It has been a good week for the Iowa Hawkeyes. They beat #5 Penn State in Happy Valley on Saturday, got 3 more commits for the 2010 incoming class (N'goumou, Johnson, and Lowery), and now the Hawks pick up arguably their biggest commit of the year A.J. Derby.

In a press conference today, Derby confirmed his commitment to the Hawkeyes. He said that after watching the PSU game over the weekend with his family, he just knew it was the right place to go. Derby won't have to travel far to play for the Hawkeyes, as he currently lives in Iowa City and plays for City High. He is listed as a 4-star athlete on Rivals and is a 3-star QB on Scout. He was recruited by Iowa as a QB.

High School:
Thus far this year Derby has been outstanding. There have been some doubts on his ability to play QB at the FBS level, but is stats this year speak for themselves. He is 32 of 56 for 781 yards and has thrown 7 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions. That equates to a 208.4 NCAA QB rating. (For reference, Stanzi's current QB rating is just 113.4). In addition, Derby has ran the ball for 311 yards and 5 touchdowns on 37 carries. He has also led the team to a perfect 5-0 record and are currently the top ranked Class 4A school in Iowa.

As a junior, Derby led the Little Hawks in rushing and passing. He ran for 1,064 yards and 13 touchdowns on 168 carries. He also complete 77 of 136 passes for another 1,197 yards and 11 touchdowns, while throwing only 4 picks. Not to be outdone, he also had an interception, returned a kickoff for a touchdown (it was actually when the other team was trying an onside kick), handled punt return duties, and was the punter averaging 36.0 per kick (I don't think he'll be replacing Donahue). So, when people say he could be a starter at about 5 different positions, they are not kidding.

YouTubin':

You'll have to pick Derby out in this highlight video as it is for the whole team...but it's not hard. Most of the big plays were made by him. My initial reactions is on him as a runner rather than a passer. He looks like a very, very good runner. He's big and strong enough to break tackles, but his vision was also very good and he seamed plenty fast to me on several long runs.

Passing the ball, he didn't look quite a good in this video. Though it's kind of hard to tell, since most of the highlights are Derby scrambling, then making a pass down field. I didn't see much, if any, straight drop back followed by a pass. He looks pretty ideal for the play action bootleg Iowa likes to run though. He can obviously make plays with his feet if nobody's open and can pass on the run. He just needs to set his feet rather than jumping to throw the ball all the time. I've read he worked a lot on his QB mechanics over the summer and looking at his stats it's paid off, so he's probably a better passer than we see in the video from last year.

Final Thoughts:
Derby is obviously a great get. He's one of the top (if not the top) high school players in the state and it's always important for the Hawkeyes to recruit the best instate talent. It's great too picking up a legacy commit (his dad played at Iowa back in the early 90s and his brother is on the team too). I think that he'll stick it out at quarterback. He'll probably redshirt in 2010, then in 2011 Stanzi will be gone and Vandeberg and Wienke will be juniors. He could probably challenge for the backup spot that year and the next, then be the starter for 2013 and 2014. And if that doesn't work out, I'm sure he'll be good wherever he plays on the field.