Iowa lands OL Kozan, RB Meier, QB Beathard
This past weekend was productive for the Iowa football coaches with regard to recruiting.
One of the top high school offensive linemen from Colorado, a star of eight-man high school football in Iowa and a high school quarterback from Tennessee are the latest additions to Iowa’s 2012 recruiting class.
Alex Kozan, a 6-foot-4, 295-pound offensive lineman from Castle Rock, Colo., Nate Meier, a 6-2, 235-pound linebacker/running back from Fremont-Mills High School, and C.J. Beathard, a 6-3, 180-pound quarterback from Franklin, Tenn., all made commitments to Iowa either on Sunday or Monday.
Iowa has received verbal commitments from at least 20 high school seniors and two junior-college prospects.
The junior college players — quarterback Cody Sokol and offensive lineman Eric Simmons — already have signed their letters of intent and are enrolled at Iowa for the spring semester.
The high school seniors will sign letters of intent Wednesday, which marks the start of the national signing period.
Kozan is ranked as a four-star prospect by Rivals.com and the fifth best high school senior in Colorado. He had a host of scholarship offers from BCS schools before narrowing his list to Iowa, Michigan and Auburn.
“All three are great schools academically and athletically,” Kozan told ESPN.com. “I’m blessed to have the opportunities I have.”
Kozan helped lead Valor Christian High School to a third consecutive Colorado state title this past season.
“When I went out and saw him, I really liked him,” recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said of Kozan. “He can play tackle, guard and center if he wants to. He’s very versatile.
“He’s a typical Iowa-type recruit. He’ll be 300 pounds in another year and he knows how to run and he knows how to run block.”
The 6-2, 235-pound Meier led Fremont-Mills High School to its first eight-player state title as a senior this past season. He rushed for 2,494 yards and scored 57 touchdowns and also recorded 112 tackles, including 34 for losses on defense.
Meier visited the Iowa campus this past weekend.
“I like their style of play, and it’s a good fit for me,” Meyer told HawkeyeInsider.com. “I like the coaches there, and the players are really cool. It just felt right.”
Meier set an eight-man mark by rushing for 500 yards and 10 touchdowns during an 80-49 victory over East Mills (Malvern) in October.
According to the Omaha World-Herald, Meier will be the first athlete from Fremont-Mills High School to receive a Division I scholarship since 1969 graduate Barry Anderson, who played baseball at Missouri.
As for Beathard, he backed out of a commitment to Mississippi to pick Iowa after he visited the UI campus this past weekend. Beathard told HawkeyeInsider.com on Monday afternoon that he had just committed to Iowa.
In other recruiting news, junior college linebacker Robert Caldwell committed to North Carolina State over the weekend. Caldwell had been leaning toward Iowa, according to one of his junior college assistant coaches, but Caldwell said Friday that Iowa pulled his scholarship offer.
Caldwell attends the College of the Desert in Desert Palm, Calif.
Junior-college running back Aaron Harris also committed to Cincinnati over the weekend despite receiving a scholarship offer from Iowa late last week. Harris attends Southwestern College in Chula Vista, Calif.
High school defensive lineman Aaron Curry will announce his choice Wednesday morning. Curry, who is from Keller, Texas, has narrowed his list to Iowa and Nebraska.
High school receiver Ian Thomas, who is from Reistertown, Md., also is expected to announce his decision Wednesday morning. Thomas is deciding between Iowa, Rutgers, North Carolina and Virginia.
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
We are loading up the boat with good players. Now, let’s try to give thm something to power the boat with.
