Mid-Prairie's Levi Duwa rides the Hawkeye dream

Iowa football offered Mid-Prairie prep Levi Duwa a scholarship sometime on Saturday, which ended up being the Hawkeyes' spring scrimmage and a recruit-o-rama.

Around 9 a.m. Sunday, the 6-3, 225-pounder tweeted that he was committing to the Hawkeyes.

'I want to thank everyone who recruited me throughout this whole process,' Duwa wrote. 'It has been an honor to go around and meet a lot of awesome people and coaches and see a lot of amazing places! I also want to thank everyone for all of the support that I have gotten over the last couple of years. It means a ton!

'After a lot of thinking and talking to my parents I have made my decision. I'm excited to announce my commitment to the University of Iowa.'

Dream come true! I'm a Hawkeye! April 24, 2016

Dream come true! I'm a Hawkeye! pic.twitter.com/HxLqBqwfZp

— Levi Duwa (@LeviDuwa)

Duwa picked the Hawkeyes over offers from Minnesota and Eastern Michigan. He is the 10th commitment for Iowa's 2017 class. Last season for the Golden Hawks, Duwa had 75 tackles with 24.5 tackles for loss and 14.5 sacks.

His family wore Iowa gear to the spring game. You kind of knew this would be a quick turnaround.

'We came home and couldn't believe it was happening for real,' Duwa told HawkeyeReport.com. 'We kind of talked it over and made sure that is for sure where I wanted to go.'

Was it was a quick conversation?

'Yeah, I'd say so,' said Duwa, who was a state runner-up as a 220-pounder in the Class 2A state wrestling meet. 'We pretty much all knew that was my main goal and it was pretty easy to figure that out.'

Duwa, who has yet to have been assigned a star rating by Rivals.com, projects as a defensive lineman, either end or tackle, at Iowa. Duwa is the fourth area prep to commit to the Hawkeyes for 2017 (the national signing period begins Feb. 1, 2017), joining North Fayette D-lineman Juan Harris, Mount Vernon O-lineman Tristan Wirfs and Solon tight end Jacob Coons. Two other Iowans, Bettendorf O-lineman Mark Kallenberger and Madrid D-lineman Cory Kirkpatrick, also have committed to the Hawkeyes.

Currently, Rivals has Iowa's 2017 class ranked third in the Big Ten and 12th nationally.

'I know Tristan Wirfs and Coy Kirkpatrick from track and throwing,' Duwa told HR. 'I like those guys a lot and have talked to them a bunch. I know Jacob Coons from Solon. It was nice getting a chance to talk to them at the spring game and for some reason they thought the offer was coming.'

With a relatively small senior class, Iowa is expected to sign around 17 for the 2017 class, but that number could change. After Saturday's scrimmage, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz announced that defensive back Omar Truitt has left the team. Also, wide receiver Andre Harris didn't dress for the scrimmage and his status is unknown.

Also Saturday, New Jersey wide receiver Frank Darby told NJ.com that he has decommitted from Iowa and will reopen his recruitment. Darby was supposed to sign with Iowa in February, but fell short on his SAT score so both parties agreed to wait on a score and some grades.

Lincoln head coach Robert Hampton, Darby's prep coach, told NJ.com 'He qualified and got his SAT score where it needed to be, but the Iowa coaches wanted him to attend a prep school for a semester for some academic seasoning. Frank didn't want that, though. He wants to play right away and he felt that after watching the Iowa spring game, that he could help the team out this season.'

Hampton told NJ.com and HawkeyeReport.com that the split was amicable. Darby, who didn't sign a letter of intent with Iowa, also had offers from Syracuse, Pitt and UMass. The Jersey City, N.J., native had 34 catches for 1,015 yards and 11 touchdowns as a senior at Lincoln.

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