re: Class of 2019 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: That's a Wrap Edition

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CEDAR HILL, Texas -- Camden (Ark.) Fairview 2019 offensive tackle and 247Sports Composite four-star prospect Stacey Wilkins competed at Sunday's UnderArmour Dallas regional camp and told 247Sports that he plans two upcoming spring game visits.

"I'm going to OU's spring game next week (April 14), and then Alabama's spring game the following week (April 21)," Wilkins said. "Then I'll have The Opening (Dallas regional camp) on the 29th, and after that's all over I can start planning my other visits."

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It’s that time of year again -- commitment time. The dam finally broke when it came to 2019 commitments this past week as some huge names came off the board, at least for now, with early commitments. Here are the top ones from the week.

1. QB Sam Howell, Florida State — Howell is an elite QB that can do it all and is great fit for what Willie Taggart wants to do on offense

2. ATH Diwun Black, Ole Miss – A great athlete pickup, Black could play linebacker, defensive end or even defensive back if he starts on defense. All I know is that he has good size and is a superior athletic talent.

3. DT Keyon Ware-Hudson, Oregon – A big, athletic defensive tackle who can get after the passer and chase things down, he’ll be a key to the Oregon defense sooner than later.

4. LB Anthony Solomon, Miami – He’s not the biggest linebacker, but he loves to hit and he can cover a ton of ground. He’s also very good in coverage.

5. DB Moses Douglass, Kentucky – A tall and rangy defensive back he could play nickel before he settles into safety and he’s a very important legacy recruit. This was a close battle for Kentucky and one it needed to win badly.

6. DE Braedon Mowry, Texas A&M – A high motor kid with a great frame and excellent ability as a pass rusher but also against the run. He’s an important in-state keep for Texas A&M.

7. DE Rashad Cheney, Alabama – He’ll play inside at the college level and be a gap shooter for the Tide. He has outside pass rushing ability with a frame to stay inside.

8. QB Grant Tisdale, Ole Miss – How about this 1-2 punch over two years at quarterback with Matt Corral in 2018? Ole Miss makes the list twice and the recruiting Matt Luke and company have been doing is off the chain.

9. QB Ryan Hilinski, South Carolina – He’s very accurate, sees the field well and has a great feel for the game. I like him better than his ranking right now and think he could be a four-star for the Gamecocks.

10. QB Paul Tyson, Alabama – He’s an excellent decision-maker, doesn’t force the ball or turn it over and he has a compact and quick release. You hate to use the word game manager, but that’s what Alabama has had in the past and he could be that guy down the line.

11. QB Garrett Shrader, Mississippi State – He’s evasive, he can run and extend the play and has good field vision when moving around. His arm strength needs a little work, but his accuracy makes up for it.

12. DT Ledarrius Cox, Tennessee – He plays a tough position to recruit, he’s an athletic kid with power and plays with good leverage and he is physical. Those are all things Jeremy Pruitt loves.

13. QB Jalon Jones, Florida – This is the kind of quarterback Dan Mullen has had success with at all stops as Jones is just starting to scratch the surface of his potential.

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Jaylen McCollough

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2020 RB Zachary Evans

A newly-minted five-star in the class of 2020, Evans cemented his status with his showing at the Houston stop of the series. In fact, if it weren’t for a fluke injury suffered by Evans when he landed on his shoulder during a drill, he likely would have walked away with MVP honors. Nevertheless, the highly-coveted prospect has everything college coaches love in a back, including speed, vision and cutting ability. Texas A&M, Texas, Ohio State, Alabama and several others are among the programs in the mix early in his recruitment.

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2019 RB A'Montae Spivey (Phenix City, AL)

A virtual unknown on the recruiting trail coming into the Mobile stop, Spivey earned MVP honors over several other backs with elite offer lists. He impressed with his ability to catch the ball in the open field as well as his quickness in space at his size. Since the event, Cincinnati has joined the race for his recruitment but expect several other programs to join his list once they get a chance to evaluate him in person.

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Take a glance at Iowa football’s current offer chart. You'll mostly see prospects from the states you'd expect.

According to Rivals, Michigan players hold the most offers at 20. Then there’s Missouri and Texas at 14, Illinois at 13, Ohio and Indiana at 12, and Iowa at 10. No shockers in the top seven.

But at No. 8, there’s a new state in play for the Hawkeyes.

And with running backs coach Derrick Foster on staff, this state will be in play for the foreseeable future …

Alabama.

Iowa has seven offers out to Alabama prospects — more than it has out in Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas and Wisconsin.

For comparison, the Hawkeyes had offered only five Alabama kids over the past 17 years.

A native of Goshen, Alabama, Foster became Iowa’s 10th assistant in early February. He’d spent the previous two seasons as running game coordinator at Samford, an FCS program in Birmingham, and he’d spent the first five years of his coaching career in Georgia, Tennessee and Louisiana.

But Foster's strongest ties are in his home state.

He came to Iowa City at the start of the Feb. 9-April 14 quiet period, so he hasn’t traveled home to recruit yet. Still, he quickly offered five Alabama players within his first two weeks on staff.

"The biggest thing about it is (Alabama prospects) truly believe that we can get a couple players down there that’d be interested in coming up and playing in a Power Five, Big Ten school like Iowa," Foster said in a conversation with the Register after his spring practice press conference. "(Hopefully we could) go down there and pick a couple — steal a couple good football players."

