Signing day was rather humdrum for the Hawkeyes as all 21 of the players who had verbally committed signed their letters of intent early this morning. There were no surprise additions or retractions, no suspenseful waiting (though some were slightly worried that OL Andrew Donnal may have gotten a late Ohio State offer), no melodramatic press conference with an array of baseball caps... That's not to say though, that this recruiting class isn't exciting. It is full of talented young men and includes a couple of players who could have an immediate impact. There are 13 players coming in to play defense, though the offense has the more highly touted recruits in A.J. Derby, C.J. Fiedorowicz, Marcus Coker, and Donnal.
Coach Ferentz had a press conference this afternoon addressing the recruiting class (here's a
transcript via HawkeyeNation). Some quick highlights of the presser:
- A.J. Derby and Louis Trinca-Pasat both enrolled early. Ferentz still thinks players shouldn't report until the fall.
- Linebackers, defensive backs, and defensive linemen (so basically anyone on defense) has a chance at playing time this year either on special teams or as a back up.
- Ferentz likes the potential problem of too many running backs. There is a possibility of moving someone over to fullback (like Brad Rogers).
- Sash and Greenwood won't practice this spring, so safety is a position where a young guy can get some experience (Hitchens, Shumpert, and Miller are the incoming safeties).
One last note...hawkeyesport.com has up all the highlight videos of the commits. So, I'm going to be watching these all night instead of sleeping. Then later in the week I'll post more thoughts on this class.