Iowa football: Deuce Hogan’s leadership key in landing recruits

(Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
(Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)

The Iowa football team had a big weekend hosting many recruits and landed a few recruits thanks in large part to quarterback Deuce Hogan.

Deuce Hogan was the first commitment to the Iowa football program’s class of 2020. Hogan is a four-star pro-style quarterback from Grapevine, Texas and had offers from Georgia, Baylor, Houston, and Oklahoma State, among others.

He’s ranked as the 18th best pro-style quarterback in the 2020 recruiting class and committed to Iowa in a video he posted on Twitter back in July 2018.  Hogan stated in the video that his commitment involved a formula that consisted of where he would be used best, where he would make the most impact, the quality of the people and the relationships he wanted to form.

It would seem that Hogan has been spreading the word to help land recruits as well. This past weekend, Kirk Ferentz and the entire coaching staff hosted many recruits, including Hogan, and his message to guys who had not made up their mind was enough to convince some like Lukas Van Ness.

You have to admire Hogan’s leadership. He didn’t have to say anything but obviously felt so strongly about his decision to be a Hawkeye that he wanted to project those thoughts onto others about what the Iowa football program is all about.

As it states above, Hogan’s message resonated with guys who were on the fence because the recruiting process can sometimes be abused as an artificial means to land certain players. Iowa football has always focused on how players would be utilized in their system rather than attempting to get recruits to buy-in on the program itself.

Kirk Ferentz and company have always run an honest ship, which I think a lot of parents of these recruits can appreciate. They aren’t going to try to land a 4-star recruit to boast about their rankings. Instead, they have an exact idea of when and where each recruit will plug into their system.

Certainly, all recruits don’t flourish into the player Iowa projected them to be, but you best bet that an attempt will be made to get those kids into game action and in the best position to succeed.