On a national level, is Iowa high school football......

[LukeFeddersen]

In terms of recruiting and overall national rankings, it is:

Overrated
Underrated
About Right

 

[EastIowaHawk]

Somewhere between about right and underrated.

 

[DarkThunder#61]

I don't follow recruiting all that much, but from what I do know, I believe that Iowa is just slightly underrated in terms of our state's perceived recruiting talent.

Iowa is a quality over quantity state in many regards, so that can naturally lead to people undervaluing our talent even slightly.

On the other hand, we are what we are; a smaller state that lacks the size and numbers of a lot of the other top producing states. In most cases, would it be generous to say Iowa produces maybe 20-30 legitimate D-1 recruits each year? (guys who end up on D-1 football teams) Like I said, I don't follow recruiting so I'm basically guessing here.

We do produce some high quality players each year, and keeping those high quality, and highly-recruited, players in-state can be just as rare as when we produce them..........(see basketball for more examples

)

I do think that we're starting to see a slight increase in the state's overall talent level (at least in terms of recruiting) so that's encouraging for the future.

 

[oonfoofoo]

About right - it is what it is. When you travel around hitting combines and camps you see the difference.

I blame it on playing baseball in the summer!!!!

 

[loco60]

Iowa is overrated in National Rankings, for those who don't ratio population directly.
California, Florida, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana,Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania are some states to compare with in regard to population and Division 1 recruits. That doesn't mean that Iowans that are Division 1 recruits don't do well on an individual bases...but the ratings should really be based on populations to recruits ratios. For those states that have higher populations a longer time in warmer weather, a population/recruit ratio should tell the story.

I thought that this site was a guru on that type of stuff.

 

[DSMan]

about right. I do find it interesting that New York produces about the same number of raw DI players each year despite being about six times as big as Iowa population wise.

 

[DarkThunder#61]

Originally posted by loco60:
Iowa is overrated in National Rankings, for those who don't ratio population directly.
California, Florida, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana,Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania are some states to compare with in regard to population and Division 1 recruits. That doesn't mean that Iowans that are Division 1 recruits don't do well on an individual bases...but the ratings should really be based on populations to recruits ratios. For those states that have higher populations a longer time in warmer weather, a population/recruit ratio should tell the story.

Prove it.

 

[pmknicks]

Interesting read DarkThunder:

http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2013/9/11/4718442/college-football-state-texas-california-florida

 

[DarkThunder#61]

So Iowa is 34th in per capita production of recruits, ahead of states like New York, Minnesota, Oregon, Wisconsin and Massachusetts. That means we're overrated?....Alrighty then.

 

[setts1984]

Being ahead of New York is not surprising to me. As most states in the country are ahead of it. Despite its large population, HS football is not on a level with other highly populous states, in terms of the craze. Nor is it in much of greater Northeast region once you get north of PA /Maryland ( outside New Jersey apparently).

Iowa and Oregon are fairly similar in terms of size with both having I believe at the last census under 4 million people living in the state.


I'd say Iowa on a whole is about right or maybe a tad over-rated. out of state schools come into your state to sign Division I talent - or attempt to sign it? - and on how many prospects? The notion that that there is no talent in Iowa is false but I also think that its probably relatively accurate where iowa hs football is nationally perceived IMO

 

[oonfoofoo]

The talent is there it's just hard to evaluate when there isn't much talent to play against. Spent two years in Louisiana on business and the level of competition there is insane. For the one or two studs on a good team in Iowa, Louisiana has 8 - 10. It's also unbelievable to watch a high school game and see 15 - 20 D1 scouts at one game.

Anyway, there's a lot of talent in Iowa but at what level? It's hard to say with the talent level on the other side of the ball that these kids are going against.

 

[rocket2004]

I agree with you oonfoofoo. There are a few D1 prospects in Iowa but not at the level of other states. Our population and the large number of small schools also affects this. I also believe there is little emphasis by the state to promote, prepare and give exposure to football as a whole in the state of Iowa. I would put the overall level of football in Iowa around the bottom 12 states nationally.

A great example is a few of my coaching buddies back home in Ohio had their first scrimmage yesterday. It was a 6 team event where you played the 5 other teams for 20 plays each. They can not charge admission for the first scrimmage but my friend had people pull tickets just to see how many fans showed. This started at 10:00 am and there were over 1,700 people in the stands to watch the 6 teams scrimmage. No college coaches were there but 6-8 scouts from recruiting companies showed. They were there to look at about 25 players. He has already been contacted by these companies to attend their scrimmage next week as well.

These are just my observations heading into my 30 year of coaching.

Good luck to all this season.