That’s the plan.

Because Iowa, which doesn't traditionally recruit the deep South, now has an inroad with one of the region's most talent-rich states.

Alabama currently boasts the country’s fifth-most 2019 prospects in the 247Sports Composite database (101). Its 150 rated prospects were the sixth-most for 2018 and its 168 rated prospects were the fifth-most in 2017. Outside the "Big Four" of California, Texas, Florida and Georgia, it may be the next-most talented football state.

The question is: Can the Hawkeyes create a small-scale pipeline? Iowa has a recruiting footprint in Connecticut thanks to quarterbacks coach Ken O'Keefe, who grew up there. But there's obviously less competition in Connecticut than Alabama.

So, even with Foster's connections, can Iowa establish a legitimate recruiting footprint in a powerhouse state it's barely touched in the past 20 years?

We asked some experts to find out.

Is there room for Iowa in the Alabama recruiting scene?

Yes — especially in the 2019 and 2020 classes, said John Garcia Jr., 247Sports’ football recruiting analyst for the South. Of the schools that don’t consistently recruit Alabama, Garcia said Iowa, Virginia and Duke have tried to work their way into the state the most this spring.

"If there’s a year for an Iowa to come make a splash, it’s this 2019 cycle," he said. "It’s as deep as we’ve ever seen. That’s how you get (a pipeline) started: If you get one, who knows what it could turn into after that point."

Chad Simmons, Rivals’ recruiting analyst for the South, agreed.

"There’s more three-star guys that are being identified as Power Five guys (in Alabama)," he said. "That allows a school like Iowa — with some type of connection — to get in there and maybe pull one or two guys per cycle. That would be a win, in my opinion."

Of Iowa's seven offers in Alabama, six are three-stars. Here's a quick look at all seven:

- A.J. Finley, St. Paul’s Episcopal (Mobile) — three-star RB, notable offers from Duke, Ole Miss, Purdue, Tennessee
- Larry McCammon, Hoover (Hoover) — three-star RB, notable offers from FAU, Ole Miss, Tulane, South Alabama, Southern Miss
- Daevion Davis, James Clemens (Madison) — three-star DT, notable offers from Duke, Louisville, Ole Miss, Purdue, Missouri
- Ke’Shun Brown, Carver (Montgomery) — three-star LB, notable offers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia
- Christian Williams, Daphne (Daphne) — four-star CB, notable offers from Auburn, Alabama, LSU, Florida
- Jaydon Hill, Bob Jones (Madison) — three-star CB, notable offers from Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Duke, Tennessee, Nebraska
- Brady Ward, St. Paul’s Episcopal (Mobile) — three-star 2020 OT, notable offers from LSU, Florida

Steve Mask is Finley and Ward's head coach at St. John’s Episcopal, Alabama’s reigning Class 5A state champion. He has a longstanding relationship with Foster and was one of the first calls to congratulate him when he got the Iowa job.

Mask thinks Iowa could do "very well" in his state.

"Alabama and Auburn can’t take them all," he laughed. "We’ve had kids leave here — even at St. Paul’s — we’ve had kids leave here and go to Western Kentucky. We’ve had them go to Northern Illinois. We’ve got kids in surrounding areas that signed with Minnesota.

"So the Big Ten presence and the northern presence is already here."

Does Iowa have groundwork in place to establish a pipeline?

Yes, Mask said. And Foster is a huge part of that. Iowa's running backs coach has a good reputation in his home state.

"He’s very well-respected from our end," Mask said. "The thing I’m impressed with about Derrick is that he comes in and doesn't put on any airs. He’s just his same self. He does it the way it’s supposed to be done."

Like Foster, Iowa also has a solid reputation in Alabama. It will never top the SEC, but its NFL track record certainly helps, Garcia said.

"Kids in Alabama recognize that," he said. "And I think for a school like Iowa, even compared to maybe Duke and Virginia, there’s a certain affinity for kids for that classic football — the classic Big Ten style we think of. There’s a certain 'Bama group of kids who really like that. To them, that’s football more so than what we see with the spread stuff."

Added Mask: "There’s no doubt about it with what coach (Kirk) Ferentz has done at Iowa over the years, and the fact that they’re always competitive on the national level. I think there’s a lot of respect for what goes on in the Big Ten."

Foster said he’s been struck by how excited Alabama prospects and coaches have been about Iowa coming down to recruit the state.

"It’s big-boy football. That’s how they look at it," Foster said. "This is grown-man, big-boy football. This is Power Five football. I know the only difference is the SEC’s in the South and the Big Ten’s up in the Midwest area. In the South, they have a lot of respect for it."

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Jaren Handy said Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss and likely Florida will receive official visits from him this fall. LSU, the school he was committed to for just a few weeks last month, doesn’t seem to be in the mix for him.

Handy doesn’t regret committing to the Tigers. He said he learned that he shouldn’t rush his recruitment. The main reason why he committed to LSU was because one of his close friends, Zach Edwards, pledged to the Tigers.

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We are two months into the class of 2019 recruiting cycle and with official visits already starting, it’s time to take a look at how things are shaking out in the recruiting rankings. In this week’s SEC spotlight, we take a look at where each team currently stands as well as which uncommitted players are at the top of their list.

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