UNI football's 2018 recruiting class: Mark Farley waits until February to announce signees

CEDAR FALLS — College football's new early signing period lessened the buzz for the traditional National Signing Day that falls every February. However, the buzz for Northern Iowa football is similar to years past as head coach Mark Farley took a different approach in comparison to much of the competition back in December, opting not to publicize his early signing period signees.

'I made the decision not to publicize (the early signing period) because everyone wanted to throw it out there right away and with a second signing period coming up I felt it would benefit us if we would hold our cards,' UNI head coach Mark Farley said. 'We weren't hiding who we signed, we just didn't make it (easily) accessible to our opponents to find out what we had done, and thus I thought it allowed us an opportunity to continue to recruit top young men. Because, say I sign one defensive back in the (early period), I may want to sign two more in the (regular period). So, I didn't want (recruits) looking online saying, 'well, you just signed him why do you want me?' We needed them all.'

After signing 29 players in 2016 and 24 in 2017, UNI's 2018 class count of 21 is unsurprising. What could be considered a surprise is the discrepancy between offensive and defensive players — nine to 12 respectively — with a couple offensive-minded athletes that have the potential to contribute on defense.

'I'm pleased because there's a lot of defense in this class and that's what we really wanted to make sure we garnered on this class,' Farley said. 'Then there's a balance of athletes on the offensive side. This class, there's a lot more skill in it.'

Historically, Farley has largely stuck to redshirting as many newcomers as possible, something he hopes to continue with this class.

'We had to get defense, and actually some of these guys may play for us this year because we lost so many defensive players in this particular class,' Farley said. 'I want to redshirt every one of them if I can, but there will be guys that play in this class. As much as you would like to redshirt people, the times of college football right now dictate that you are going to have to play some of these guys because of depth and there's also some excellent players here that can come in and contribute.'

UNI's 2018 recruiting class: Offense

Name        Position Height Weight Hometown School

UNI's 2018 recruiting class: Defense

Jack Wegher

RB

5-10

205

North Sioux City, S.D.

Purdue (transfer)

Deion McShane

ATH

5-9

155

Freeport, Ill.

Freeport

Sam Ingoli

WR

6-5

205

West Des Moines

Dowling

Eric Mooney

ATH

6-1

190

Huntley, Ill.

Huntley

Trevon Alexander

ATH

6-1

195

Richmond, Mo.

Richmond

Jayden Scott

TE

6-5

230

Omaha, Neb.

Concordia

Alex Allen

TE

6-6

220

Nixa, Mo.

Nixa

Chase Arends

OL

6-1

270

Cedar Falls

Dike-New Hartford

Jordan Hook

OL

6-4

270

Grundy Center

Grundy Center

Name        Position Height Weight   Hometown School

Caden Houghtelling

DE

6-5

240

Cambridge, Neb.

Cambridge

Devin Rice

DE

6-5

220

Liberty, Mo.

Liberty North

Khristian Boyd

DT

6-4

305

Blue Springs, Mo.

Blue Springs

Tim Butcher

DT

6-2

300

Palmer

Iowa Central CC (transfer)

R.J. Clarke

DL

6-4

265

Milwaukee, Wis.

St. Francis

Jordan Gayer

LB

6-3

195

Waverly

Waverly-Shell Rock

Sam Thompson

LB

6-2

205

Van Meter

Van Meter

Taj Moffett

DB

6-0

175

University Place, Wash.

Curtis Senior

Shakespeare Williams

DB

6-0

190

Kansas City, Mo.

Ruskin

Jevon Brekke

DB

6-3

185

Minneapolis, Minn.

DeLaSalle

Roosevelt Lawrence

DB

6-0

170

Tampa, Fla.

Iowa Central CC (transfer)

Tayler Johnson

DB

6-2

155

Minneapolis, Minn.

Minneapolis North