College Football National Signing Day

All the high school big football names that haven’t signed with a college yet are doing so today. The Top 10 colleges according to Rivals.com in the recruiting race at this point (12:25 PM 2/7/07) are:

1) Florida
2) USC
3) Tennessee
4) Texas
5) LSU
6) South Carolina
7) Auburn
Notre Dame
9) Georgia
10) Oregon

How boringly predictable. Don’t worry, Michigan and Ohio State are lurking at 11 and 15 respectively. South Carolina seems a smidge higher than normal and Oregon seems like they recruited surprisingly well.

I swear that looks like the same list as any other year. It is hard to break into the big time recruits’ hearts.

So, where are the Hawkeyes? 27th. Not shabby, but nothing that will show up on ESPN News. About where we always seem to end up.

Take a look at this Signing Day Updates over at Yahoo! Sports. The Hawkeyes are mentioned twice. Once for losing Patrick Grant (DE) to Louisville. Apparently Ferentz should have offered a scholarship to Grant’s friend Bynes. The other mention is for losing out on Dale Martin (RB) who also decided to go to Louisville.

Why are the Hawkeyes having so much trouble after having such good recruiting classes a couple years prior? Take a look at Yahoo! Sports Top 10 Prospects for the NFL Draft. Not a single Hawkeye to be found. There are no Bob Sanders, Dallas Clark, or Robert Gallery’s in this years draft.

The Hawkeyes do have a tendency to send a few players to the NFL but nothing like most of those schools hauling in the high school recruits this year. Big time players like big name schools. Iowa isn’t there yet. Plus, who in there right mind wants to come live in the midwest right now when the temperature can’t even get above zero. I don’t blame them for heading south.

It’s a good thing the Iowa coaching staff can find players who are willing to work their butts off and improve quite a bit more than the recruiting experts expectations.

Update: There has been a change to that first link above. It looks like the Hawkeyes just signed 4 star recruit Cedric Everson. Apparently, he had committed to Michigan State over the weekend but changed his mind at the last second. It looks like Ferentz finally managed to sign a tall (6′1″) fast (4.4) cornerback that we have always seem to have trouble getting. And Rivals.com reports that he has a 3.0 GPA. Welcome to Iowa, Cedric.

Those crazy, fickle high school kids with their inability to pick a school. How many schools did it take for you to get through college? I went through 2 in 2 years before heading off to the Air Force.