Iowa’s reputation as ‘good line school’ yields fine recruits

Thanks to a surge in line play the last two seasons, Iowa is riding a “good line school” reputation.

Led by end Adrian Clayborn, Iowa's defensive line was the dominant group in the Hawkeyes' 24-14 Orange Bowl victory. Iowa's offensive line wasn't far behind. In the last two seasons, Iowa will have put four offensive linemen in the NFL - Seth Olsen and Rob Bruggeman from 2008 and Bryan Bulaga and Kyle Calloway from '09.

When it comes to recruiting, it's obviously good to be a “good line school.”

It's what helped Iowa pry offensive tackle Andrew Donnal out of Whitehouse, Ohio. Donnal, 6-7, 280 pounds, earned notice at Anthony Wayne High School. He was named to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and played for the USA Junior National team against an international team last weekend in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

He was lineman of the year in Ohio's Division I District. He had 14 scholarship offers, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois.

“Good line school” is Donnal's line. Well, actually his line was “outstanding.”

“Really, it was the great relationships with the coaches,” Donnal said. “They were there all the way. I really like all those coaches, and Iowa is an outstanding line school. That was something that really drew me to Iowa.”

The question was what pulled Donnal out of Ohio and into Iowa City? Ohio State recruited him but didn't offer. His recruitment spawned a sane six-page post on BuckeyePlanet.com. For the record, Donnal was an Ohio State fan. Everyone is where he lives, he said.

“As soon as I knew I was going to Iowa, it was weird,” Donnal said. “As soon as you have a connection with a school and you know you're going there, for the guys I was playing with it was a total turnaround. Everyone is really supportive, though.”

Carl Davis visited Iowa when the Hawkeyes hosted Michigan this year. He liked what he saw and committed before leaving Iowa City. He's intent on keeping up the defensive line tradition, a staple of Norm Parker defenses at Iowa. If the defensive line stops the run and pressures the quarterback, Iowa is probably having a good season.

“I've Facebooked Clayborn and have talked to him a few times,” Davis said. ”I was down there for a whole weekend. Got to see the whole routine. I'm looking forward to it.

“I feel like I'll fit in and keep up the tradition of good D-linemen. I hope I can keep it that way.”

Davis will take a little different path than a lot of Iowa defensive tackles. Iowa has had a recent string of former high school linebackers build themselves into DTs - from Tyler Luebke and Jonathan Babineaux in '04 to Mitch King and Matt Kroul in '08 to Karl Klug in '09.

Davis is coming in 6-5, 300 pounds.

“Yes sir, I'm actually 6-5, 300 pounds,” Davis said with a laugh. “Not 280 or 290 and not 320.”

Davis called himself a “late bloomer” in football. He started getting serious about the game only two years ago. Last year for Adlai Stevenson (Sterling Heights, Mich.) High School, he played defensive and offensive tackle while helping Stevenson to the Division I state finals.

He had 11 scholarship offers, including Wisconsin, Michigan State and Illinois.