Hawkeye Football | Athlete Ruben Lile Commits to Iowa

Detroit Cass Tech's Ruben Lile, teammate of Laron Taylor, has given Iowa his verbal commitment. Lile is a three star recruit per Rivals and is rated the 10th best player in the state of Michigan.

Lile put on a Hawkeye baseball cap after his team's game this evening. Lile also had custom made Nike's that read "Future Hawkeye."

(H/T Rob Howe via Lile's Facebook page)

Lile holds offers from Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Purdue and a host of MAC schools. He becomes Iowa's 10th verbal commitment for the 2012 football recruiting class.

Hawkeye Football | Ricky Stanzi Gets His First NFL TD

Sure, it was preseason but a nice pass from the Manzi:




If you missed the Hawks in NFL preseason action Thursday and Friday don't fret, Hawkeye Drive has the breakdown of which Hawks are playing today and when/where.

Hawkeye Football | Comparing the Two-Deeps: Spring, Fall and Opening Day

The newest Hawkeye football two-deeps are out, here they are:

OFFENSE:

WR Marvin McNutt, Steven Staggs
LT Reilly Reiff, Andrew Donnal
LG 60 Matt Tobin/Brandon Scherff
C James Ferentz,Connor Bofelli
RG Adam Gettis, Woody Orne
RT Marcus Zusevics, Brett Van Sloten
TE Brad Herman, CJ Fiedorowicz/Zach Derby
QB James Vandenberg,  A.J. Derby/John Wienke
WR Keenan Davis, Kevonte Martin-Manley
RB Marcus Coker, Jason White
FB Matt Meyers/Jonathan Gimm

DEFENSE:

DE Lebron Daniel, Dominic Alvis/Joe Forgy
DT Thomas Nardo/Dominic Alvis, Carl Davis
DT Mike Daniels, Joe Gaglione
DE Broderick Binns, Steve Bigach
OLB Tyler Nielsen, Tom Donatell
MLB James Morris, Bruce Davis
OLB Christian Kirksey, Anthony Hitchens
CB Shaun Prater, Jordan Bernstine
SS Collin Sleeper, Jordan Bernstine
FS Micah Hyde, Tanner Miller
CB Greg Castillo, Micah Hyde

SPECIAL TEAMS:

P Eric Guthrie
PK Mike Meyer, Trent Mossbrucker
LS Casey Kreiter

I thought for fun we'd compare them with the previous two-deeps released from Iowa (Spring and Fall camp) and see the evolution of Iowa's 2011 two-deeps. Here are the Spring two-deeps:

Offense:

WR Steven Staggs, Don Shumpert

LT Reilly Reiff, Matt Tobin

LG Brandon Scherff, Drew Clark

C James Ferentz, Connor Bofelli

RG Adam Gettis, Woody Orne

RT Markus Zusevics, Brett Van Sloten

TE Brad Herman, CJ Fiedorowicz

QB James Vandenberg, John Wienke

WR Keenan Davis, Kevonte Martin-Manley

RB Marcus Coker, Jason White

FB Jonathan Gimm, Jacob Reisen

Defense:

DE Lebron Daniel, Dominic Alvis

DT Mike Daniels, Cole Heissel

DT Carl Davis, Mike Hardy

DE Broderick Binns, Joe Forgy

OLB Tyler Nielsen, Dakota Getz

MLB James Morris, Terrance Pryor

WLB Christian Kirksey, Anthony Hitchens

LCB Shaun Prater, Jordan Bernstine

SS Collin Sleeper, Tom Donatell

FS Micah Hyde, Jack Swanson

RCB Greg Castillo, BJ Lowery

Special Teams:

P Eric Guthrie, Jonny Mullings

PK Mike Meyer, Trent Mossbrucker

LS  Kreiter

And the two-deeps released prior to Fall camp:

OFFENSE:

(1st team, 2nd team)

WR McNutt, Staggs/Shumpert

LT Reiff, Tobin

LG MacMillan, Scherff

C Ferentz, Bofelli

RG Gettis, Orne

RT Zusevics, Van Sloten

TE Herman, Fiedorowicz

QB Vandenberg, Wienke/Derby

WR Davis, Martin-Manley

RB Coker, White

FB Gimm, Rogers

DEFENSE:

