.

FIFY

[CamelTones]

Originally Posted by douglasbader

I looked at the 2009 class. That should have gotten someone fired and the 2013 class is so much better.

How the fuck does Iowa ever have a class like that one?

Yeah, I've never understood why media people always talk about the 2008 class as the reason for Iowa's struggles, the reality is it was the 2009 class that backed up that turd sandwich. When the juniors and seniors in your program were that lightly recruited coming out of high school you are going to suck. Luckily after this coming year, all those players will be gone. As L. Wade has said, a lot of the guys that committed late in that class had little to no ceiling at all athletically, at least this years class you can look at guys like Rucker, Willies, Mitchell, Warfield and even King and have hope.

The biggest problem right now is they have no DE commits and it doesn't look like they are even in on any. Iowa will continue to struggle when they trot out the likes of Alvis and Bigach at end. They're going to really need a guy like Ekakatie to move out there, although it appears they like Ott and McMinn. It also appears that Melvin Spears sucks, I was hopeful that he would turn into a solid end.

[Jimmie Dimmick]

God damn that '09 class was awful.

I want to fight someone over that!

[L. Wade Childress]

I have consistently lumped 08 and 09 together in this argument so im not sure what the problem is

Bottom line is that our recruiting floor is pretty damn high for a 4-8 team thats not a traditional power.

[douglasbader]

Originally Posted by L. Wade Childress

I have consistently lumped 08 and 09 together in this argument so im not sure what the problem is

Bottom line is that our recruiting floor is pretty damn high for a 4-8 team thats not a traditional power.

No it isn't at all.

[AZmess]

Yes it is.

[L. Wade Childress]

Originally Posted by AZmess

Yes it is.

Fuck yeah!! Suck on that, dougie boy,!

[douglasbader]

How in the fuck is our recruiting floor high? What the fuck are you two dipshits talking about? Iowa is currently ranked #11 in the Big Ten by Rivals.

That is the definition of the recruiting floor not being high.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecr...2013/BIG10/all

[kmurp]

Originally Posted by douglasbader

How in the fuck is our recruiting floor high? What the fuck are you two dipshits talking about? Iowa is currently ranked #11 in the Big Ten by Rivals.

That is the definition of the recruiting floor not being high.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecr...2013/BIG10/all

Iowa must be near the bottom of the list this year for BCS teams as well. That's a disturbing pattern (lumping in 08 & 09 here). The only saving grace this year is the low absolute number of kids skews Iowa lower than they might otherwise be.

[Whatever]

They are at the bottom because they have the second lowest number of commits. They will likely jump Purdue and Indiana when they get a few more guys in the next week. This isn't a terrible class.

You also can't say that 3 star is the baseline for recruits on Rivals. Every Big Ten team has atleast one 2 star guy (OSU has a kicker) committed, except for Iowa. Here's how many each team has:

Iowa - 0
OSU, Mich, Mich St, Neb - 1
NW - 3
Wis, Minn - 4
Ind, PSU - 5
Purdue - 7
Illinois - 9

[DGHawk]

Originally Posted by L. Wade Childress

I have consistently lumped 08 and 09 together in this argument so im not sure what the problem is

Bottom line is that our recruiting floor is pretty damn high for a 4-8 team thats not a traditional power.

Dumb argument.

[Hawkeye_Pierce]

Originally Posted by Whatever

They are at the bottom because they have the second lowest number of commits. They will likely jump Purdue and Indiana when they get a few more guys in the next week. This isn't a terrible class.

You also can't say that 3 star is the baseline for recruits on Rivals. Every Big Ten team has atleast one 2 star guy (OSU has a kicker) committed, except for Iowa. Here's how many each team has:

Iowa - 0
OSU, Mich, Mich St, Neb - 1
NW - 3
Wis, Minn - 4
Ind, PSU - 5
Purdue - 7
Illinois - 9

Fair point although it's odd that some of our 3-stars have offer lists that suggest they were 2-star prospects:

Bazata - Iowa and S. Dakota State
Boettger - Iowa (no other offers)
Shimonek - Iowa and Lamar
Willies - Iowa, ISU, and Illinois directionals
Powell - Iowa and Ohio

[MikeyJoe]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_Pierce

Fair point although it's odd that some of our 3-stars have offer lists that suggest they were 2-star prospects:

Bazata - Iowa and S. Dakota State
Boettger - Iowa (no other offers)
Shimonek - Iowa and Lamar
Willies - Iowa, ISU, and Illinois directionals
Powell - Iowa and Ohio

Is there some reason to think that Rivals has an Iowa boner and would inflate our 2* recruits to 3* relative to other schools, though?

[Shawneemicks]

Iowa's recruiting "floor" feels very Indiana-ish.
That seems significantly lower than it should be for a program that has been pretty successful for 30+ years.

[douglasbader]

Originally Posted by MikeyJoe

Is there some reason to think that Rivals has an Iowa boner and would inflate our 2* recruits to 3* relative to other schools, though?

5 or 6 of the current recruits were rated 2* or were completely unrated. They commit and suddenly they got a bump to a 3*.

Just look at the list from 08 that I posted. Those 2* guys had a whole lot more BCS offers, some of them with official visits even, yet some random QB from Texas with an offer from Lamar is suddenly a 3*?

I will keep looking for the link, but some non-Iowa person had posted earlier this year about the disparity of ratings from recently compared to even 4-5 years ago. Rivals is ranking guys a 3* more often and with greater ease than they used to in the past.

[MikeyJoe]

Originally Posted by douglasbader

5 or 6 of the current recruits were rated 2* or were completely unrated. They commit and suddenly they got a bump to a 3*.

Just look at the list from 08 that I posted. Those 2* guys had a whole lot more BCS offers, some of them with official visits even, yet some random QB from Texas with an offer from Lamar is suddenly a 3*?

