The Iowa football program isn’t known for five-star signings, but they have happened before. Here is a look at what each of those signings is up to now.
It’s pretty rare for the Iowa football team to secure a five-star recruit. The last five-star recruit was AJ Epenesa and the last one before that was back in 2005, nearly 13 years ago. Moreover, unless something incredibly surprising happens, the 2019 class of Hawkeyes isn’t going to include a five-star either.
It’s not that the Hawkeyes don’t want five-star recruits, but it just hasn’t been in the cards. They are looking for specific types of players, players who want to be Hawkeyes and want to come in and work their butts off.
As you’ll see below, not all five-star recruits work out like they are expected to anyways, which can be incredibly deceiving for Iowa football fans as the Hawkeyes annual recruiting classes don’t typically hop into the top-25, but they continue to have consistent success. Kirk Ferentz and his staff have proven that they don’t need (or often want) the flashy five-star recruits. They would rather develop a player through their program who wants do things the Iowa football way.
Let’s take a look at each of the seven former five-star recruits (according to 247sports), and where they are now.
Kyle Williams
Williams is the highest rated recruit the Iowa football team has ever secured, but the honeymoon period didn’t last long. Williams was ruled academically ineligible after just a few weeks with the program.
Williams, a linebacker from Bolingbrook, Illinois was ranked the 22nd best prospect in the nation and the second best outside linebacker prospect.
After being ruled ineligible, he then decided to transfer to Purdue where he played one season before getting into a significant amount of off the field issues. He would finish his collegiate career with just eight games played and 29 total tackles.
The off the field issues started quickly with Williams getting arrested right after the conclusion of his freshman season at Purdue.
Williams just finished up a ten-year sentence for that rape arrest.
An interesting side note, Williams had an unfortunate tattoo added to his arm ink that just says “The Bonecrusher”.
AJ Epenesa
Epenesa was the second best recruiting commitment the Iowa football team has ever received. Coming out of Edwardsville, Illinois, AJ, the son of former Hawkeye football player Eppy Epenesa, was the 27th ranked prospect in the nation.
Fortunately for Kirk, AJ loved the team and community that the Iowa football team has and committed early to the Hawks. Since joining the program, he has been a force as a reserve defensive end garnering All-Big Ten honors this season and making our short list for potential All-American candidates next season.
In just two seasons, Epenesa has racked up quite the impressive stat line. He has 50 tackles, 21 tackles for loss, 14 sacks, three passes defensed and four forced fumbles. Additionally, he added a touchdown return to his resume this season.
He is in line to start for the Iowa football team next season, and the college football world better watch out as he is going to wreak havoc on opposing team’s tackles. It wouldn’t surprise me if he goes down as the best five-star recruit in Iowa football history.
Tony Moeaki
Moeaki joined Kirk’s highest rated recruiting class in 2005 as a five-star tight end out of Wheaton Warrenville South. At the time, the 6’4” 250 pound tight end was the 30th best prospect in the nation and second best tight end when he joined the Iowa football team. His high school resume also included First Team All-American honors by Riddell.
Despite dealing with injuries through his career (including one that allowed him to receive a medical hardship waiver), Moeaki had a productive, yet unspectacular career with the Iowa football team. He finished his career with 76 catches for 953 yards and 11 touchdowns but never had more than 30 catches in a single season or more than 400 yards. For comparison’s sake, both Fant and Hockenson surpassed those amounts this season.
Although he had limited production in his senior year (30 catches for 387 yards), he was an integral part of an Iowa football team that went to the Orange Bowl in 2009 and subsequently defeated Georgia Tech. For his efforts, he received All-Big Ten honors and honorable mention All-American honors by CollegeFootballNews.com.
Tony Moeaki parlayed his college career into an NFL opportunity when he was drafted in the third round by Kansas City. Unfortunately, the injury bug continued to bite him. He played for five teams in six seasons and never played a full 16 games. He finished his NFL career with 91 catches and 1,201 yards.
Blake Larsen
Blake Larsen was another highly ranked offensive lineman prospect who failed to prosper in the confines of Iowa City. An in-state kid from Atlantic, Iowa, Larsen was ranked the top prospect in the state and the 34th best prospect in the class of 2001.
Dealing with injuries throughout his collegiate career, Larsen never made an impact on the Iowa football team and decided to walk away from the program after his junior season. He did, however, receive an alcohol citation by the Iowa City police when he was a student at the University of Iowa.
Last we could find, it appears Larsen is a protecting the community as a police officer in suburban Kansas City.
Matt Roth
To this point, Matt Roth has had the most success of any five-star recruit in the Kirk Ferentz era. The 36th best recruit in the 2001 class, Roth came in to the Iowa football program and started from day one. He proceeded to have arguably one of the best Iowa football careers of any defensive lineman in the history of the program.
At the conclusion of his four seasons in Iowa City, Roth would earn All-Big Ten honors twice and he earned Second Team All-American honors after his senior season where he had 49 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, 8 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles.
He would also become the highest drafted five-star recruit after the Miami Dolphins selected Roth in the second round of the 2005 draft. He spent five seasons in South Beach before spending time with both the Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Although he was never quite able to obtain the success he had in college, he did carve out a nice niche as a pass-rusher. In 96 games, he had 23.5 sacks, 295 tackles, and six forced fumbles.
Dan Doering
Dan Doering arrived in Iowa City with extremely high expectations as one of three five-star recruits in the Iowa football recruiting class of 2005. He was the 33rd best prospect in the nation and the second best offensive tackle prospect. The Barrington, IL native, however, struggled to ever get on the field.
After redshirting his first year with the Hawks, Doering was constantly in position battles throughout his tenure with the Iowa football team. He never really won those battles though and ended up just playing 19 games with the Hawks, starting just six of those.
Despite hardly seeing the field, his five-star recruit status did open some doors for a second as he was invited to tryout for the Seattle Seahawks after going unselected in the 2010 NFL Draft.
Doering now works as a landscape designer at his own landscaping company, Doering Landscape Company and he lives in the suburbs of Chicago.
Dace Richardson
Richardson, a teammate of Tony Moeaki’s in high school at Wheaton Warrenville South, was the 36th best prospect in the nation coming out of high school. He was the third of Iowa’s three five-star recruits from the class of 2005.
Although the talent and the hard work was there, injuries decimated Richardson’s career. In five seasons with the Iowa football team, Richardson sat out one with an injury, spent one as the backup (his freshman year) and spent the other three listed as a starter but missing time due to injuries in each of those three seasons.
He did manage to put it together for the most part in 2009 when he missed just four games and was able to start in Iowa’s Orange Bowl victory over Georgia Tech. Richardson was named Team Comeback Player of the Year and All-Big Ten by the coaches at the conclusion of the 2009 season.
His solid senior performance led to him being invited to the NFL Combine, but it wouldn’t be the storybook ending for Richardson there. He posted one of the worst 40-yard dash times in the history of the combine with a 5.79 second 40-yard dash.
The 2010 NFL Draft would come and go without his name being called, but he did manage to secure a tryout with the New York Giants before playing with the Iowa Barnstormers in the Arena Football League.
Dace is now working as a Day Trader for Alcyone Capital in Des Moines, Iowa.