Iowa football: Hawks no longer in play for 4-star safety prospect

The Iowa football team is no longer in the running for 4-star safety Makari Paige after the Hawks were excluded from his final 7 teams.

Typically, the Iowa football team likes to bring in at least 3-4 defensive backs in each recruiting class. Last years three total safeties was actually an anomaly in terms of the previous few years.

As it stands today, there are zero defensive backs currently committed to the Iowa football team in the class of 2020 and with eleven offers extended, a few of these guys are likely to bite.

Except for so far, they haven’t.

Three of those eleven recruits have already committed to other teams, and a fourth removed the Iowa football team from the running yesterday.

Makari Paige is a 4-star safety prospect from West Bloomfield, Michigan and is the 239th best prospect in the nation according to 247Sports. With 21 offers and the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in his backyard, it was always going to be tough for the Hawks, but that didn’t stop them from trying to reel in the 6’3” 182-pound high schooler.

In a Twitter post yesterday, he announced his short list of schools that remain in contention for his defensive services.

Out of Paige’s 21 offers, 12 of those were from Big Ten schools, so the Iowa football team isn’t alone as they are joined by plenty of their Big Ten peers on the outside looking in.

Now, it’s back to the drawing board.

With seven defensive back prospect remaining, the Hawks are only “warm” on two player’s list according to 247Sports.

Another player to watch out for is East St Louis prospect Anthony Johnson who is the 155th best prospect in the nation and the 8th best safety. With the Iowa football team being one of the closest schools to him, they are still in the game, and he has yet to announce a shortened list of teams he is interested in.