Over the past couple of years, I have been a little too busy to be as up to date on the Iowa Hawkeyes recruiting classes and haven’t spent much time watching their videos but this year, I did actually have time so I have some thoughts on this latest class. The 2019 class had 20 signees in the early signing period and while they may still add a couple more recruits come February this is the bulk of the class and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. There are three major recruiting services and I’m usually partial to Rivals but this year I have to respectfully disagree with some of their rankings of Iowa’s recruits. According to Rivals Iowa has no 4-star recruits and I simply think they have misjudged some of Iowa’s signees. There are also the standard developmental guys that Iowa will turn into future NFL draft picks and as always, some guys that won’t make it at the Big Ten level.
The Guys I Think Should Be 4-Stars
RB Tyler Goodson – I’m not sure what keeps Goodson from earning his fourth star but this kid is good. He has homerun ability and at 5’10 and just over 190 lbs. he’s a well-built RB. He has straight line speed but what most impresses me is his ability to move laterally and yet not lose his speed moving forward. His jump cut is as impressive as Akrum Wadley except he already has more size. While the Hawkeyes have three RBs that all played significant snaps this season Goodson is good enough to get actual carries next season and he might be a better all-around back than any of the three already on the depth chart. I’m not trying to knock those guys I’m just saying Goodson is impressive.
LB Jestin Jacobs – Jacobs is a LB from Ohio who committed to Iowa fairly early and stuck with the Hawkeyes despite a late push by Ohio St. to steal him away. It’s not often Iowa goes head-to-head with the Buckeyes for a recruit and it’s even less often they actually come out on top. For Iowa to come out on top for a guy from Ohio is pretty impressive. Jacobs is a type of new age LB, he’s long, lean and athletic and I think he will excel in coverage. Normally I would say at 210 lbs. he needs to add size to play LB in the Big Ten but given the fact that Iowa lined up Amani Hooker at LB for a large portion of the season if Jacobs picks up the defense, I think he could find early playing time. Iowa returns a lot of guys that got playing time (Kristian Welch, Nick Niemann, Djimon Colbert, Barrington Wade, and Amani Jones) not to mention youngsters Dillon Doyle, Seth Benson, Jayden McDonald and Logan Klemp. It won’t be easy for Jacobs to climb over all of those guys but he certainly can, he has that kind of talent.
OT Ezra Miller – Miller isn’t the “dancing bear” type of athlete that most high-level OT recruits are but this kid is a mauler. At 6’6 310 lbs. he’s already the size of a Big Ten OT and he has the physicality to play early. He needs work on his technique and his flexibility but those are things he’ll get better at and he’ll get great coaching. Miller is a monster and while he may not play early, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did and he’s going to be a good one. This isn’t a guy the Hawkeyes have to turn into an OT, he was born one.
TE Logan Lee – Does anyone really want to doubt the Iowa coaches on TE prospects? The only way Logan Lee doesn’t become an All-American TE is if he changes positions. He’s 6’5 240 lbs. and he could end up a DE or potentially an OT. He has the frame to carry more weight but starting out he’s a TE. As big and aggressive as he is, he could be devastating blocker at the position and he’s an excellent pass catcher. He’s not the only TE in this class that could become an All-Conference or All-American player he’s just the best one coming in.
These four guys are good enough to be considered 4-Star players in my opinion and Iowa is lucky to have them, however, the good news doesn’t stop there.
3 Guys That Look Like Guys Iowa Already Has (or Had)
S Sebastian Castro – If anyone in this class is going to eventually step into the very versatile shoes of Amani Hooker it’s Castro. He’s an underrated safety prospect that has played QB, RB and DB and is a leader on his team. He’s a playmaker in the defensive backfield just like Hooker was in high school and he’s not afraid to lay a guy out when he has the chance. Castro has flown under the radar but he’s a guy Hawkeye fans are going to love. With the graduation of Jake Gervase and the prospect of Hooker playing his hybrid position even more going forward the Hawkeyes are going to need someone to pair with Geno Stone at the safety position. There are a couple of young guys like Kaevon Merriweather and Dallas Craddieth that will have a shot and depending on how things look at CB either Julius Brents or Riley Moss could potentially play safety too but Castro is going to make a push to get playing time and it’s going to be sooner rather than later.
