Voice of the Hawkeyes Board

Wut?

We are not discussing this are we? You recruit everthing within a 400 mile radius of Iowa. It's a border state!

My sense is absolutely.

In fact, with the departure of Bielema, we should be stepping up those efforts.

I don't really see a downside here. Wisconsin produces a reasonable amount of D1 talent, and we have had success there in the past, and, logistically, it's an easy access state for us being a border state.

Iowa had Flash Gordon, then lost him to a bunch of lies from Bert Beelemma.

I'd say YES, go into Cheezehead country as much as possible.

I'm still hoping Mike Hardy, the Def Lineman from Appleton develops in his last couple of years.

Hey Worls, is your thought process behind cutting bait in connieville so Iowa can shift its recruiting focus to a state like, ohhh, say, Florida?

Hayden used to pull a lot of talent out of America's Dairyland, but Barry Alvarez started winning and shut that door long ago. Nevertheless, with Bielema gone and Wisconsin in transition, by all means we should continue to work the state.

Todd must be trying to stir up trouble again..............

Not recruit Wisconsin?! That would be like swearing to never drink a beer during football season (and every other time of the year!).

I, too, live in Wisconsin and have since 1981. The number of really good football players who come out of the larger cities in WI, i.e., Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Eau Claire, is really very small. The HS football programs in general in Milwaukee and Madison, as well as Green Bay, are not very good programs. Given their populations, I am surprised that they do not produce more quality football players.

Wisc. Hawk is certainly right that there have been some good players here. They seem to be, as he says, more the "in the trenches" types of guys. And, they are scattered around the state from year to year, much like they are in Iowa. I would think if Iowa would keep their eyes open for some diamonds in the rough, much like they do with small high schools in Iowa, they should keep the door open. Lots of time and effort on highly recruited kids...not so much.

I didn't mean it that way. Just that if Iowa isn't pulling in quality players from there, and the coach that was in charge of Wisconsin has moved on, it could be time to reevaluate whether or not it makes sense to continue recruiting there or focus on other areas instead.

No hints about this that I know of - I just thought it'd be an interesting topic to debate since I think there's a good argument for both sides.

I completely agree that Ohio needs to be a major focus for Iowa. It should have been before, but even more so now that Meyer isn't taking as many in-state kids as Tressel did. Incidentally, I was listening to a sports talk show on the radio today that was interviewing ex-OSU corner Malcolm Jenkins. He was listing a number of his OSU teammates that were three-stars, two-stars or one-stars coming out of high school, and those guys all formed the nucleus of a team that won the B1G title all four of his years in Columbus. None of them would have been offered if Urban Meyer had been at OSU. To me, the fact that Tressel and his staff identified those guys and went after them even though they weren't highly sought-after, and so many of them became outstanding college and NFL players, that shows their ability to evaluate as a program in that era. Very impressive.

Regarding Wisconsin, I think a lot of it depends on what the new coaching staff in Madison does. If Bielema were still on board, I'd be tempted to back out of Wisconsin for the most part if I were Iowa. The reason being that Iowa will generally have a hard time landing any kids from Wisconsin that the Badgers offer. And Wisconsin isn't like Ohio or Pennsylvania where there are dozens of kids passed over by the in-state power that are outstanding players. There may be some quality talent that slips through the cracks in Wisconsin every now and then, but IMO, not enough to warrant much activity there on Iowa's part.

Now, with a new staff in Madison, I think Iowa has to continue to stay active there for at least another year or two just to see what Wisconsin's new coaching staff is made of. If the new coaches in Madison don't completely hit it off with the in-state recruits and high school coaches, then Iowa could be in great position to land some quality players. But if, in the next couple of years, the new staff at Wisconsin proves it can secure its own borders, then I really don't see a benefit to expending much time and effort there for Iowa.

Not sure if this was a direct response to my posts, but I never said to concede every player outside of Iowa to the in-state school. The states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana have been good to Iowa, Ohio was great to Iowa this year, and I think Pennsylvania could be as well if it became more of a focus for the Hawkeyes. Iowa has proven it can more often than not win recruiting battles for in-state kids against Illinois and Northwestern. Same is true with Indiana and Purdue (probably not Notre Dame though). Iowa likely won't win any recruiting battles for in-state kids against Michigan, Michigan State or Ohio State. It remains to be seen what will happen with Penn State.

But all of those states feature better high school football than Wisconsin does, so there's a lot more talent in those states than the very top tier. At least under Bielema, I don't think it was realistic for Iowa to land a recruit from Wisconsin that the Badgers wanted. Maybe that'll change under the new regime. But my point is that aside from the Wisconsin kids that the Badgers actually want, I'm not sure the state of Wisconsin produces enough talent to warrant Iowa expending much effort there.

I know this came out after your post, but Ferentz said in today's press conference that Iowa plans to have three coaches recruiting in Ohio. I think that's a great move.

You're absolutely right about all the schools that recruit in Ohio as well. Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame will be tough for Iowa to beat when it comes to any recruits from Ohio. While there will be a lot of competition for everyone else, I think Iowa can have some significant success there if they play their cards right, and it appears that they're off to a good start.

Players from Ohio grow up watching and/or cheering for Ohio State. As you know, the whole state pretty much stops when OSU is playing, and that's the only game in town. Outside of OSU, Michigan and ND, Iowa arguably offers the closest thing to that. The kids in Ohio grow up respecting Iowa, and if/when they take a visit out to Iowa City, a lot of them are really impressed. Iowa obviously isn't going to bat 1.000 in Ohio, but there's no reason the Hawkeyes can't land 6-8 kids per class from there, and a lot of those guys can go on to really excel at Iowa.

While a Rutgers or Maryland can sell the fact that they're in the same division as OSU, at least at this point, kids in Ohio don't respect those programs nearly as much as they do Iowa's. And the "only game in town" atmosphere definitely doesn't apply to those programs either. Penn State may eventually become a force to be reckoned with in Ohio again, but these sanctions definitely won't help them in the short term.