After years of work, the recruiting class of 2019 is officially complete for the Iowa football program as they welcome 35 new Hawks to the team.
Most of the Iowa football team’s recruiting has been wrapped up for nearly two months with the second year of the early signing period, but that doesn’t mean the coaching stuff was just sitting around twiddling their thumbs. No, they were hot on the recruiting trail putting the finishing touches on an amazing class of 2019.
When the dust finally settled, the Iowa football team welcomed 35 new additions to the team. Three of which signed yesterday (Jermari Harris, TJ McCall, and Michael Sleep-Dalton).
These 35 players are composed of 23 scholarship players and 12 preferred walk-ons, and while people likely aren’t sitting around celebrating the walk-ons, let me remind you just how important they have been to the program. Just look at this year’s Outback Bowl MVP Nick Easley.
Kirk Ferentz even made note of how important walk-ons are to the program in his media conference yesterday.
"We had them [walk-ons] in here a couple of weeks ago. Really good group of prospects and had a good weekend with them. I think they left with a very favorable impression. It is very significant. I think the Outback Bowl is a great illustration of how important walk-ons have been for us traditionally. Nick Easley winning the MVP trophy. And if Jake, Jake Gervase hadn’t dropped that first interception opportunity, he might have been up there. It might have been co-MVPs."
So as you can see, it honestly doesn’t matter whether they are a scholarship player or walk-on, there is plenty of opportunity in the Iowa football program to succeed.
That being said though, let’s unveil your #Swarm19 class.
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This class of 35 players ranks 40th overall in 247Sports class rankings and 9th in the Big Ten, but as we have seen plenty of times in years past, it ultimately doesn’t matter what the class ranks now, but how they perform when they get to Iowa City. Just by looking at the list of former five-star recruits in Iowa’s history can tell you even those guys aren’t exactly guarantees.
Signing day is always an exciting time, and this year is no different. I’m excited to see these guys get to school and begin their Iowa football careers.