Where Iowa’s 2025 recruiting class stands ahead of crucial month of June

IOWA CITY — An important month on the recruiting calendar is nearing.

Rewind a year, and Iowa football had 10 verbal commitments in its 2024 recruiting class heading into last June.

Then Iowa hosted 22 recruits on official visits in June — the 10 already-committed prospects and 12 undecided prospects. All 10 already-committed visitors remained committed to the Hawkeyes, and 11 of the 12 undecided visitors committed to Iowa by the end of the summer.

“A few guys put out their commitments a little later in July, but basically the Monday following our big weekend we had secured commitments from 20 of those guys from that big weekend, which I think is pretty impressive,” Iowa football recruiting director Tyler Barnes said retrospectively during the early signing period in December. “More impressive than that is none of these guys have wavered the entire time since they've committed to us.”

It will be hard to top last year’s recruiting efficiency, but here is where Iowa’s 2025 recruiting stands as the Hawkeyes look for another successful slate of June official visits:

Where the 2025 Iowa football recruiting class ranks

Recruiting rankings are always an inexact science. They carry a particularly large asterisk at this point in this year when comparing Iowa’s seven-person class, for example, to Penn State’s 13-person class or Washington’s five-person class.

That being said, here is how the 2025 Iowa recruiting class compares to its peers nationally and across the 18-team Big Ten, as of Friday afternoon:

On3: 34th overall, eighth in Big Ten

247Sports: 42nd overall, 12th in Big Ten

Rivals: 38th overall, 10th in Big Ten

Who has committed to Iowa football in 2025 class so far

Iowa has seven commitments from scholarship players so far in the 2025 class. With the exception of Thomas Meyer’s four-star rating, the rest of Iowa’s commitments have three-star 247Sports Composite ratings.

These commitments are in addition to 2025 quarterback Ryan Fitzgerald, who chose a walk-on opportunity at Iowa over scholarship offers elsewhere at the FCS and even FBS levels.

Iowa football 2025 recruiting targets to watch

Iose Epenesa, the younger brother of former Hawkeye A.J. Epenesa and current Hawkeye Eric Epenesa, is the biggest name to watch.

The five-star recruit from Edwardsville, Ill., will take his official visit to Iowa on June 8. He already has taken an official visit to Penn State and also plans to visit Missouri, Utah and Miami (Fla.) in June.

Terrence Smith is a wide receiver from Aurora, Ill., with a four-star 247Sports Composite rating. His other offers include Iowa State, Minnesota and a slew of FBS Group of Five and FCS schools. He will take an official visit to Iowa on June 21-23.

Mason Woods, the son of Iowa special teams coordinator LeVar Woods, has offers from Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State and Wyoming along with his hometown Hawkeyes. The Iowa City West athlete is expected to take his official visit to Iowa on June 21 with many other key targets, per 247Sports.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy four-star offensive tackle Nick Brooks committed to Iowa. Then he decommitted. A reunion could still be possible. Even for a coach like Kirk Ferentz who preaches about only taking players who 100 percent want to be there, a player of Brooks’ caliber could be hard to pass up on.

Which positions are needs for Iowa football?

Iowa appears to be in especially good shape at quarterback and tight end. Getting a quarterback like Sullivan or Fitzgerald would be considered a success. Landing both of them while only using one scholarship is a coup. Then at tight end, the Hawkeyes have two of 247Sports’ top 40 tight ends in the class.

Another linebacker would be nice, but is not essential. Iowa took three linebackers in the 2024 recruiting class, but only two in the 2023 and 2022 classes.

Other position groups, as usual, have a crucial next five weeks of recruiting on the horizon.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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