Hawkeye Football Signing Day: Straight-up balers

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Landan and Levi Paulsen's dad grew up on a farm. Their dad's two brothers also farm. Their grandfather farms near the community of Moville, out in the plains of northwest Iowa.

Landan and Levi live in town. They play sports at Woodbury Central High School and their dad went through the back-and-forth of trying to play sports and live on a farm 15 miles away.

You know this doesn't mean the Central seniors skip out on farm work. It's very much the opposite.

They wrestle with a hill full of thistles, chopping it down old school not with a machine at Weaver Ranches in Moville. They fix fences and, when they have to, build them. They jump on four-wheelers and herd cattle.

'That's pretty fun,' Landan said. 'You sit on a four-wheeler and just call them. They're like a dog, I'm not kidding you. They just come right up to you and the whole herd will be following you.'

What the twin brothers, who'll sign national letters of intent today to play football at the University of Iowa, enjoy most is baling hay.

These guys are big. Landan is 6-6, 285 and Levi is 6-6, 275. So, they kind of have what you need to be really great at baling hay. They do it the old school way. They walk behind the hay wagon, grab the bale and toss it on board.

'That's a tough job, but that's our favorite thing to do,' Landan said. 'We get paid a lot better than working at A & W or McDonald's and it's rewarding. A lot of people know us because we're some of the few people who know how to bale hay and who are willing to bale square bales for farmers around the area.'

The Paulsens bale for some farmers on a regular basis, but they also get random calls for this particular service. During a normal day in the summer, Landan estimated that they out up 1,500 to 2,000 bales a day.

If these two aren't working outside, they're playing outside. They hunt and fish and trap. Oftentimes last fall, the Paulsens would return from a road football game after 11 p.m., but still would make it out for deer hunting.

Part of the reason they picked Iowa was for its course offerings in environmental engineer and environmental science.

'I want to do something outdoorsy,' Levi said. 'I don't see myself sitting behind a desk my whole life.'

What does this have to do with football and the Hawkeyes? Everything.

Iowa is expected to sign 21 prospects today, including nine Iowans, which ties for the most (2009) in the Kirk Ferentz era. Kids from Moville and Des Moines and Hartley and Pella and Iowa City will sign on with the Hawkeyes. This doesn't leave Iowa with a million shining stars in the recruiting ratings.

Rivals.com has the Hawkeyes ranked 51st nationally and 10th in the Big Ten. Scout.com had Iowa No. 42 in the nation and seventh in the conference. 247Sports has Iowa 51st and eighth in the B1G.

The Paulsens are a good case study for the stars. They committed last March and they didn't do the dance of announcing a commitment and then proceeding to take visits as though they were uncommitted. That trend in recruiting picked up last year and is now the norm for a lot of the nation's elite prospects.

So, Iowa picked up a commitment from twins who play Class A football in northwest Iowa nearly a year ago. The drama was over. The Paulsens had interest from Iowa State, Stanford and Wisconsin, but Iowa was their only offer.

Only seven of Iowa's 21 commitments picked Iowa after October 2014 (including five in 2015). Ferentz mentioned 'maximum recruiting efficiency' during a January news conference, and, if you look at it, Iowa's prospects committed early and stuck.

That doesn't play well in the star game, which thrives on drama and tables full of hats. The flip side is a class with nine recruits from Iowa also won't move the needle.

The Paulsens hear the skepticism and you know what? They agree. They are the first ones to admit that they're raw prospects. They played Class A football in a town of 1,629.

'We're pretty small for a small town from Iowa,' said Landan, who spent a lot of weightroom time trying to teach teammates how to lift.

'When we went on our official visit last weekend, we sat down with Brian Ferentz [Iowa's O-line coach, who'll be the Paulsens position coach] and he said, 'We didn't recruit you because you're amazing athletes right now,' Levi said. ''We recruited you because you have the mentality to go and be one of those athletes.' You've got to have the mind-set that I'm going to go out and be the best.'

Brian Ferentz compared the Paulsens to Brandon Scherff, who won the Outland Trophy this season and will be a first-round pick in the NFL draft.

'I know when Levi and I go down there, we're going to have a lot of work to do, that's something I look forward to,' Landan said. 'We didn't have a structured program in our high school. We know we're going in and we're totally raw. That's what the coaches tell us. 'We know you're really raw and undersized for your frames.' We're undersized physically and we have a lot to learn mentally. They'll tell us that straight up. That's one of the things I like about Iowa, they're not going to tell you you're a good player. We know we're decent players and we can develop into good players.'

Levi said he and his brother are 'mirror image' twins. Landan is left handed and wears glasses. Levi is right handed and has 'good eyes.' They also wrestle for Woodbury Central. Levi used to cut weight 30 or 40 pounds to 220, but he gave up on that last year, telling Landan, 'Dude, I'm going to play football and I'm not going to worry about being skinny.'

They alternate as Central's heavyweight. Even though Landan has finished third and second at state the last two seasons, they've decided Levi will wrestle in the individual state meet.

No, there's no tag team in Iowa high school wrestling. That will start next year in Iowa City, when they might very well line up on the same side of the offensive line.

'When we went to camps, we ended up on the left side of the offensive line together a lot,' Levi said. 'It was kind of weird, but that twin stuff is actually true. I knew exactly what he was going to do and we didn't even have to talk. We just 'down, set, hit,' and off we went.'

Iowa 2015 recruiting class

(Already enrolled)

James Daniels, OL, 6-4, 275, Harding High School (Warren, Ohio)

Brady Reiff, DE, 6-4, 215, Parkston (S.D.) High School

Brett Waechter, OL 6-5, 265 H.M.S. High School (Hartley)

(Signing today)

Ryan Boyle, QB, 6-1, 215, Dowling Catholic High School (West Des Moines)

Drew Cook, QB, 6-5, 218, Regina High School (Iowa City)

Adrian Falconer, WR, 6-1, 185, Leesburg (Fla.) High School

Angelo Garbutt, LB, 6-2, 210, Hebron High School (Carrollton, Texas)

Karan Higdon, RB, 5-10, 190, Riverview High School (Sarasota, Fla.)

Jack Hockaday, LB, 6-0, 205, Maroa-Forsyth High School (Maroa, Ill.)

Garret Jansen, DT, 6-1, 250, Pella High School

Justin Jinning, LB, 6-1, 210, The Colony High School (The Colony, Texas)

Anthony Nelson, DE, 6-6, 210, Waukee High School

Jacob Newborg, OL, 6-3, 271, West Lyon High School (Inwood)

Emmanuel Ogwo, WR, 6-0, 175, Horn High School (Mesquite, Texas)

Michael Ojemudia, LB, 6-2, 190, Harrison High School (Farmington Hills, Mich.)

Landan Paulsen, OL, 6-6, 285, Woodbury Central High School (Moville)

Levi Paulsen, OL, 6-6, 275, Woodbury Central High School (Moville)

Michael Slater, DE, 6-3, 265, Parkway Central High School (Chesterfield, Mo.)

Jerminic Smith, WR, 6-1, 175, South Garland High School (Garland, Texas)

Nate Vejvoda, TE, 6-5, 215, Providence Catholic High School (New Lenox, Ill.)

Nick Wilson, LB, 6-2, 205, Dowling Catholic High School (West Des Moines)

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com