Big recruiting weekend for Iowa football and men’s basketball
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa-Iowa State football game on Saturday night will be viewed by a sellout crowd at Kinnick Stadium.
Among the 70,585 viewers will be some key recruiting targets for Iowa in both football and men’s basketball.
The Iowa football team is expected to have at least 40 recruits from both the 2017 and 2018 classes on campus this weekend, while the Iowa men’s basketball team will host 2017 forwards Luka Garza and Jack Nunge.
The football game will be a rare night game at Kinnick Stadium, starting at 6:30 p.m. It’ll be televised by the Big Ten Network and the weather forecast calls for near-ideal conditions with temperatures expected to be in the low 60s by kickoff.
The game also will be a chance for the Iowa fans to impress the recruits with their support, enthusiasm and hospitality. Iowa students have been known to chant the names of key recruiting targets during both football and basketball games.
Garza will be on an unofficial visit to Iowa City this weekend after taking an official visit in May. He also visited Iowa last fall.
Nunge, who lived in Coralville before moving to Indiana, will be on an official visit this weekend. He also has visited the Iowa campus on multiple occasions.
The 6-foot-10 Garza, who attends Maret Academy in Washington, D.C., is ranked as a three-star recruit by Rivals. He currently has scholarship offers from Iowa, Louisville, Alabama, Georgia, DePaul, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Penn State, Pittsburgh and Georgetown, among others.
Garza reportedly cancelled a visit to Georgia for this weekend in order to visit Iowa.
Georgia Hoops Blog reported on Twitter that Garza had cancelled his visit to Georgia and was expected to commit to Iowa.
Rivals also ranks the 6-9 Nunge as a three-star prospect. Nunge plans to visit Creighton next weekend.
His list of offers include Iowa, Clemson, Creighton, Georgia Tech, Nebraska and Vanderbilt, among others.
Iowa City West senior guard Connor McCaffery is the only player committed to Iowa’s 2017 class. He is the son of Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery.
Iowa is currently out of scholarships for the 2017 class, but Connor McCaffery has said he would consider joining the team as a walk-on in order to make a scholarship available.
Connor McCaffery also might have the option of pursuing an academic scholarship in college.