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Iowa football: Hawks miss out on top tackle recruit in 2020

By Andrew Wade

IOWA CITY, IOWA- SEPTEMBER 3: Head coach Kirk Ferentz of the Iowa Hawkeyes waits with his team during a play review in the second quarter against the Miami (OH) RedHawks on September 3, 2016 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY, IOWA- SEPTEMBER 3: Head coach Kirk Ferentz of the Iowa Hawkeyes waits with his team during a play review in the second quarter against the Miami (OH) RedHawks on September 3, 2016 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images) /
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The Iowa football team was one of the frontrunners for 2020 4-star tackle Connor McLaughlin, but he decided to take his talents to Stanford.

The news sort of flew under the radar, but one of the Iowa football team’s top remaining recruits in the class of 2020 committed a week ago, and it wasn’t to the Hawkeyes.

Despite all of the positive momentum for the class of 2020, the Iowa football team couldn’t close the deal on Tampa, Florida product Connor McLaughlin.

McLaughlin visited the Hawkeyes on an official visit June 7th, just days after Stanford even offered the high schooler, but it wasn’t enough to get him to come to Iowa City. McLaughlin took an unofficial visit to Stanford two weeks ago and committed seven days later.

To be fair, we sort of saw this coming. 247Sports Crystal Ball had McLaughlin picking Stanford, and as we alluded to in an earlier post, it makes sense. Stanford is one of the few teams that produces NFL offensive lineman like the Iowa football team, and their academics are tops in the country. This isn’t a situation where we don’t have any clue why a player would choose a program over the Hawkeyes. This one is pretty obvious.

McLaughlin’s commitment to Stanford may put the Iowa football team out of the running for another offensive lineman in the class of 2020, for now at least. Out of all of Iowa’s offers to offensive line players, only two 2020 recruits remain uncommitted, Brady Ward and Deondre Buford. However, Buford is leaning towards Kentucky and Ward is leaning towards Oklahoma.

Fortunately, I don’t foresee this being an issue causing depth concerns in the future for the Hawkeyes. If Alaric Jackson and/or Tristan Wirfs declare after this season, the Hawks still have a few players in waiting such as redshirt sophomore Mark Kallenberger, redshirt freshman Jack Plumb, 2019 4-star tackle Tyler Endres, and 2019 4-star tackle Ezra Miller.

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Furthermore, the class of 2021 is already secured from a tackle standpoint with both Gennings Dunker and Connor Colby.