Iowa football: Hawks land speedy 3-star wide receiver

Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa football team should be proud of their 2020 class, especially after landing three-star wide receiver Diante Vines.

The Iowa football coaching staff has done a remarkable job establishing pipelines outside the state of Iowa. Recently, they’ve tapped into Indianapolis and Largo, FL to grab talent and today they landed a three-star wide receiver from Connecticut, Diante Vines.

Diante Vines will be a senior at The Taft High School in Watertown, Connecticut in the fall. He held over a dozen offers and was ranked as the 11th best recruit in the state. More importantly, the Iowa football team needed another scholarship wide receiver in the class of 2020.

Vines stands at 5-11, 189 pounds and drew interest from Boston College, Syracuse, among others. He attended Penn State’s camp for potential recruits back in early June.

https://twitter.com/diantev22/status/1146565347115507714

He attended The Opening Regionals in February, which is an annual camp served to help recruits become better athletes. They perform various drills with several of those being kept for record keeping. Vines ran the 40-yard dash in 4.66 seconds and caps off Kirk Ferentz’ 2020 class in excellent fashion.

This time of year is when the Alabamas and Clemsons of the world pick up the majority of their commits. That being said, the Hawkeyes recruiting class is still ranked 20th in the country and 4th in the Big Ten. I’ve stated this before, but this could end up being Ferentz’ best recruiting class ever.

Iowa wide receivers coach, Kelton Copeland, is a big reason why the Hawks have reeled in so many solid prospects as part of this class. Aside from getting Vines to commit to Iowa, he’s also gotten Mason Richman (2020), Calvin Lockett (2018), and Desmond Hutson (2019).

Vines has done it all for Taft High School. He’s been the team’s kick returner, free safety, running back/quarterback and wide receiver. He played in a triple-option style offense which makes sense why Army and Navy were heavily recruiting him.

When I watch his film, his speed jumps off the screen. It’s really hard to believe how much faster he is than everyone else. He shows good vision and balance running through the tackles and excellent burst around the edges. Vines is classified as a wide receiver, but it will be interesting to see if that’s how he is utilized in Kirk Ferentz’ offense.

It will likely depend on what positions are available to get him on the field. That kind of talent cannot be buried in the depth chart. This is a great get for the Iowa coaching staff.