Notes from HawkeyeReport.com . . .

Iowa's recruiting has picked up, so HawkeyeReport.com's Tom Kakert has dropped us a recruiting column.

Much appreciated and great info! I especially enjoyed the point Tom makes about face-to-face interaction, Eric Johnson's freedom to travel and the importance of relationships. Recruiting is a sales job and relationships are a big deal.

There was a time not so long ago when one or two verbal commits in April would be a big deal for the Iowa football team.

With their weekend haul of offensive line prospect Colin Goebel and defensive tackle Nate Bazata, followed by the Monday evening commitment from Brant Gressel, the Hawkeyes sit at six commitments before the calendar turns to May.

That's a record for Ferentz and a sign that the Hawkeyes have adjusted their recruiting focus to more early verbal commitments. It's also worth noting that all six come from outside the state of Iowa, although you could make a case for wide receiver Derrick Willies being an in-state prospect since he spent the past few years at Burlington High School before moving to Rock Island, Ill., earlier this year.

Honestly, Iowa had no choice because college football recruiting was moving in this direction. They had to change and credit to Kirk Ferentz for making the proper adjustments in his recruiting strategy since the end of the 2011 season.

A big step was moving Eric Johnson from recruiting coordinator/tight ends coach to recruiting coordinator and assisting defensive line coach Reese Morgan at his position. The idea was very simple; Johnson is now freed up to focus more on recruiting duties and evaluation of prospects, which seems to be a growing trend in college football.

One thing that appears to be unique about Johnson's changing role is that he retains the ability to actually go on the road and recruit on a much broader scale while also having the ability to coach players once they arrive on campus. Looking at the Big Ten coaching staffs, at least four have “recruiting coordinators” listed on their coach's web sites, but they are all the primary assistant coach for a position. It's much harder to be the primary position coach and evaluate prospects, let alone get on the road to see them in person. Johnson has the opportunity to do that now for the Hawkeyes and frankly, it's pretty unique.

Many other schools also employ player personnel directors, who manage their recruiting efforts, but it generally doesn't allow them the option to go on the road and participate in recruiting prospects.

While that isn't as big of a deal as it was before the growth of social media, face-to-face interaction matters when it comes to building relationships with recruits, their parents, and high school coaches. This could be a nice advantage for Iowa football moving forward.

It's also hard to say that Johnson's official move to his new “role” is the reason the Hawkeyes are off to a hotter than usual start in recruiting.

Some impact? Sure. It's probably helped Iowa, but it's unlikely that the Hawkeyes have six commits this early because of the change. It's probably fair to say that this is a nice coincidence.

Speaking of social media, while Kirk Ferentz isn't a coach that sends out tweets -- heck, he claims he doesn't even send text messages -- the rest of his staff are embracing Twitter on a daily basis. With spring practice wrapping up this past weekend, Johnson and Brian Ferentz were quickly hitting Twitter with a note that they were anxious to hit the road to start recruiting and finding future Hawkeyes.

It might not seem like a big deal, but many prospects are on Twitter quite a bit and the message is the Iowa coaches are embracing what they enjoy. It might seem like a minor detail to many Iowa fans, but every little bit helps in recruiting. It should be noted that while Iowa is embracing Twitter, Ferentz is still not allowing his players to tweet while they are playing for the University of Iowa.

The biggest change in recruiting is pretty simple, prospects are deciding earlier in the process and you can either embrace that change or get lost in the shuffle. College basketball coaches are used to this, having to offer prospects when they are freshman and sophomores, and taking commitments earlier than any of them would probably like to.

That world is now in full bloom in college football and all you have to do is take a look at the Rivals.com Top 100 to see it. Of the 11 Rivals.com five-star recruits in the Class of 2013, six have already made a verbal commitment to a college program. Over half the Top 50 prospects have made a verbal commitment. Of the Top 100 prospects according to Rivals.com, 52 have made verbal pledges. Ten years ago that would have never happened. Heck, five years ago it wasn't happening.

