Iowa dominating in state recruiting

[acoustimac]

Well…this is kind of depressing….

Check out this article from Des Moines Register:

Ranking the top 50 Iowa high school football recruiting prospects in the 2024 class

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/high-school/2023/08/18/college-football-recruiting-ranking-iowa-top-50-prospects-class-of-2024-high-school-football/70543420007/

 

[Pope]

Yeah, that is discouraging.

I've got a feeling Iowa probably places a little too much priority on recruiting in-state kids and we may not place enough priority on that. That said, compared to previous ISU coaches, I think Matt Campbell and his staff have recruited pretty well overall.

 

[psycln11]

No. 4 on the list is a LB from Winfield-Mt. Union.

Kinda hard to compete with Iowa on this one. After all, isn't Jess Settles still playing ball there?

​

 

[clonedude]

Well…this is kind of depressing….

Check out this article from Des Moines Register:

Ranking the top 50 Iowa high school football recruiting prospects in the 2024 class

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/high-school/2023/08/18/college-football-recruiting-ranking-iowa-top-50-prospects-class-of-2024-high-school-football/70543420007/

I can't view that. Can you summarize?

I agree with the previous poster that Iowa probably puts too much emphasis on instate recruiting, and we probably don't put enough emphasis on it. But I think there are some kids instate that it would be a waste of time spending recruiting money on because they've been Iowa fans their whole life and will be going there no matter what.

 

[werdnamanhill]

Iowa is the easiest recruiting job in the world for both sports. State is loaded with alumni coaches, lifelong fans, sons of players, etc. It's tough sledding in state for us, really always has been

 

[CYCLNST8]

Well you can't win the rivalry game once every 10 years and expect recruits to flock your way. That being said there are plenty of fish in the sea and Campbell is doing a great job scouring the Midwest and finding hidden gems. It'd be nice to get the top in-state kids, but we don't have to follow the Fran McCaffery recruiting strategy.

 

[isutrevman]

Yeah, that is discouraging.

I've got a feeling Iowa probably places a little too much priority on recruiting in-state kids and we may not place enough priority on that. That said, compared to previous ISU coaches, I think Matt Campbell and his staff have recruited pretty well overall.

Hard to argue it hasn't worked for them. Look at their record over the past 20 years.

 

[clonedude]

Well you can't win the rivalry game once every 10 years and expect recruits to flock your way. That being said there are plenty of fish in the sea and Campbell is doing a great job scouring the Midwest and finding hidden gems. It'd be nice to get the top in-state kids, but we don't have to follow the Fran McCaffery recruiting strategy.

Definitely need to start winning a LOT more in this series. KF owns CMC, plain and simple... and it pains me to say that. And outside of the OL, I think we've had the talent to beat Iowa, but they are 10x better at the fundamentals of the game and not making mistakes.

 

[OscarBerkshire]

idc where the kids come from as long as they can play. you can't say we haven't had the talent to beat them in any of the games we've played against them since Campbell showed up (except for his first year). I'm not sure how much it matters where they're from as long as they want to play at Iowa State.

As far as Iowa's record is concerned, I'm sure our record would've looked much better in the past 20 years as well if we got to play in the Big Ten West

 

[cayin]

I think this will be the case going forward. We are going to be viewed more as G-5 rather than power 5 (or now p4) with recruits going forward. It's perception, so even though there are good football teams in the Big 12, there are no brand names. No games against programs like USC, Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, etc... Recruits that go to Iowa get to play in those games and atmospheres both home and away. It's kind of like Texas fans, they hated the Big 12 and felt they were at a recruiting disadvantage to the Aggies. Never mind that on the field the Big 12 more than held it's own over the last 10 years, they didn't care. For example, they would have gotten way more excited to bring a dog crap Tennessee (in the years they were down) program in for a home game than a top 10 TCU or Baylor.