C Justin Britt – Britt is the interior line prospect the Hawkeyes stole out of Indianapolis and he’s a top prospect at C. Britt reminds me of James Daniels and that’s high praise because Daniels was one of the most naturally gifted C prospects I’ve ever seen. Kirk Ferentz talked in his press conference and in interviews about how much Britt understood about the position already and how impressed he was by that, add knowledge to his instincts and that’s a scary combo. Britt tore his ACL during his senior year and he’s almost assuredly going to redshirt next year and he won’t play unless there is a massive injury bug that hits the offensive line. However, he’s got a shot to play some OG a year later and he’s eventually the guy who should take over at C.
TE Sam LaPorta – LaPorta was a late offer in the recruiting process after the Hawkeyes decided to go after a 3rd TE (Logan Lee and Josiah Miamen were the first two TE commits). LaPorta was a record setting receiver in Illinois and while he needs some time to fill out that is also the path of current Mackey award winner TJ Hockenson. Hockenson was a record setting receiver in Iowa before he came to the Hawkeyes, redshirted and grew into his body a bit and now in his third year he’s dominating. LaPorta looks like another underappreciated prospect that could really develop into a weapon and something tells me the Hawkeyes aren’t going to feel the need to go away from their two TE offense any time soon.
The Rest of the O-Line Class
Miller and Britt are the two offensive linemen I’m most impressed with but that doesn’t mean I don’t like the other two guys. Noah Fenske and Tyler Endres are a couple of big Iowa boys the Hawkeyes will team with Miller and Britt to make a dominant line in the future. Fenske is 6’5 280 lbs. while Endres is 6’6 305 lbs. I mentioned that Logan Lee could end up at OT, truth be told if he doesn’t move there it may have as much to do with not needed him there as anything else. Iowa has never needed highly rated recruits to make a dominant offensive line and I like the potential of these four to make a big difference in the future.
The LBs
Jacobs isn’t the only LB to get excited about. Jack Campbell is a LB out of Cedar Falls and he’s the type of player that makes it look like there’s five of him on the field at once because he’s everywhere. He never seems to be out of a play and he’s always in on the tackle. Yahweh Jeudy was a late steal out of Florida who was committed to Kansas St. but with the coaching change a door was open and the Hawkeyes took advantage. He looks like very natural tackler and he has great explosion to the ball. Both of these guys add to that long list of LB on the roster (Welch, Wade, Niemann, Colbert, Jones, Doyle, Benson, Klemp and McDonald). This may seem like a like of LBs but the truth is getting guys who are 6’2-6’5 and are anywhere from 215 lbs. to 245 lbs. gives a team a lot of options. With some of the position switches already happening during bowl prep for the Hawkeyes some of these guys could end up elsewhere. A guy like Campbell has a frame that could be turned into a DE while someone else may end up at fullback, DT or TE (hey, Dallas Clark was once a LB).
The TEs
I already mentioned both Logan Lee and Sam LaPorta but there is another (I just said that in my best Yoda voice). Josiah Miamen is not to be forgotten. He’s a heck of an athlete with good hands and good size and he lined up out wide plenty in high school. He’s a playmaker and while I would guess he’ll need some work on his inline blocking he has the size and strength to excel at it. The last time the Hawkeyes brought in three TEs in one class was three years ago when they got Noah Fant, TJ Hockenson and Shaun Beyer. We haven’t seen much out of Beyer yet (mostly due to injury and having Fant and Hockenson in front of him) but that worked out pretty well. One guy is a likely first round NFL draft pick as an early entry this year and the other is the Mackey Award winner as the best TE in college football. It seems like those two things should be one in the same but the actually aren’t. Lee, LaPorta and Miamen replenish the depth at TE after the team lost Noah Fant to the NFL and lost Jacob Coons last spring when he quit football.
