Iowa Football: Hawkeyes recruit as a 'family'

IOWA CITY - Eric Johnson is a recruitnik's recruitnik. That's his job on the Iowa football staff.

Johnson is in his 13th year at Iowa and his eighth year as recruiting coordinator. The Gazette's Marc Morehouse talked with him last week after Iowa signed a class of 25 recruits.

See video from the interview on Marc's On Iowa blog.

Q: What was the recruiting climate like this year? It's always competitive; was it more sharky this year?

A: It even happened today (Wednesday), someone tried to nail us.

You just have to be careful what you say. You still have to compete on the field, too. It's always a good practice. The less you say, the less you have to take back. We've had some things we've had to deal with off the field, and I think it's a credit to Coach (Kirk) Ferentz and our staff and our recruits for sticking with us. That again shows the strength of this class. We didn't really lose anybody.

This is our family. We are here together. We're going to compete together and we're going to win together. That's why I think this is a very good class.

The guys who stuck with us, stuck with us through a lot of tough things. A lot of teams were coming at them in different directions and they tried to nail us. They held strong, their families held strong. I think that shows why this is going to be a very good class.

Q: This class had a lot of movement at the end (five commits in the last three days). That's the most movement for Iowa in a long time if not ever. Why so much?

A: I think most of it was the fact we had so many scholarships this year. You're positioning and seeing what guys you have to fill positions. We had a couple guys we didn't get at particular positions we were looking for. We always have those guys, well hey, if you've got something, we're going to give it to this guy even though we've already taken at his position. We're going to give it to this guy and that's kind of how it worked out.

Q: Tell me about running back. I know it was a need for this class.

A: It was a big need for us.

Mika'il McCall was the first one to jump on board. He was a kid who was committed somewhere else. Came to a bunch of our games. So we asked if he was sincerely interested in us. He said he was. So we opened the door to recruit him at that time. ... We felt comfortable offering and we feel he's going to be a tremendous football player.

He really has deceptive speed. I don't think people know how fast he really is. Good speed, power back. Reminds you of a guy we've had here before in that respect.

Rodney Coe was the next one to jump on board, a different type of player. He's 6-3 and about 250 to 255 pounds. Unbelievable hands ...

You've got the two big guys right there and then we added Jordan Canzeri. That one did come on our radar fairly quickly, the last couple weeks. He contacted (offensive coordinator) Ken O'Keefe, that's Ken's area (Canzeri is from Troy, N.Y.). Ken really liked the tape and sent it to (running backs coach) Lester (Erb). Coach Ferentz loved the tape. We decided to go on him.

Q: The position that's nearest and dearest to your heart, tight end. I know you brought in three.

A: We went into this class thinking we were going to sign two. We felt very strongly about all three of these guys. Henry (Krieger-Coble) committed first, a person we offered out of our camp. Unbelievable ball skills, showed us everything we were looking for in camp. Good developmental guy. Tough on defense. Needs to learn how to block and do that kind of stuff.

Then, Ray Hamilton. He didn't come to our camp, but he's probably the truest tight end out of the group. You can see him block on tape. You can see him do some of the motion stuff we do on tape. He can run, catch.

Once Ray committed, we already had Jake Duzey in camp. Again, a guy we felt strongly about out of camp. We knew Jake was close to committing, so we actually asked the other two tight ends. This is a guy we feel very strongly about. I know we said we were only going to take two of you guys, but this is a guy we feel very strongly about as a football player.

Ray Hamilton probably had the best quote on it, he said, ‘Coach, this is our team now. Whatever it takes to help us win.' When you have guys who take that kind of attitude, you have a pretty good chance of being successful. That's why we ended up taking three guys.

Q: Is there is a surprise guy? Maybe one you didn't think you were going to get and then did?

I think Darian Cooper (defensive lineman) was a guy we needed and we were hoping we were going to get. We put every bit of effort into getting him and it was great last night when we found out we were getting him. All right, it's done.

Q: What about some trends? It sounds as though some kids will wait to sign their letters of intent. What about that?

A: I don't think that's a good trend. Some of these kids have been recruited now for two years. If you can't make up your mind in two years time ... I don't know.