Ferentz on Hitchens

Anthony Hitchens was a late name that came up when safety David Cato transferred out. Hitchens was primarily a running back at Clearview (Lorain, Ohio) High School, but will play safety at Iowa. He visited Iowa on one of the last weekends of recruiting without an offer. Iowa offered and Hitchens, who had offers from Indiana and Kansas, accepted on the spot.

Hitchens was one of five recruits secondary coach Phil Parker helped reel in this season. Parker recruits Michigan and Ohio. I remember seeing pictures of Parker and Ferentz sealing deals in Michigan late last month.

Links -- Here's a story from Hitchens hometown paper, the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, from when he committed. . . . Here's a story from northern Ohio Morning Journal on Hitchens' versatility. He won't be going into a defensive position cold turkey. . . . Here's the Cleveland Plain Dealer story on his committment.

Bio -- From UI sports info: High school honors - - Named first team all-state, all-county and all-conference as a junior and senior . . . earned Lorain County Golden Helmet Award . . . named area Player of the Year by Lorain Morning Journal . . . Career - - earned four varsity letters as a linebacker, running back, kick returner and punt returner . . . team captain as a junior and senior . . . holds school records for points in a season and career and most career yards . . . collected 154 career tackles, including 12 QB sacks . . . recorded five interceptions, forced six fumbles, recovered six fumbles and scored four defensive touchdowns . . . collected 76 tackles and eight QB sacks as a junior . . . had 76 tackles, with three QB sacks, as a senior . . . also had 3,864 career rushing yards and 52 touchdowns on 519 rushing attempts . . . collected 16 career pass receptions for 213 yards and four touchdowns . . . scored two touchdowns on kickoff returns . . . led high school team to a 10-1 record and a state championship as a junior . . . also lettered in basketball and track.

Personal - - Born 6/10/92 . . . open major . . . Merit and Honor Roll member . . . parents are Norma and Anthony Hitchens . . . high school coach was Mike Collier.

Ferentz on -- Iowa recruited three safeties in this class. One of them or maybe two will play next season: "I think it's possible because we don't have a lot of depth right now. We feel great about our experience at both starting positions and they won't be out there again this spring. They both had offseason surgery. Like they did a year ago.

"So, when you guys come out to the scrimmage, April 17th, it's going to be the same old thing. Geez, don't look very good. Hopefully we'll look better when fall rolls around. But I think it's very possible. We're going to need some guys to get involved in the two deep, and we'll see what kind of competition we have this spring.

"The guys that are healthy are going to have a great opportunity to get some quality work and show what they can do. And then we'll see what the young guys can do when they get here. But that is something that we're hoping maybe we can get a little bit of help there."

That was Ferentz saying safeties Tyler Sash and Brett Greenwood had shoulder surgeries for the second consecutive offseasons.

Projection is fun -- Hitchens is an athlete. His rushing numbers got him scholarship offers as a running back. He appears to be a solidly built 6-1, 200 pounds. We'll find out more about his wheels in August.

Of the three safeties Iowa brought in -- Don Shumpert and Tanner Miller are the others -- you'd think Hitchens might have the biggest learning curve, given that he did almost rush for 4,000 career yards. That said, he did a lot of damage on defense. He could be a depth/special teamer next fall.

Miller and Shumpert told me they will start their careers at free safety. I imagine Hitchens, one of the younger members of this class, is pegged as a strong safety. It's probably good he has "hit" in his last name.