(1st team/2nd team)

DE Daniel, Gaglione

DT Alvis, Bigach/Nardo

DT Daniels, Davis

DE Binns, Forgy/Hardy

OLB Nielsen, Getz

MLB Morris, Davis

OLB Kirksey, Hitchens/DiBona

CB Prater, Bernstine

SS Sleeper, Donatell

FS Hyde, Miller

CB Castillo, Lowery

SPECIAL TEAMS:

P Guthrie

PK Meyer

LS Kreiter

Okay, so let's look at the changes/differences:

• McNutt missing from the Spring two-deep was due to an injury rehabbed in the Spring
• Shumpert is no longer listed in the two-deeps
• Redshirt freshman Andrew Donnal makes an appearance after Fall camp (2nd string LT)
• AJ Derby appears to have passed Weinke as the #2 QB, we'll see who's the first off the bench
• Matt Meyers came out of nowhere to claim the starting FB spot
• Matt Tobin has moved from the back-up LT to possible starting LG
• Cole Heissel has given up football to focus on academics
• BJ Lowery has a broken wrist and is no longer in the two-deeps
• Tom Donatell moved from back-up safety to back-up OLB
• Mike Hardy is no longer listed in the two-deeps
• Gaglione and Alvis appear to have moved from DE to DT, they may be the next men in
• Thomas Nardo worked his way back into the two-deeps following a Spring injury
• Dakota Getz, Jacob Reisen, Terrance Pryor and Jack Swanson are no longer in the latest two-deeps
• Bruce Davis is back and running second string MLB
• No true freshmen are listed on the latest two-deeps but my guess is 4-8 will play
• Nolan MacMillan is injured (sports hernia) and no longer in the two-deeps

Now, for a refresher and in case you are asking Who Is? some of these guys, I have links for you below:

Hawkeye Football | Who Is? Wide Receiver Steven Staggs
Hawkeye Football | Who Is? Matt Tobin and Casey Kreiter
Hawkeye Football | Who Is? Brandon Scherff?
Who is Woody Orne? | Plus Hawkeye Links
Hawkeye Football | Who Is? Wide Receiver Kevonte Martin-Manley
Who is Jason White? | Plus Hawkeye Links
Hawkeye Football | Who Is? Fullback Matt Meyers
Hawkeye Football | Who Is? Thomas Nardo
Who is Tom Donatell? | Plus Hawkeye Links
Hawkeye Football | Who Is? Collin Sleeper

Hawkeye Links | Wegher, Rodney Coe, Woodbury and Herbstreit

Just a quick run through of what's what. Here's the latest links and tweets:

According to Blair Sanderson, of Rivals.com (via Twitter), former Hawkeye Brandon Wegher is not eligible to play for Iowa Western Community College. According to Sanderson, Wegher fell a couple of credits short.

Sanderson also had an update on former Hawkeye four star recruit Rodney Coe. Again, via Twitter, Sanderson states that Coe will play running back, wide receiver, and maybe even quarterback for IWCC.

In other football recruiting news, Rob Howe, of Hawkeye Insider, says that prospect Greg Kuhar has selected Northwestern. Kuhar did hold an Iowa offer. Howe also says that wide receiver Andre McDonald will visit Vanderbilt and Ohio State. McDonald expects to make a decision between Iowa, Ohio State, Minnesota and Vanderbilt after his September 24th visit to OSU.

On the hoops front, Adam Woodbury has set-up his official visit to Iowa. Woodbury will be on campus September 17th, the weekend the football team will host Pittsburgh.

Kirk Herbstreit made his favorites to win the Big Ten known yesterday. Kirk selected Ohio State to beat Iowa in the first Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis. Here was his take on ESPN:

Hawkeye Basketball | You Can Probably Scratch Ray Lee Off the List

Iowa extended an offer to Ray Lee, combo guard from Romulus, Michigan in June. Lee, also recruited by Baylor, Iowa State and others, left the Michigan area to play at Huntington Prep in West Virginia.

Adam Zagoria, of Zagsblog, reports that Lee was arrested by Marshall University police yesterday. Lee was charged with four counts of felony sexual assault.