The landscape is changing and it's not going back to the old days ever again.

Ferentz knew it was changing and he's caught it at the right time. According to Rivals.com, Iowa has the 5th most commitments in the Big Ten. The usual suspects head the list with Michigan landing an amazing 17 verbal commitments, including 13 four star prospects. Urban Meyer and Ohio State are in 2nd with 13 verbal commitments, including one five star and 9 four stars. Penn State is showing no negative recruiting impact to their scandal of the past year with 8 verbal commitments, including six four stars. Michigan State leads Iowa by one with seven commitments. Meanwhile, 1/3 of the conference is stuck at 0-1 commitments as we head into the final week of April.

It's also interesting to look at Iowa and how much of a departure this really is for Coach Ferentz and the Hawkeyes. The most verbal commitments Iowa ever had before the end of April was three and that was in 2010 and that included James Morris, who had already been committed for more than a year, along with Austin Gray and Jim Poggi.

Otherwise it's been one or none in April for Iowa. In 2004, Iowa landed Matt Kroul from Mt. Vernon very early and then Mitch King jumped on board during April. That is the exception to the rule.

Imagine the panic in the streets of Iowa City if this were the 2002 recruiting class when the Hawkeyes didn't pick up a verbal commitment until August. Calvin Davis, Chris Felder, and Warren MacDuffie said “yes” to Iowa in that month, but before then, nothing. Think Iowa fans, or any fanbase of a BCS school, would survive a summer without a commitment on the board?

It should be noted that in recent years, Iowa has generally been at five to six commitments by the summer, so really the huge jump in commitments at this early stage is more like a leap of a couple months. Iowa isn't going to be like the old home of new offensive coordinator Greg Davis, where the Texas Longhorns didn't wait for the ink to dry on one class before putting out the help wanted sign for the next one and see 20 prospects line up to give a verbal commitment.

All spring we have heard about a more aggressive approach on the field on offense and defense under new coordinators. It appears that the same approach is being preached on the recruiting trail as the Hawkeye coaches are trying to lock up prospects early and often. Time will tell if this strategy works on the field, but right now the Hawkeyes have some serious momentum on the recruiting trail and that's a good thing for Iowa Football.

WHO'S NEXT

It doesn't take long for one commitment to roll in to see fans wondering on our message boards about which prospect will be next to jump on board. With three commitments in a matter of days, Kirk Ferentz and his staff are on a bit of a hot streak right now.

Here are a few names to watch in the near future that could make a verbal commitment:

John Kenny, is a 6-foot-2 and 210 pound linebacker from Indiana that visited Iowa City this past month. He had plenty of good things to say about the Hawkeyes following his trip and seems to be closer to a commitment than anyone we could list. He visited Arizona this past weekend and says that he might make a commitment by June.

Indiana is also the home of 6-foot-1 wide receiver Mike Rogers. The Ft. Wayne native holds an offer from the Hawkeye and he plays a position that is a priority for Iowa in this class. He has Iowa at the top of his list of schools. Will he wait for more offers or jump at the opportunity in front of him? Stay tuned.

It's also worth looking at some of the in-state prospects as far as a commitment in the Class of 2013. Currently, Iowa doesn't have an in-state commit and give then have six on the board, it's pretty amazing none of them are from the Hawkeye state.

With two defensive tackles on board, Sam Raridon from West Des Moines Valley might be taking a look at the situation in Iowa City and feel some pressure to commit. So far he says there's no pressure and he's not worried about reserving his spot, but that could certainly change.

His teammate at Valley, Jake Campos is getting plenty of attention this spring. The big offensive tackle visited Iowa on Friday and has the likes of Oklahoma coming through later this week to visit. He doesn't appear to be in any hurry to make a decision. The same can be said for Des Moines Dowling tight end Jon Wisnieski. He has offers from Iowa, Nebraska, Purdue, and Iowa State, with Oklahoma showing strong interest. He doesn't appear close to making a decision at this time.