B1G 2015 // Iowa Starters & Their Other Offers

Much has been written about the ability of Kirk Ferentz to get the most out of his players. By my count Ferentz has produced 58 NFL Draft picks in his sixteen years at Iowa. During his tenure seven Draft picks were selected in first round: Dallas Clark, Robert Gallery, Chad Greenway, Bryan Bulaga, Adrian Clayborn, Riley Reiff and Brandon Scherff. Aside from Bulaga and Clayborn, the remaining players had ratings of 3-stars or lower from recruiting services.

That's why it's difficult to gauge the annual quality of any given Iowa recruiting class.  "Sure, there don't appear to be any superstars in this class but give them some time with Chris Doyle and we'll see where they're at as juniors and seniors." If a player signs on with Iowa and stays the course there's a good chance that by the time he graduates he'll either: 1) Get drafted or; ) At the very least sign with an NFL team.

Naturally, the problem is the whole "staying the course" part. As BHGP's Patrick Vint noted back in May, Iowa is losing an average of eight players per class, majority of which are: 1) From outside the state of Iowa; and 2) Predominately skill position players. Since 2011 this is the worst attrition rate in the Big Ten.

When examining the amount of NFL Draft picks Ferentz has produced and the attrition rate he's faced at skill positions one can come to the conclusion that while Ferentz and his staff clearly understand linemen, they struggle when it comes to evaluating and appropriately distributing playing time to skill position players. The use of James Vandenberg in 2012 and Jake Rudock/C.J. Beathard and Mark Weisman in 2014 are examples that first come to mind.

The direct result of this attrition is that Iowa: 1) Is lacking depth in some key positions; 2) Is fielding players who probably weren't the first choice to start. Regarding #2, to put it another way: Iowa is fielding multiple players who were lightly recruited and didn't have many other offers from Power Five conferences.  You might call those "2-star players."

But stars are boring. There's been a plethora of discussion of whether or not they really matter. It didn't matter for guys like Gallery, Greenway, Bob Sanders, Carl Davis, Marshall Yanda, etc. etc. While it could be a good barometer of what a players potential may be it certainly doesn't guarantee what a player can do in college. So why not use something else to evaluate a player? How about, say, how other colleges view them?

So that's what I'll do. Go down Iowa's starting lineup according to their spring prospectus and tally whoever else a player received scholarship offers from. If stars aren't a worthy determining factor, maybe other Power Five school making scholarship offers is?

A few things before we get going. First, this is for fun and you shouldn't read too much into it because many schools don't offer a scholarship when a commit signs early on in the recruiting process (Especially when the recruit is from in-state). Second, I used Rivals.com for offer lists. Third, the chart is broken into Power 5 (Big 10, Big 12, ACC, Pac-12, SEC) and Group of Five (AAC, C-USA, MAC, MWC, Sun Belt) offers. I'll note the Power 5 schools for thoroughness purposes unless the list is too extensive (more than 5 offers). So let's go!

Offense:

*- Walk-on

** - In-state player

It appears Iowa is fielding players at quarterback, running back and wide-receiver who only had one offer or less from Power 5 schools.

Iowa is fielding three walk-ons: Macon Plewa, Matt VandeBerg and Boone Myers. In fairness, VandeBerg was originally a greyshirt and who doesn't have a walk-on fullback?

Odd that the interior of the line is full of highly recruited players but the tackles are a walk-on and a player with zero offers.

Hypothetically, if Iowa chose Canzeri and Duzey as starters, the offense would field only four players who had multiple offers from Power 5 schools and five who didn't have any.

Defense:

* - Walk-on

** - In-state player

Iowa's strength is clearly in its secondary, as three out of four players have offers from Power 5 schools.

The greatest concern (you should know as we've talked about it all week) is at linebacker. Zero players had Power 5 offers and one is a walk-on.

Things aren't much better on the defensive line. Jaleel Johnson is the only player with multiple offers, Ott only got offered by Kansas State and Meier and Bazata didn't receive offers from anyone.

If this was the depth chart come September, Iowa would field only three players who had multiple Power 5 offers and six who didn't have any.

Total:

Now, let's do some adding. If we use the hypothetical given for the offense and assume the depth chart remains the same on defense, we get these numbers: Of the 22 players Iowa will field on Saturdays, 11 didn't receive a scholarship offer from any other Power 5 team and four are walk-ons.  Arbitrarily add that number of 11 to the number of players who only received one other Power 5 offer and you'll get to 15. Or to put it simply:

Half of the players listed on Iowa's depth chart didn't have a scholarship offer from any other Power 5 program.

Is...is that bad? Hustle off.

BONUS:

Iowa's recruiting has picked up a lot in the past week. They've signed something like 3-5 players in the past two weeks and this is a time for excitement! Let's take a look at Iowa's 2016 recruiting class so far!

Welp.