As pivotal recruiting weekend approaches, current Iowa players ‘tell it how it is’

IOWA CITY — Deontae Craig had some apprehension as he arrived in Iowa for his football official visit in 2019.

“I’d be lying to you if I said I was very enthused to come on the official visit,” the Iowa defensive end said this week.

Logistics might have fermented some of that apprehension. His flight was delayed. There was severe traffic as he traveled from the airport to campus because of storms.

“I don’t know if this is going to be for me,” Craig remembers thinking on the car ride to campus.

The visit ended up being a “blast,” though, as fellow Indiana native Tyrone Tracy Jr. (and his roommates Noah Shannon and Terry Roberts) hosted Craig.

“When I got up here, got around Coach (Kirk) Ferentz, Coach (Kelvin) Bell, it was an easy fit,” Craig said. “My parents really enjoyed it. You get to see a lot of the ins and outs of the program that the coaches might not always tell you about.”

Whether in 2019 or present day when more than a dozen 2025 recruits take official visits at Iowa this weekend, Hawkeye players have taken an honesty-driven approach with recruits so “you can make the best decision for yourself.”

“We got players that’ll keep it honest with recruits,” Craig said. “They’ll tell it how it is. And I think that’s what it comes down to on these visits. You want to get around the guys that won’t sugarcoat it, won’t hide the hard truth from you.”

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Iowa safety and former five-star recruit Xavier Nwankpa took his official visit during Iowa’s 23-20 win over then-No. 4 Penn State in 2021 — “kind of hard to forget that one,” he said. Now that Nwankpa is in the role of hosting rather than being hosted, he takes a proactive approach to “see how we connect and stuff like that.”

“When I get a recruit, I try and build a relationship with them before they even step on campus,” Nwankpa said, “so they know who I am, I know who they are.”

The Hawkeyes have 17 prospects expected to take their official visits this weekend — eight already committed prospects and nine uncommitted prospects. (It was previously 18, but Cedar Rapids Kennedy offensive lineman Nick Brooks told 247Sports on Thursday that he was no longer planning on visiting Iowa.)

Here are the nine uncommitted targets the Hawkeyes will try to woo this weekend:

With the exception of Starzyk, all the uncommitted prospects have three-star ratings from 247Sports. Starzyk does not yet have a rating from 247Sports (or the other major recruiting sites), but Kohl’s Kicking Camps rates him as the No. 1 kicker in the 2025 class.

It will be hard to beat Iowa’s recruiting success from last year’s batch of June official visits. Iowa hosted 22 players on official visits; 21 of them signed with the Hawkeyes. That includes a success rate of 20-for-21 with recruits who visited during the third weekend of the month.

Incoming freshman quarterback James Resar — he was one of Iowa’s June official visitors who signed with the Hawkeyes — attributed some of last year’s success to the presence of so many recruits who already committed. (Resar himself committed nine months before the official visit.)

“We really were a connected group that helped kind of draw in some of the people who weren’t so sure yet,” Resar told The Gazette earlier this month.

With nearly half of Iowa’s official visitors having already committed to the Hawkeyes, Iowa’s staff might benefit from a similar advantage again this year.

Not having any storm-related flight delays might help, too. Even those obstacles, though, did not stop Craig from committing five years ago.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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