Iowa football: 5 best Kirk Ferentz recruiting classes
By Ryan Sikes
Adrian Clayborn highlighted the best Iowa football recruiting class and helped lead them to a BCS bowl victory in the 2009 season.
Finally, we have arrived. Kirk Ferentz’s best recruiting class for the Iowa football team was the 2006 class. Nationally, they were ranked 37th overall and 8th in the Big Ten.
Adrian Clayborn was the big name of this class as the 4-star recruit from St. Louis, Missouri was ranked as the 11th best defensive end in the country and put up crazy numbers in the 2009 season. That year, he recorded 70 tackles, 20 tackles for loss, and 11.5 sacks.
Clayborn was dominant in the Orange Bowl victory over Georgia Tech tallying 9 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks. For his efforts, he was named as the Most Valuable Player in the game.
Other players that were part of this class included Ricky Stanzi, A.J. Edds, Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, Julian Vandervelde, Amari Spievey, Karl Klug, and Jeremiah Hunter. Each one of these guys had such a key role in what was arguably the best Hawkeye team ever.
Many of them were on teams that had a four-game bowl win streak from 2008-2011, highlighted by the Orange Bowl victory of course. Stanzi took the starting quarterback gig from highly touted but struggling Jake Christensen in 2008.
Stanzi accumulated over 7,300 passing yards with 56 touchdowns in 4-years at Iowa. He had his best season as a senior tossing 3,004 passing yards with a crazy 25-to-6 touchdown to interception ratio. In 2008, he engineered an upset over #3 Penn State at Kinnick.
In 2009, Stanzi led the Hawkeyes to comeback victories over Penn State and Michigan State, both games on the road. I am convinced if he doesn’t get hurt in the game against Northwestern that Iowa plays for the National Championship that season.
One of his best-receiving targets was DJK who collected 46 receptions for 745 yards and 10 touchdowns in the 2010 season. Unfortunately, his career at Iowa came to a premature ending due to off the field issues but he will always be remembered as one of the all-time greats.
Spievey was a senior in the 2009 season and recorded 56 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, and 2 interceptions. Klug had a breakout season in 2009, tallying 65 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, and 4 sacks. He followed that up with 57 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, and 5.5 sacks performance in the 2010 season.
Next. Five opposing players the Hawkeyes hate. dark
The 2009 season will forever be remembered as a “what-if” regarding Stanzi’s injury, but the 2006 recruiting class still made sure it was a special season with a dominating Orange Bowl victory over Georgia Tech.