According to David Krider of Maxpreps.com, the Iowa Hawkeyes are the biggest sleeper team that may still have a chance at signing offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson.

That’s all I want to say on the topic.

If he comes — great. If not, I’ll try to muster up some fake disappointment.

I’m finished with the drama. Finished.

The big guy will make his decision Wednesday.

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Bleacherreport.com — Could Seantrel Henderson be a bust?

Iowa City Press-Citizen – The Iowa Hawkeyes picked up Ohio safety Anthony Hitchens who waited and waited and waited for an offer from Iowa. There’s no longer a void at safety after David Cato announced his transfer. See, it all works out in the end.

Rivals — No need to worry Hawkeye fans, Marcus Coker is still planning on signing with the Hawkeyes.

Here’s what Coker says about himself according to Scout.com:

“I can run downhill. I don’t waste movements and have football smarts. I’m a big bruising back and play with a lot of power.

“I want to improve my agility. And make people miss more.”

That sounds exactly like the kind of back that will fit right in at Iowa.

Rivals — Linn Mar’s (Marion, Iowa) David Parry enjoyed an Iowa visit this weekend. He has an offer to walk on. Perry’s is also highly interested in Stanford University, according to Rivals.

Rivals — While the Hawkeyes may be out of the running for Seantrel Henderson, his former teammate QB Mark Alt returned home from an offical visit to Iowa with a scholarship offer. Alt previously committed to Minnesota to play hockey. He is a one-star QB, according to Scout.

Scout — Ohio native TE Ray Hamilton is a big guy at 6-foot-5 220 pounds. He is a three-star recruit according to Scout. And he now holds an offer from Iowa for 2011.

Scout — Ellis Jordan and John Chelf have decided to walk-on at Iowa to join their former Iowa City High teammate A.J. Derby. The two were key players in Iowa City High’s 2009 4A State Championship team.

Jordan is a running back who passed up numerous Division II offers and Chelf a wide receiver who passed up an offer from Minnesota State and the opportunity to walk on at Iowa State to join the Hawkeyes.

You know who else was a walk-on at Iowa and also an Iowa native? Dallas Clark. He’s playing for his second Super Bowl Ring with the Colts.

Rivals.com—Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz decided not to go through with an in-home visit set up for yesterday with the nation’s top prospect Seantrel Henderson, this according to his father, Sean.

If you’re a subscriber to Rivals, you can find out why the family says the visit was canceled.

According to a comment in Hawkeye Nation’s forums, Seantrel’s dad is quoted as having said, “Tell (the Iowa fans) that he pulled out because we wouldn’t give them our final official visit.”

The only folks who will be buying that load of crap are those who don’t know much about Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa program.

You know, I wasn’t going to say anything but Sean Henderson has kind of been an overly-controlling [insert your own word of choice here] throughout this entire process. I think we’ve probably heard more out of Sean Henderson’s mouth than his son’s. That’s a bit unfortunate, considering this is mostly Seantrel’s decision.

I’m sure Ferentz had a more than sufficient reason for pulling out of the visit. I’m positive it wasn’t because Henderson didn’t chose (or his father didn’t chose) Iowa as his last official visit.

I can think of one good reason why the Hawkeyes may have decided they don’t need Henderson: the extra luggage that would be his father. Sometimes, it’s OK to let the kids make their own decisions.

One Hawkeye Nation commenter suggested that Iowa didn’t want the attention of having the nation’s No. 1 recruit. While this might be true, I don’t think Ferentz would have said no if Seantrel had decided to attend Iowa. I don’t think it would have gotten to the point of a in-home visit being scheduled had that been the case.

Oh, well…it’ll soon be old news.

More Headlines:

Des Moines Register—Freshman running back Josh Brown and sophomore defensive back David Cato have both indicated they will be transferring from the University of Iowa to schools closer to their homes.

Hawkeye Nation—Read a Fox Sports columnist’s best case scenario for the Hawkeyes in 2010 — a national title game vs. Alabama

Hawkeye Nation—Shonn Greene helped influence DeMatha’s Marcus Coker to commit to the Hawkeyes, could help bring in more prospects.

Gazette—The Iowa Hawkeyes have some big holes to fill on the offensive line. No, really. Nobody is over 300 pounds.

Gazette—Iowa will have nine scholarship running backs on its roster in the fall. Is Ferentz crazy? No.

All is not quiet on the Seantrel Henderson front.

First, according to Henderson’s father, Sean Henderson, Pete Carrol’s hike out of USC to Seattle for his NFL dreams hasn’t changed the Trojans’ standing in the Seantrel Sweepstakes.

For the full story: GameFaceMN

Second, and perhaps more importantly, Henderson’s father announced that his son will decide which college to attend on Feb. 3. Henderson’s decision will be announced live on Tom Lemming’s show on CBS College Sports.

Hey, Mediacom, why don’t you pick that up just for Feb. 3? That would be nice. Thanks!

In other news, Henderson is also looking to raise his ACT score from 17 to 19.

Full story: TwinCities.com (Pioneer Press)

After the U.S. Army All-American Bowl wrapped up, HawkeyeInsider.com caught up with Iowa Hawkeyes commit TE C.J. Fiedorowicz and talked about his game experience and Seantrel Henderson’s possible future with the Hawkeyes.

Future Iowa Hawkeyes Andrew Donnal, C.J. Fiedorowicz and A.J. Derby along with prospective recruit Seantrel Henderson will take the field for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl tomorrow at Noon CST in San Antonio Texas.

Donnal, a four-star, 6-foot-7, 285-pound offensive tackle out of Ohio and Fiedorowicz, one of the top TE prospects in the country, will be lining up for the East while fellow OT Henderson (6–foot-8, 300 pounds) and Iowa City High QB A.J. Derby will battle it out from the opposing sideline for the West.