The Huntington Herald-Dispatch states that "Lee forced the 17-year-old female victim into multiple positions and attempted to have sex with her." Lee did not have her consent, according to the report.

Huntington Prep's head coach Rob Fulford says “He has been removed from the basketball program for conduct detrimental to the team.”

Lee is a Top 150 player for 2012. Rivals ranks him as a three star recruit and 21st rated point guard prospect.

There was no mention of a court date, obviously Lee is innocent until proven guilty. Certainly a story to watch.

***********UPDATE 8/26/2011 5:47 PM CST**************************

Zagsblog has an update on Ray Lee. All charges against Lee may be dropped. Zags reports that because of a team rules violation he's still no longer part of the Huntington Prep hoops team.

Hawkeye Football | Freshman Melvin Spears Working at Defensive End

First, if you haven't seen the third installment of camp highlights from GoHawks click here. Included in those highlights are a couple minutes from Iowa's scrimmage that took place last Friday night (closed to fans and media). It appears that true freshman and linebacker recruit Melvin Spears has moved to defensive end.

Spears (#49), seen in the image above, is playing left defensive end. The defensive tackles were Darian Cooper and Louis Trinca-Pasat.

Spears was one of five linebackers recruited to Iowa in the 2011 class. In February, Spears said Iowa was looking to him to play inside linebacker.  Of the five linebacker recruits he is the largest, listed at 230 pounds.

Spears appears to be working with the third team there. He'll need to gain some weight to be a Big Ten defensive end. If the position change sticks I would imagine this would be a redshirt season for Spears. I still believe we'll see a true freshman linebacker or two play special teams this season. It makes sense to stagger the four linebackers left in the 2011 class.

Hawkeye Football | WR/DB Malik Golden to Decide Today

Malik Golden, a 6'1" 185 pound wide receiver/defensive back prospect from Cheshire, Connecticut will make his college choice known at his high school tonight. ESPN recruiting reports that Golden will decided between Boston College, Penn State, UCONN and Iowa. Rivals rates Golden as a three star recruit and the number two player in the state of Connecticut.

Desmond Carter, of courant.com, spoke with Golden last night and Malik said he made a "gut decision." Carter also noted that Golden visited Penn State and Boston College last weekend.

Carter also spoke to Golden a week ago and asked about his visit to Iowa that was scheduled in September. Golden told Carter that "I have to go to Iowa because I've only been there once and they were the first to offer me so I feel like I owe that to them." Carter then asked if he'd visit after he's committed and Malik replied with "I might not even take that official but that's the plan right now."

I don't think Golden picks the Hawks but that's just my opinion. I think he stays closer to the East Coast and his recent visit to Penn State may have sealed the deal. He's set to announce around 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm CST.

Youtubes:

Hawkeye Football | Ferentz Meets Sean "P Diddy" Combs

Yesterday I posted that Hawkeye Insider reported a football scholarship offer to Justin Combs, son of Sean "Puffy/P Diddy" Combs. If you're wonder how that offer happened, I think I have a pretty good idea.

Warning, language probably NSFW:

Hawkeye Football | Iowa Recruiting, Looking for "Bad Boys for Life?"

That's right, Scout.com now shows P Diddy's son, Justin Combs, with a football scholarship offer from Iowa. Combs is rated a two star corner back prospect by Scout and holds scholarship offers from Illinois, Virginia, UCLA, West Virginia and Iowa.

Despite his famous father Combs plans to make it on his own. Combs told Ballerstatus.com, "I just want to show my hard work and how it pays off and to show that I deserve that spot and I deserve that scholarship. This why I deserve that scholarship -- I am going to show you why."

Certainly an interesting recruit to follow, if he works half as hard as his dad has in life he'll certainly be successful. Here's Justin in action:

Iowa Corn Will Change the Cy-Hawk Trophy

What became the butt of a national joke, the Cy-Hawk trophy that was first put on display last week will get an overhaul. At a 2 pm press conference representatives for Iowa Corn annoucned that they indeed have heard the voice of both Hawkeye and Cyclone fans and will change the current trophy. Iowa Corn will look to fans for input on the new design.

