Football lands two for '09
Scott Miller - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 5/8/08 Section: Sports
Last year, Hawkeye football coach Kirk Ferentz couldn't lure a single four-star recruit to Iowa City.
Hubie Graham, the No. 13 tight end in the class of 2008, made an official visit to Iowa and committed to Illinois a week later.
Dan Hoch, a Harlan, Iowa, native and the No. 18 guard in the country, spurned Iowa for head coach Gary Pinkel and Missouri.
Last, standout running back Mark Ingram, the No. 17 athlete out of Flint, Mich., made the Hawkeyes wait until national signing day before he joined Nick Saban's No. 1-ranked recruiting class at Alabama.
Maybe it was the lack of in-state talent. Maybe it was Iowa's recruiting strategy. Or maybe it was the Hawkeyes' 6-6 record. But something was keeping elite prospects from signing with Ferentz.
That all changed on May 3 when David Barrent - a 6-8, 290-pound offensive tackle out of Valley High School who ranks as the No. 101 player in the class of 2009, according to Rivals.com - gave his oral commitment to Iowa.
"It seems like the perfect fit to me, both academically and athletically," Barrent said Wednesday. "… [My parents and I] decided that that wasn't going to change, so we just decided to make this decision now."
After a breakout junior season, he also received offers from Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Iowa State, among others.
"He's a big, athletic kid from the state of Iowa at a position that Iowa really needs to focus on this year with several offensive linemen graduating or near graduation," said Tom Kakert, the publisher of hawkeyereport.com. "He made a meteoric rise [this past year]. He really impressed our evaluation people with his abilities at the [Rivals] academy and his film."
The West Des Moines native joined running back Brad Rogers, who became the first member of Iowa's class when he gave his oral pledge on April 28. Rogers, a 5-10, 230-pound prospect out of Toledo, Ohio, has drawn comparisons with another Big Ten powerback because of his rare combination of size and speed.
Hubie Graham, the No. 13 tight end in the class of 2008, made an official visit to Iowa and committed to Illinois a week later.
Dan Hoch, a Harlan, Iowa, native and the No. 18 guard in the country, spurned Iowa for head coach Gary Pinkel and Missouri.
Last, standout running back Mark Ingram, the No. 17 athlete out of Flint, Mich., made the Hawkeyes wait until national signing day before he joined Nick Saban's No. 1-ranked recruiting class at Alabama.
Maybe it was the lack of in-state talent. Maybe it was Iowa's recruiting strategy. Or maybe it was the Hawkeyes' 6-6 record. But something was keeping elite prospects from signing with Ferentz.
That all changed on May 3 when David Barrent - a 6-8, 290-pound offensive tackle out of Valley High School who ranks as the No. 101 player in the class of 2009, according to Rivals.com - gave his oral commitment to Iowa.
"It seems like the perfect fit to me, both academically and athletically," Barrent said Wednesday. "… [My parents and I] decided that that wasn't going to change, so we just decided to make this decision now."
After a breakout junior season, he also received offers from Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Iowa State, among others.
"He's a big, athletic kid from the state of Iowa at a position that Iowa really needs to focus on this year with several offensive linemen graduating or near graduation," said Tom Kakert, the publisher of hawkeyereport.com. "He made a meteoric rise [this past year]. He really impressed our evaluation people with his abilities at the [Rivals] academy and his film."
The West Des Moines native joined running back Brad Rogers, who became the first member of Iowa's class when he gave his oral pledge on April 28. Rogers, a 5-10, 230-pound prospect out of Toledo, Ohio, has drawn comparisons with another Big Ten powerback because of his rare combination of size and speed.
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Jamers
posted 5/08/08 @ 6:24 PM CST
Most of Iowa's success has not come with 4-5 stars. Our best years were with 2 and 3 star players OR LESS........large hearts and small towns.....our classes with the most "stars" have produced HUGE egos and HUGE losses on game days! Still, an Iowa 4-star and a lineman to boot. (Continued…)
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