The Defensive Line
The Hawkeyes got two DEs Jake Karchinski and Chris Reames along with one DT Jalen Hunt. Karchinski is almost always described as relentless, it’s as if it’s part of his name. Reames seems to fit the mold of guy like Anthony Nelson as a tall, lean DE, he’s 6’7. Hunt is quick in the interior and should be a terror inside. With the recent moves of Tyler Linderbaum and Austin Schulte to the offensive line from DT and DE respectively, these three guys add young depth. They will all likely have to wait their turn and will probably redshirt but they all have potential.
The Defensive Backs
I already said how much I like Sebastian Castro and he’s going to have a couple of running mates in the backfield with him from this class. Dane Belton and Daraun McKinney are both CB prospects with upside. Belton is listed at 6’1 so he brings good length to the position. McKinney is the late add to the class that has become a common occurrence as defensive coordinator Phil Parker seems to always have a guy like this he likes. McKinney is being compared to Desmond King because like King he was a late offer just before signing day, he’s from Michigan and he’s an excellent return man. If he’s anywhere near King’s level he’ll be a heck of a Hawkeye.
The QB
The Hawkeyes like to take a QB in every class and this year it was Alex Padilla out of Colorado. Colorado isn’t one of the Hawkeyes usual recruiting territories but for a QB they made an exception. Last year they got Spencer Petras from California, another rare recruiting ground and now it’s Padilla. Initially, Padilla was not a highly recruited guy but that was probably because he’s only about 6’1, however, Georgia came in late with an offer but Padilla stuck with the Hawkeyes. Given the fact that Georgia has had a run of 5-Star QB recruits over the past several years (Jacob Eason, Jake Fromm and Justin Fields) I would say that bodes pretty well for what the Hawkeyes are getting in Padilla. Quarterbacks are one of the most unpredictable positions in recruiting but Padilla has a lot of good qualities and he should compete for the starting job when Nate Stanley graduates.
The Other RB
Goodson is the headliner but the team went after a second RB late in the process because of some depth issues, the transfer of Kyshaun Bryan and the fact that Samson Evans might be better off at another position. Shadrick Byrd is a kid from Alabama that RB coach Derrick Foster made a connection with and after a late official visit he committed to the Hawks. He looks like a depth piece to me and all we can really hope is he sticks around longer than the last Alabama RB Iowa took late in the process, Eric Graham.
A Lonely WR
Desmond Hutson is the lone WR recruit the Hawkeyes have at this point and I would assume the WR position would be a point of emphasis in the late signing period coming up in February. The team spent a lot of time recruiting David Bell, a WR out of Indianapolis who also happened to be a teammate of Justin Britt. Bell never took an official visit to Iowa and so they eventually moved on and offered Logan Wolf from Cedar Falls. Wolf has chosen to stick to his original commitment to UNI where he will play football and basketball. Hutson is a big-bodied WR who should be a nice red zone addition but I’m not sure he’s going to be much of a deep threat and the team needs someone to stretch the field. WR recruiting has always been tough under Ferentz but with Hutson being the only addition in this class that puts some pressure on redshirt freshmen Tyrone Tracy Jr., Calvin Lockett, Nico Ragaini and potentially Samson Evans if he moves to WR.
Overall
I like what I see in this class. The offensive line and the defensive front seven seemed to be priorities and that’s a good thing. Iowa added playmakers at RB and TE and at the very least added good depth at QB. The only point of contention is the WR group. The Hawkeyes still struggle to find playmakers at WR and the hope is that Tyrone Tracy Jr can step in as a redshirt freshman next season and give Ihmir Smith-Marsette some help going deep. Desmond Hutson can join Calvin Lockett as bigger targets like Brandon Smith but some has to take the top off the defense, I guess the Hawks are hoping TJ Hockenson sticks around another year to do that.
The Hott Read 