Report this comment
I would love to know what KOK and KF can tell this QB to make him think he has a “best shot at the next level” at Iowa. I do love my Hawks but what can they possibly say? “Here at Iowa you will get a great education, you’ll learn how do execute long, delayed hand-offs, once a while we will throw in some 50 year old reverse play…..you know to keep the defense honest, and you’ll run play action after play action and throw 5-7 yard dump passes 90% of the time. Oh, and don’t forget, in our 13 years here at Iowa, we have………ummmmmmmm…….one quarterback in the NFL……he was drafted last year” The great education point was no joke but the rest was a little sarcastic if you couldn’t sense it. I’ll always have and always will say our offense under KOK stinks! I’m sure nervous about Norm leaving since our defense has won more games and his D has saved our vanilla offense year after year. Maybe if Norm was still here, this QB would want to play DL, LB, or in the secondary instead. You know, the positions we actually consistently put in the NFL…besides OL or TE. It’s not quite the same story when we’re talking RB’s, QB’s or WR’s and until then we will continue to be mediocre! Here’s a list, Russell Wilson, Taylor Martinez, Denard Robinson, Braxton Miller, and Dan Persa!! Anything in common with these guys!? Hello! We have our best team in KF’s tenure in 2002 with a QB like Brad Banks and we NEVER get one again!!?? Yes, it was our best team. I understand BB didn’t make the NFL either but my point is times are changing and KF and staff haven’t even thought about buying a ticket for that bus! My ramble is over but my frustration continues with the offense. Even in the off season as evidenced. GO HAWKS!!
Report this comment
most of the time when a qb runs for a while its because the coverage was so good he had nobody to throw to and the qb had decent speed, so what im saying is most qb scrambles are broken plays if you wanna base an offense around broken plays be my guest cause you obviously dont grasp the concept of a pro-style and what the coach is trying to set up during a series… btw its not the coaches fault for poor execution or the d getting lucky
Report this comment
“Here’s a list, Russell Wilson, Taylor Martinez, Denard Robinson, Braxton Miller, and Dan Persa!! Anything in common with these guys!?”
Yes, they all have something in common. They won’t play QB in the NFL. And it’s not KOK’s offense. It’s KF’s offense. Do you know what type of offense KOK ran while he was a head coach at D-III Allegheny, compiled a 79-10-1 record and won a national championship? Not pro-style.
Report this comment
That’s fine, I agree they won’t play in the NFL. My point is we had Brad Banks(who didn’t make it) as the QB of our best team in KF’s tenure and we never go after or land another one? Is our coaching staff that stubborn or that blind? Let me know when we land another Andrew Luck type QB okay guys! Another?
Report this comment
Help me here, and I’m not being critical of you. Banks was with the Redskins when Steve Spurrier was coach. Spurrier did not like Banks because he was not a true, drop-back, NFL-style quarterback that Spurrier is used to, but still did not want to see what Banks could do in a preseason game. How much of that is true?
Report this comment
Broken plays? Have you even watched Michigan’s offense? Of Florida’s with Urban Meyer? Well with Braxton and Urban uniting, we’ll see a whole lot of it after next year!
Report this comment
Before anybody criticizes 8-man football (specifically those who have never watched it), there are still enough football fundamentals in 8-man to see good, honest talent. Yes, an 8-man game moves faster than a 11-man game, but sometimes you can see speed and other skills in an 8-man player that can transition to 11-man.
Report this comment
I’m not sure of the hear-say with BB and Spurrier but it seems to me some other team would have picked him up. And I’m not sure if you think I was knocking 8 man football but for anyone that does, they are wrong. I’m “certain”(KF’s fav word)that Chad Greenway played 8 man in SD. GO HAWKS!!!
Report this comment
I hope whomever gets hired as the next OC has some seriously thick skin like KOK did. I have to laugh when I see people here ripping on Iowa’s Pro-Style Offense, I may be wrong but what types of offenses did Wisconsin and Michigan State run this year? Ah a Pro-Style… In the Big Ten you need to play solid defense, ball control offense, that and minimize turnovers which Iowa failed to do this year. Football always comes down to execution. You can overcome that sometimes with athletic ability but you can’t make a living on it. I don’t think we reached our potential this year and I expect our guys starting with our QB to come back next year more focused and with a purpose. I don’t think Iowa will ever be a sexy team like some of you here keep asking for however if they can avoid injuries and improve they can contend this year.
Report this comment