Iowa Hawkeyes Football Recruiting Update

Posted June 30, 2010 by iowah0_admin under under Iowa Hawkeyes, Recruiting

Wednesday has been a busy day for the Iowa Hawkeyes, as they added two new commitments to their 2011 recruiting class.

Ray Hamilton, a TE out of Strongsville H.S. in Ohio, and John Raymon, a DE/TE from Council Rock H.S. North (Newtown, PA), pledged their allegiances to the black and gold this afternoon.

Hamilton is ranked a three-star recruit by both Scout and Rivals. He is a big kid at 6-foot-5, 230 pounds but can move, claiming a 4.70 40-yard dash. What’s most impressive is the list of schools Hamilton turned down to become a Hawkeye. That list includes Boston College, California, Cincinnati, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Stanford, West Virginia and Wisconsin–among others.

Scoutingohio.com has some good video footage of Hamilton in action. Looks like your typical Iowa tight end–and that’s saying something.

Raymon is listed primarily as a DE. He’s only a couple of pounds bigger than Hamilton at 235 and is 6-foot-5, as well. Neither Rivals or Scout hasRaymon ranked but he attracted offers from Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina State, Purdue, Temple and West Virginia.

Iowa Recruiting Review

Not including Raymon, as his main position is presumably DE, five of the Hawkeyes’ seven commitments are either TEs or WRs. Raymon is the first defensive recruit. This will even itself out but I’d like to see the Hawkeyes make a splash with some higher-ranked defensive recruits, mainly defensive linemen (like Raymon) and linebackers. Looking at the latest depth chart from Rivals, a lot of seniors pop up at those two positions–first and second string.

In another note, it’s always good to see home-grown kids on the list. The Hawkeyes have welcomed two Iowa natives to the team, OL Austin Blythe (Williamsburg) and TE Henry Kreiger-Coble (Mt. Pleasant).

Rivals has Blythe listed as Iowa’s only four-star recruit so far. Scout ranks Blythe three-stars.

According to Rivals, Iowa has recruited fairly well with Blythe (four stars) and JaCorey Shepherd (WR), Ray Hamilton (RB), and Marcus Grant (RB) all ranked at three stars. With Blythe ranked only three stars and Grant dropped to two on Scout, the Hawkeyes look as though they’ve done an average job recruiting this offseason–but it’s hard to tell and there’s still a long way to go.

Here are links to the sites’ Iowa recruit lists:

Scout

Rivals

Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes will once again find themselves playing “catch-up” with Ohio State in terms of recruiting. The Buckeyes have already claimed two five-star and seven four-star players, according the Scout.

Hope that didn’t ruin your evening.

Tags: 2011, commitments, hawkeyes, iowa, john raymon, Ray Hamilton, recruit, Recruiting