Henderson was named the West’s MVP on Thursday

The bowl game, which features some of the nation’s top high school prospects, is celebrating it’s ten-year anniversary and will take place in San Antonio’s Alamo Dome.

NBC will broadcast the game live, so check your local listings and all that fun stuff.

Most recruiting services have written off the Iowa Hawkeyes as a possible choice for the nation’s top prospect,  offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson.

Henderson, a five-star prep out of Cretin-Derham Hall (Saint Paul, Minnesota), has drawn interest from many schools, including Iowa. Lately, however, talk of the 6-foot-8, 300-pound monster landing in Iowa City has been difficult to come by.

The Hawkeyes are no longer considered in the running for Henderson according to ESPN.com and Rivals.com . Both sites agree that Henderson is leaning towards Florida, Miami, Ohio State, Notre Dame and USC—no Iowa. Rivals even lists Iowa as one of the many colleges Henderson in which no longer holds any interest.

Yet there is still hope for the Hawkeyes according to one recruiting website—Scout.com .

Rob Howe of Scout and HawkeyeInsider.com reported yesterday that Henderson is, in fact, still interested in the Hawkeyes.

So, why have the discrepancy between Scout and the other websites? Well, perhaps Henderson has simply done an excellent job of keeping his decision-making process hushed—a difficult feat nowadays.

Is it accurate to say nobody really knows which schools Henderson is leaning towards?

Henderson’s top five according to ESPN and Rivals —Florida, Miami, Ohio State, Notre Dame and USC—are the schools Henderson chose to visit. That doesn’t necessarily mean Henderson has narrowed his list to a top five of those schools.

Iowa and Minnesota are two schools Scout still claims Henderson has medium interest in—along with the top five schools from the other websites.

Does Scout know something the other recruiting services do not?

Henderson may not have visited either school but a viable reason for that could be the two schools are close to Henderson’s home. He may have had a better feel for Iowa and Minnesota than those universities that are further away.

It should be noted that Henderson attended a camp at Minnesota and traveled to Iowa City to watch the Hawkeyes shut out the Gophers on Nov. 21 during an unofficial visit.

Either way, taking an official visit could be a sign that Henderson has his favorites—for the time being—but it doesn’t rule out other schools.

It is widely agreed upon by many recruiting experts that Henderson enjoys the Midwest. This, along with proximity to home, may be a reason Iowa is still in the mix.

However, Henderson has also stated that he enjoys metropolitan campuses—a disadvantage the Hawkeyes will have to work around.

During his visit of Ohio State, Henderson said he enjoyed the similarities Columbus shared with Minneapolis/St. Paul. According to ESPN.com, Henderson said Columbus also had a very “Midwestern feel.”

Iowa has plenty of that to offer, Seantrel.

A new development that could evolve into quite the bargaining chip for the Hawkeyes is the early departure of Bryan Bulaga.

The Hawkeyes have always been known for “growing” offensive lineman into top NFL prospects. With Henderson’s size, he’s already on a fast track to the NFL.

Iowa will also field a very young offensive line in 2010—with or without Henderson. Henderson’s chances of landing a starting job right off the bat are undeniably high with the majority of the Hawkeyes’ line from this year throwing their hats in for the NFL Draft.

However, with Riley Reiff and Julian Vandervelde among the most experienced returning linemen, Henderson would by no means be a one-man show.

When was the last time the Iowa Hawkeyes fielded a weak offensive line? It’s been a while. Iowa’s line coaches are excellent when it comes to developing NFL-caliber athletes.

Seantrel Henderson, should he choose the Hawkeyes, could become yet another high-end, first-round pick to come out of the University of Iowa.

Heck, should Henderson put his career in the hands of the Hawkeye coaching staff, he could even top Robert Gallery’s No. 2 overall pick back in 2004.

Just a quick update here on Seantrel Henderson.

It appears the Iowa Hawkeyes still have a decent chance at landing one of the nation’s top high school prospects.

Both Rivals.com and Scout.com include Iowa among the top schools in which Henderson is interested.

If site placement means anything on Rivals or Scout, the Hawkeyes are right where they want to be in the recruitment race. Both sites have Iowa listed second–behind Florida–on Henderson’s list of schools.

Miami, which earned Henderson’s final official visit scheduled for Jan. 29, is listed third.

That’s good news but Henderson was rather reserved in an interview with GopherHole.com when asked what he enjoyed about his visit to the University of Iowa. The site quotes Henderson as saying he wasn’t sure about Iowa because he only got to see the game against Minnesota and not much else.

The interview also suggests Henderson may be looking for a metropolitan campus—something he wouldn’t exactly find in Iowa City.

Updates on Henderson will come as I get them. Stay tuned.

Seantrel Henderson, Minnesota AP’s All-State Player of the Year, has included Iowa in his top eight schools, according to ESPN.

Henderson took an unofficial visit earlier in the year to the University of Iowa with a teammate who  claims the two enjoyed their trip.

Henderson remains unclear as to what school he will travel to for his fifth and final allowed “official” visit. Many—including ESPN—speculate that it could go to Oklahoma. Henderson and those close to him have said that other options remain open.

ESPN gives Iowa and Miami (FL) shots at overtaking Oklahoma’s scheduled slot.

For now, a lot of attention has been given to Notre Dame with the rocky territory that is the Irish coaching situation. It sure would be a shame if Notre Dame were to upset Henderson with its selection at head coach and send him to say…Iowa.

Henderson, ESPN’s No. 4-ranked recruit in the nation, could be Iowa’s first five-star recruit—and could be Iowa’s only shot at picking one up this year.

It may not be likely for the Hawkeyes to remain in the picture but what are your thoughts?

Can the Hawkeyes pick up Henderson?