I will keep looking for the link, but some non-Iowa person had posted earlier this year about the disparity of ratings from recently compared to even 4-5 years ago. Rivals is ranking guys a 3* more often and with greater ease than they used to in the past.

I don't deny any of that - I'm asking why anyone believes it more likely to occur with an Iowa recruit than a Penn State, Purdue, or Illinois recruit. I'm not comparing Iowa to 2008, I'm asking about the post referencing 2* recruits this year at other Giant Douche schools.

[douglasbader]

I think that Iowa has one of the most active boards on Rivals, a good relationship with Josh Helmboldt and they seem to be vocal about getting guys rated once they commit.

Not going all opposite conspiracy theory, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were more lenient on giving recruits 3* who were previously unrated and committed to Iowa.

[L. Wade Childress]

the system may be different, but its still a standard system. there is zero subjective opinion in the rivals team rankings. the only possible variance is at the player level.

so while you may bitch about iowa being ranked 50th or whatever, if you look at the average player ratings iowa was something like 30th when i checked a couple weeks ago. our low national ranking, as mentioned, is purely a product of only having 16 commits.

the only guys that seem like recruits we would have offered in 08/09 are bazata, willies, and shimonek but all three of those guys were offered early in the process so obviously they saw something there. boettger was completely off the radar, but he is every bit the prospect the wisnieski is. he didnt have offers because he played QB his junior year.

[L. Wade Childress]

oh and by the way, offering boettger landed us pierschbacher.

[Whatever]

Originally Posted by douglasbader

I think that Iowa has one of the most active boards on Rivals, a good relationship with Josh Helmboldt and they seem to be vocal about getting guys rated once they commit.

Not going all opposite conspiracy theory, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were more lenient on giving recruits 3* who were previously unrated and committed to Iowa.

Scout is tougher at giving 3* ratings and most of Iowa's guys are 3* on Scout also. Only Powell and Harris are a 2* on Scout. Boettinger, Shimonek, Willies and Bazata are 3* on both sites.

[L. Wade Childress]

willies and bazata are my biggest concern is terms of being reaches because they are positions of need.

as far as the others, we have 3 good options at QB ahead of shimonek and powell obviously had other opportunities if he opened up his recruiting after campbell left.

i dont mean to sound overly optimisitic because you need 4-star+ talent to win the conference, but if you look at this class objectively its pretty solid considering all of the other factors. it just sucks that there is no star power.

[kmurp]

It is true that most of these guys were identified early by Iowa and accepted (therefore they weren't fallback guys I guess). It will be interesting to see how well the coaches were able to identify talent without the benefit of senior film or observation.

[jabberjaw]

This class fuckin' sucks.

[MikeyJoe]

Originally Posted by L. Wade Childress

oh and by the way, offering boettger landed us pierschbacher.

Which is a funny part of recruiting. You can't give a recruit's friend a free tshirt, but you can give him $100k+ in scholarships.

[douglasbader]

One thing is for sure, this will be the first year in a long time where you will have only 2-3 true freshmen will play.

No chance to play
Bazata
Boettger
Goebel
Gressel
Shimonek
Welsh
Wisnieski

Outside shot
Daniels
Harris
Kenny
Mitchell Jr.
Willies

Good shot
King
Rucker
Warfield
Powell (Juco)

I would be surprised if any more than 3 guys played (not counting Powell).

[Gushawk]

Originally Posted by Shawneemicks

Iowa's recruiting "floor" feels very Indiana-ish.
That seems significantly lower than it should be for a program that has been pretty successful for 30+ years.

It certainly feels that way. I'm not sure how you look at the current situation and conclude much positive about our "floor" other than the current state of the program isn't, at this point, damaging us too badly with the best in state talent.

I don't think there are many real difference makers in 2013 class. At best, it feels very average. Definitely not a foundation for significantly better than .500 campaigns.

[Herky823]

Originally Posted by douglasbader

One thing is for sure, this will be the first year in a long time where you will have only 2-3 true freshmen will play.

No chance to play
Bazata
Boettger
Goebel
Gressel
Shimonek
Welsh
Wisnieski

My mom and sister are good friends with the Boettgers (/LWade). My sister the other day mentioned that we'll have to 'tune it to all the games next year' to watch for Ike.

Haha. No, no we won't.

[L. Wade Childress]

Originally Posted by Gushawk

It certainly feels that way. I'm not sure how you look at the current situation and conclude much positive about our "floor" other than the current state of the program isn't, at this point, damaging us too badly with the best in state talent.

I don't think there are many real difference makers in 2013 class. At best, it feels very average.

isnt that the point though? it feels very average, but we are a below average team, who- when faced with similar circumstances in the past- signed GOD AWFUL classes.

[Whatever]

Originally Posted by douglasbader

One thing is for sure, this will be the first year in a long time where you will have only 2-3 true freshmen will play.

No chance to play
Bazata
Boettger
Goebel
Gressel
Shimonek
Welsh
Wisnieski

Outside shot
Daniels
Harris
Kenny
Mitchell Jr.
Willies

Good shot
King
Rucker
Warfield
Powell (Juco)

I would be surprised if any more than 3 guys played (not counting Powell).

I would agree there will be a lot of redshirts from this class. Part of that is that there are not that many Seniors on the depth chart so there won't be that many spots. You also have a big influx of talent that red shirted last year. 3 rbs, 2 qbs, Johnson and Ekaktie on defensive line, Ward and Keppy on OL, Lile and Fleming at DB and Mabin and Wilson at WR.

[Gushawk]

Isn't it thought the damage of dogshit seasons (and the benefit of good seasons) from a recruiting perspective is somewhat deferred?