Hlas: Another Signing Day, a lot more of the same

Clemson and Alabama were nowhere to be found in the final coaches' Top 25 college football rankings of 10 years ago.

Rutgers, on the other hand, finished that 2006 season ranked 12th. So things change. But to say they change radically or permanently? Not so much.

College football's recruiting signing day — or Signing Day, depending on how religious you find it — came and went Wednesday. It seemed like 99th verse, same as the first.

The consensus top two recruiting classes in the nation belong to Alabama and Ohio State, nothing new there. They just happen to have a combined five appearances and two championships in the three years of the College Football Playoff.

'I'm just guessing Ohio State is up there,' Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said Wednesday. 'I'm going to take a wild guess, Alabama is pretty high, I'm guessing. So things don't change, and that hasn't changed a lot since '81, either.'

Iowa, according to Rivals.com late Wednesday afternoon, has the 39th-ranked class. Its final Rivals rankings from 2013 through 2016 were 51st, 56th, 59th and 42nd.

So the song remains the same. Iowa is still Iowa, where the recruiting is decent but will never set what little is left of Paul Finebaum's hair on fire.

The Hawkeyes went 4-8 in the 2012 regular season and 12-0 in 2015, but the pendulum usually settles in that middle 8-4 area, like last season. So much always depends almost as much on how many players came and left as those who came and stayed.

But what fun would it be to say this year's recruiting story is simply more of the same? Without using any recruitnik criteria, I see things to like about Iowa's newest 22 scholarship players.

1. Two are from Florida.

Ferentz's program hasn't done a lot of business there in recent years, but it was a state that helped him take Iowa from tough times to good ones.

The names of Floridians who once played for Ferentz still resonate. Brad Banks, Colin Cole, Abdul Hodge, Fred Brown, Maurice Brown, C.J. Jones. Difference-makers.

New Hawkeye running back Kyshaun Bryan, is from St. Thomas Aquinas High in Fort Lauderdale. That's the alma mater of Brown and former Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock, and is widely considered the nation's premier high school football program.

The 2016 Michigan and Wisconsin teams had 11 Floridians apiece. Ohio State had six, two from St. Thomas Aquinas.

2. Safety Geno Stone of New Castle, Pa., de-committed from Kent State

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Normally, hearing the Hawkeyes grabbed someone from the clutches of the Mid-American Conference would induce shrugs. Except when it comes to defensive backs.

The Hawkeyes swooped up Desmond King of Detroit after he gave a verbal commitment to Ball State, which was after he verballed to Central Michigan. The only other big-school offer Bob Sanders of Erie, Pa., had besides Iowa was Ohio University.

New Castle is about an hour from Erie, less than that from football-loving Pittsburgh and Youngstown, Ohio.

Geno Stone from New Castle. He has to be a hitter, doesn't he?

3. A.J. Epenesa.

The defensive end from Edwardsville, Ill., is a five-star recruit, Iowa's first in 12 years. Many younger Hawkeye fans have always wondered what it's like to have one of those.

Plus, he's the son of former Iowa defensive player Epenesa Epenesa, whom Hayden Fry playfully nicknamed 'Repeat.' Now it really is a repeat with his son headed here.

4. Iowa has signees from Solon, Mount Vernon and Mid-Prairie high schools

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All three have sent other football players to contribute at Iowa over the years. To compete at those former Eastern Iowa Hawkeye Conference schools, you must spit nails and use your fists for hammers.

OK, I made up that last part. Some things from Signing Day get embellished a tad.