Football talent on the rise in Iowa, at least for 2017
IOWA CITY, Iowa – When it comes to producing Division I football recruits, the 2017 senior class in Iowa already is showing signs of being special.
Veteran recruiting analyst Tom Lemming raved about the class on Wednesday, saying it might be the best class to come from Iowa in over three decades.
“It’s the best I’ve seen in a long time and I’ve been doing it for thirty-something years,” said Lemming, who started as a recruiting analyst in the late 1970s. “I don’t know if there have been this many good ball players in one year.”
Iowa, Iowa State, Michigan State and Miami (Fla.) all have at least one high school player from the state of Iowa committed to its 2017 recruiting class.
Iowa has the most with six, followed by Iowa State with four, while Michigan State and Miami (Fla.) have one apiece.
That adds up to 12 players from Iowa’s 2017 senior class who already have committed to a power five school with the 2017 season still four months away and with the national signing day in February still nine months away.
“It’s a very good year for in state,” Lemming said. “For sure, definitely by Iowa’s standards, it’s way above average.”
Lemming met with most of the top players in Iowa’s 2017 senior class in March during a visit to Iowa City. He also has watched most of them on tape, including defensive tackle Juan Harris.
The level of talent from in state received a boost when Harris moved to Iowa before his sophomore year of high school.
The 6-foot-3, 367-pound Harris now attends North Fayette High School and has what Lemming describes as enormous potential.
“I think if he watches his weight and with the way Iowa coaches players, because I’ve always felt that Iowa does the best job of developing players, he could become an All-American in the middle of that defensive line because you can’t teach that girth,” Lemming said. “He’s just a big guy and he’s got great feet for almost a four-hundred pounder.
"You just have to be careful with his weight. But I think he can become a force in the middle of the line, particularly with the way Iowa coaches these guys.”
Lemming said Harris should embrace Iowa’s training philosophy while in high school.
“Juan would be smart to be pick up on things right now while he still has one more year of high school just to kind of pick their brain and find out what’s planned for him and work on it I think off the field than on the field really, his training,” Lemming said.
The timing of the 2017 class couldn’t be better because Lemming said many of the large metropolitan areas in the Midwest are down this year in terms of football talent.
“Chicago has been down,” said Lemming, who lives in the Chicago area. “Minnesota and Wisconsin are down as always almost. Indiana is down. Ohio is average and Michigan is average.”
Coaches often say that recruiting players from in state is their top priority. It certainly has its advantages from a financial standpoint and often from a loyalty standpoint.
“I think Iowa does a real good job with in-state ball players developing because for one thing all things being equal you want to go with your local guys because they have more of love for the university and they’re willing to stick things out through adversity,” Lemming said. “Just that love and the willingness to stick things out can really help it. And I think it bodes well for the future. And then they’ll go after their skill position players elsewhere because there aren’t many n Iowa.”
Lemming isn’t ready to call the level of talent in the 2017 class the beginning of a trend.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” he said. “It could be cyclical if next year is a bad year. But hopefully, it’s a sign that football is really picking up. Iowa has got a lot of good football programs, not just in the Des Moines area. You see a lot of the players come from little small towns. I think that remains to be seen.”
Iowa
Levi Duwa, DE, 6-3-225, 3-star, Mid-Prairie (Wellman)
Mark Kallenberger, OL, 6-6, 260, 3-star, Bettendorf
Jacob Coons, TE, 6-4, 225, 3-star, Solon
Coy Kirkpatrick, DE, 6-5, 260, 3-star, Madrid
Juan Harris, DT, 6-3, 367, 3-star, North Fayette
Tristan Wirfs, OL, 6-5, 280, 3-star, Mount Vernon
Iowa State
Jake Hummel, LB, 6-2, 210, 3-star, West Des Moines Dowling
Colin Newell, OL, 6-5, 260, 3-star, Ames
O’Rien Vance, LB, 6-2, 210, 3-star, Cedar Rapids Washington
Devon Moore, QB, 6-5, 210, 3-star, Waterloo West
Miami (Fla.)
Zach Dykstra, 6-6, 290, 3-star, Spirit Lake
Michigan State
Rocky Lombardi, QB, 6-3, 220, 3-star, West Des Moines Valley