 

[Al_4_State]

I think this will be the case going forward. We are going to be viewed more as G-5 rather than power 5 (or now p4) with recruits going forward. It's perception, so even though there are good football teams in the Big 12, there are no brand names. No games against programs like USC, Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, etc... Recruits that go to Iowa get to play in those games and atmospheres both home and away. It's kind of like Texas fans, they hated the Big 12 and felt they were at a recruiting disadvantage to the Aggies. Never mind that on the field the Big 12 more than held it's own over the last 10 years, they didn't care. For example, they would have gotten way more excited to bring a dog crap Tennessee (in the years they were down) program in for a home game than a top 10 TCU or Baylor.

This is because we've fallen off the last two seasons, while Iowa's been relatively successful.

Coming off 2020, we were mopping Iowa for in-state kids. A bunch of them have been total busts, but if we start winning again, we'll be fine.

 

[CYCLNST8]

I think this will be the case going forward. We are going to be viewed more as G-5 rather than power 5 (or now p4) with recruits going forward. It's perception, so even though there are good football teams in the Big 12, there are no brand names. No games against programs like USC, Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, etc... Recruits that go to Iowa get to play in those games and atmospheres both home and away. It's kind of like Texas fans, they hated the Big 12 and felt they were at a recruiting disadvantage to the Aggies. Never mind that on the field the Big 12 more than held it's own over the last 10 years, they didn't care. For example, they would have gotten way more excited to bring a dog crap Tennessee (in the years they were down) program in for a home game than a top 10 TCU or Baylor.

Whatever. Iowa's schedule is always filled with Rutgers, Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana, Maryland, Illinois... Yeah, real-cream-of-the-crop there. How many times have they played Ohio State over the last 20 years? Meanwhile, TCU just knocked out the B1G champ.

 

[throwittoblythe]

Hard to argue it hasn't worked for them. Look at their record over the past 20 years.

I'm really interested to see how the OL/DL development occurs in the post-Doyle era. It's only been 2 offseasons that they have been without him. I'm curious to see if their very strong history of line development continues or drops off without him.

 

[werdnamanhill]

It's also NIL. They can pay much better than we can.

 

[ruxCYtable]

Definitely need to start winning a LOT more in this series. KF owns CMC, plain and simple... and it pains me to say that. And outside of the OL, I think we've had the talent to beat Iowa, but they are 10x better at the fundamentals of the game and not making mistakes.

I don't know how many more opportunities we will have. With larger conferences, possibly more conference games, I don't expect the series to continue, at least not every year. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[isutrevman]

I'm really interested to see how the OL/DL development occurs in the post-Doyle era. It's only been 2 offseasons that they have been without him. I'm curious to see if their very strong history of line development continues or drops off without him.

Agree, the trend hasn't been good for them. There's a reason Ferentz was so loyal to him all those years. How many 2-3 star guys did he turn into NFL draft picks on the O-line?

 

[NWICY]

Definitely need to start winning a LOT more in this series. KF owns CMC, plain and simple... and it pains me to say that. And outside of the OL, I think we've had the talent to beat Iowa, but they are 10x better at the fundamentals of the game and not making mistakes.

You can't out conservative the most conservative coach in the state and win. But we try to do it every freaking yr.

 

[Gunnerclone]

This is because we've fallen off the last two seasons, while Iowa's been relatively successful.

Coming off 2020, we were mopping Iowa for in-state kids. A bunch of them have been total busts, but if we start winning again, we'll be fine.

Key point. I’d be disappointed if we kept the same strategy after the results we’ve had. I don’t care if a kid is from Iowa. That’s not a metric that I’m interested in.

 

[Billups06]

We have a handful of Iowa kids on the roster that should see meaningful time on the field over the coming years (Sama, Patton, Kohl, Petersen, Imming, McLaughlin, Moore, Black etc.) Once we're able to showcase Iowa kids having success on the field, recruiting Iowa becomes a bit easier.

Edit: I'm assuming/hoping most of those guys mentioned will be significant contributors in years to come

 

[bozclone]

Last year Iowa State got 4 of the top 7 recruits in the state of Iowa and 5 of the top 11. Iowa got 1 in the top 7 and 2 in the top 11. All 5 of Iowa State's recruits in the top 11 were from central Iowa.

This year, the rankings are dominated by kids in the eastern part of the state. According to 247, many of those kids didn't visit anywhere but Iowa.