Athlon 2024 Iowa State Preview

[Clonefan94]

Big 12 covers suck!

College Football Preview - Athlon Sports 2024: 134 FBS Teams Previews, Life After Saban, Top 25 Playoff Predictions, CFP Expansion, Realignment, NIL/Portal Strategy, Key Storylines, Unit Rankings & More!

The Athlon Sports 2024 National College Football Annual is a comprehensive guide to the upcoming season that provides everything a college football fan could want. You’ll get in-depth team-by-team previews of all 134 FBS schools and previews of all the Power 4 and Group of Five conferences...

magazineshop.us

Meh, no Utah, so at least we got that.

 

[Cyclonsin]

Boy, the anonymous coach quotes about ISU aren't very flattering.

No they aren't, but I'm not sure I disagree with any of them.

 

[NorthCyd]

No they aren't, but I'm not sure I disagree with any of them.

I don't really agree with the talent and transfer take, but whatever. I guess if you aren't landing the darlings of the transfer/NIL market every year and bragging on twitter about the big NIL deals your players are getting you've got no talent now.

 

[Marcelason78]

“Steve Prohm is a Good Guy”

- Bill Self

“Iowa State is going to regret firing Dan McCarney.”

- All Big 12 coaches

 

[wintersmd]

“Iowa State is going to regret firing Dan McCarney.”

- All Big 12 coaches

We did have to put up with Pretty Boy Gene Cheese Stick so I guess looking back I do regret firing CDM.

 

[Cyclonsin]

I don't really agree with the talent and transfer take, but whatever. I guess if you aren't landing the darlings of the transfer/NIL market every year and bragging on twitter about the big NIL deals your players are getting you've got no talent now.

The transfer take is the one thing I generally didn't agree with, I'll grant you. I thought we did well in the portal for our needs. But, for talent as a whole, virtually every recruiting service has our last few classes in the bottom half of the league, and our average player ranking for 2025 leaves a lot to be desired.

I understand those aren't the end all be all, but team recruiting rankings do tend to correlate very highly with team success. And I don't think it's unfair to say that talent level we can bring to Ames is what ultimately holds us back from a higher tier.

 

[Aclone]

I understand those aren't the end all be all, but team recruiting rankings do tend to correlate very highly with team success.

I keep seeing this statement repeated by multiple people as though it’s the absolute, end all, gospel truth.

The problem is, it’s a really superficial take.

Okay, sure, the schools like Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia have lots of success.

And why does that correlate with recruiting rankings? Because so very many of the highly ranked players flock there. They scoop the cream off the top. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Five stars are redundant.

Just for one example, when Kadyn Proctor, the #1 OT in the Class of ‘23 started at LT at Alabama, it was ahead of the #1 OT in the Class of ‘22.

Here’s another example of how recruiting rankings are flawed. Below are the Rivals and 247 rankings for our two ‘24 WR signees, Brett Eskildsen and Dominic Overby. As you can see, both had relatively indifferent recruiting rankings.

Both have good receiving highlights and good size—they aren’t 5’7” smurfs.

More importantly, ISU has had two speed freaks in recent years, in Kene Nwangwu and Darien Porter.

Overby not only equaled Kene’s 10.54 100m time, he shattered all of Darien’s best numbers—including his state record 400m.

And Eskildsen? Well, he merely ran a 10.52 100m, to even top Jene and Overby.

By any other standards, these guys would both be four star recruits—Overby a high four star.

But no. And they’re hardly the only members of this class like that. The two corners would be next on my list—but again, not the only ones. Not hardly.

This staff rarely competes for the “highly ranked” players. They identify their own. Thus, the “correlation” model rarely applies.

Aside from when the recruiting services eventually decide to agree with them.

Brett Eskildsen, Iowa State Cyclones, Wide Receiver

Also competes in Track and Field. Texas 5A Region II qualifier in the 100m and triple jump. Posted wind-aided 10.70, 10.73, and 10.93 100m times as a junior...

247sports.com

Brett Eskildsen 2024 Wide Receiver Iowa State

Brett Eskildsen - 3 Star Wide receiver for Iowa State on CycloneReport

n.rivals.com

Dominic Overby, Iowa State Cyclones, Wide Receiver

Also competes in track and field. Ran wind-aided junior times of 10.73 in the 100 and 21.71 in the 200. Ran wind-legal junior times of 11.05 in the 100, 22.04...

247sports.com

Dominic Overby 2024 Wide Receiver Iowa State

Dominic Overby - 2 Star Wide receiver for Iowa State on CycloneReport

n.rivals.com

 

[ClubCy]

I keep seeing this statement repeated by multiple people as though it’s the absolute, end all, gospel truth.

The problem is, it’s a really superficial take.

Okay, sure, the schools like Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia have lots of success.

And why does that correlate with recruiting rankings? Because so very many of the highly ranked players flock there. They scoop the cream off the top. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Five stars are redundant.

Just for one example, when Kadyn Proctor, the #1 OT in the Class of ‘23 started at LT at Alabama, it was ahead of the #1 OT in the Class of ‘22.

Here’s another example of how recruiting rankings are flawed. Below are the Rivals and 247 rankings for our two ‘24 WR signees, Brett Eskildsen and Dominic Overby. As you can see, both had relatively indifferent recruiting rankings.

Both have good receiving highlights and good size—they aren’t 5’7” smurfs.

More importantly, ISU has had two speed freaks in recent years, in Kene Nwangwu and Darien Porter.

Overby not only equaled Kene’s 10.54 100m time, he shattered all of Darien’s best numbers—including his state record 400m.

And Eskildsen? Well, he merely ran a 10.52 100m, to even top Jene and Overby.

By any other standards, these guys would both be four star recruits—Overby a high four star.

But no. And they’re hardly the only members of this class like that. The two corners would be next on my list—but again, not the only ones. Not hardly.

This staff rarely competes for the “highly ranked” players. They identify their own. Thus, the “correlation” model rarely applies.

Aside from when the recruiting services eventually decide to agree with them.

Brett Eskildsen, Iowa State Cyclones, Wide Receiver

Also competes in Track and Field. Texas 5A Region II qualifier in the 100m and triple jump. Posted wind-aided 10.70, 10.73, and 10.93 100m times as a junior...

247sports.com

Brett Eskildsen 2024 Wide Receiver Iowa State

Brett Eskildsen - 3 Star Wide receiver for Iowa State on CycloneReport

n.rivals.com

Dominic Overby, Iowa State Cyclones, Wide Receiver

Also competes in track and field. Ran wind-aided junior times of 10.73 in the 100 and 21.71 in the 200. Ran wind-legal junior times of 11.05 in the 100, 22.04...

247sports.com

Dominic Overby 2024 Wide Receiver Iowa State

Dominic Overby - 2 Star Wide receiver for Iowa State on CycloneReport

n.rivals.com

I don’t think it should be taken as absolute gospel but recruiting matters. It always has and always will.

You listed our wr commits track times but why don’t they have more p4 offers?

 

[VeloClone]

I don’t think it should be taken as absolute gospel but recruiting matters. It always has and always will.

You listed our wr commits track times but why don’t they have more p4 offers?

Because Renaldo Nehemiah.

 

[CycloneErik]

Because Renaldo Nehemiah.

I also would have accepted Willie Gault.