Recruits: One for you and one for you

They might run into each other Saturday. In a few years, they literally might run into each other on Saturday.

Jacob Gannon will wake up in his Iowa City home this morning. He'll put on a cardinal-and-gold T-shirt and head to Ames for the Iowa-Iowa State game. The Iowa City West senior will cheer on the Cyclones, where he'll play football after accepting a scholarship to ISU this summer.

“I'll be in the student section,” said Gannon, a 6-foot-6, 255-pound offensive tackle.

Two-and-a-half hours to the west, Austin Vier will wake up in his Huxley home, eight miles from the Iowa State campus and Jack Trice Stadium, put on something black and gold and hit the road to cheer on the Hawkeyes.

He's going to meet up with Denison-Schleswig standout O-lineman Brandon Scherff. The two future Hawkeyes will check out the rivalry from the fans' perspective before they're on the sidelines.

“We'll be there,” said Vier, a 6-6, 225-pound quarterback-tight end prospect from Ballard High School. “I met Brandon during recruiting. He's a great guy. Hopefully, it turns out the right way.”

And such is the crisscrossing of Iowa's two FBS football programs.

Gannon is an Iowa State legacy. His dad, Mike, lettered at ISU in 1978. The Gannon family is friendly with the Butlers of Iowa City. Zach Butler was an Iowa City High all-state offensive lineman who ended up co-captain on the 2002 ISU team.

It's a road that has been traveled, the Iowa City kid to Iowa State.

“I talked to Zach and he said it was a great experience for him,” said Gannon, who carries a 3.75 GPA at West. “He said you can't go wrong with either school, they're both great schools. He said he had a great experience in Ames and he thought, looking back, it was a better choice for him.”

Gannon is basing a lot of his choice on academics. He's interested in computer science.

Also, Iowa didn't offer a scholarship while ISU did. Gannon attended camps at Iowa. Iowa coaches told him they liked him, but they also said they only had three offensive line scholarships to award this season. Two of those have been claimed (Andrew Donnal and Scherff) with three more possible offers still out.

“Just playing it by numbers, I knew it probably wasn't going to happen,” said Gannon, whose recruitment to ISU began during junior day in February 2008. “I had the offer from Iowa State and I wanted to have it decided before the (football) season started.”

Iowa City West Coach Brian Sauser said teammates have teased a little bit, but only because they wanted to watch their teammate and friend play at Kinnick Stadium.

“They're very supportive,” Gannon said. “Everyone here is a big Hawkeye. There's an occasional joke or so, but everyone is pretty good about it.”

Vier was in a similar situation. Iowa offered after he went to a camp in Iowa City this summer. Iowa State was interested but hadn't offered.

“Iowa offered first and that was my dream school,” Vier said, “and that just kind of worked out like that.”

Vier lives in Cyclone country, but his eyes seem to see more and more Hawkeye these days. A scholarship will do that.

“It's not as Cyclone as you might think it is here,” Vier said.