Here are some tweets from the media either watching or at the live press conference:

RT @HawkeyeNation: 'Can you believe the passon that Iowans have for this series and this rivalry?' Craig Floss of Iowa Corn

RT @HawkeyeNation: "That's a reason why Iowa Corn signed on for this series earlier this year, and we wanted to be a part of it"

RT @GarmanSports: "We have received an overwhelming amount of negative feedback about the trophy."

RT @HawkeyeNation: "We, ISU, Iowa and Iowa Corn knew recreating this trophy could meet with some resistance and that has happened"

RT @marcmorehouse: Changing the trophy! Open process, fans decide!

RT @HawkeyeNation: "Because we have listened, people want something different than what was proposed last week, specifically for the football game."

RT @GarmanSports: They are changing the trophy. Iowans will have a say in the new trophy.

RT @HawkeyeNation: Will make a new trophy, will open process up for the fans to decide what it should be like...

RT @Adam_Jacobi: There will be an interim trophy for next month's Iowa-ISU game. Yes, an interim trophy.

So, we spoke, they listened. Now let's put our collective heads together and find something that works.

Hawkeye Football | Rumor Time: BJ Lowery Broken Wrist?

A couple of message boards have rumors that Hawkeye corner back BJ Lowery has broken broken his wrist and will miss at least a month of action. Here are the posts:

Lowery out for a month (email registration required/free board)
Lowery broken wrist

Lowery was listed on the fall camp two-deeps as a back-up corner behind Greg Castillo. Lowery is in his second year at Iowa. As a true freshman, Lowery played in seven games and recorded five tackles. If he is indeed injured he does have the option of red shirting this season and still having three years to play at Iowa.

The Hawkeyes were already thin in the defensive backfield. Micah Hyde and Shaun Prater were the only defensive backs returning with starting experience. Hyde, who has made the switch to safety, could be an option at corner. I think the coaches believe in Castillo and he looked ready to take on the starting role at Iowa's fall open scrimmage.

The loss of Lowery would open the door for some of Iowa's new faces. Walk-ons Gavin Smith and Jamal Overton were invited to fall camp and were getting reps with the third team. True freshman Torrey Campbell may benefit the most, he was practicing with the second team at Iowa's open scrimmage.


I'm calling this a rumor for now, I'll update this post is something official is released by Iowa.

Hawkeye Basketball | Hoops Prospect Gavin Thurman Visiting Iowa

Word on the street is that Iowa will receive an official visit from basketball prospect Gavin Thurman on September 3rd. Thurman is a 6'7" forward from Wichita, Kansas. Rivals rates Thurman a three star prospect. ESPN recruiting also rates Thurman a three star with a scout's grade of 89. Thurman currently claims offers from Iowa, Drake, Fresno State, Missouri State, Wichita State and others.

Thurman averaged 18 points and 9 rebounds a game last season for Wichita Southeast. His biggest asset is his offense and he says he needs to get stronger. He has plans this year to transfer to Wichita Heights and play with Top 50 player Perry Ellis.

A recent Scout.com update (Aug. 2) says Thurman has Iowa in his top 2. Fran McCaffery and staff may have another commit for 2012 as early as September 3rd. Iowa currently has verbal commitments from Mike Gesell, Kyle Meyer, and Patrick Ingram. Thurman would give the 2012 class an scorer that can play either small forward or power forward.


Here are Thurman's highlights via Hudl.

Hawkeye Football | Has Cole Heissel Given Up on Football?

First, if you are wondering who is Cole Heissel, I was too back in April. Heissel began the spring listed as second string DT on the two-deeps. The 6'6 270 pound walk-on from LeMars, Iowa even earned praise from coach Ferentz at the spring press conference. I wrote in April that I thought he may be working his way towards playing time.

But Heissel has been absent from practice pics this fall camp. I didn't see him participating in Iowa's open scrimmage either. Now, according to this post on Hawkeye Insider (sub required), FUISU states that Cole has quit football to focus on academics.

While it's possible that Heissel wasn't invited to the early fall camp you have to wonder with his debut in the spring two-deeps at DT why he wouldn't be on the list. Thomas Nardo and Steve Bigach were both injured in the spring and you now have the freshmen in camp so maybe there just wasn't room. Or maybe he is in fact going to focus on his school work. Per his HawkeyeSports bio Heissel is a recreation management major.

Will Fran McCaffery Offer Freshman Footballer John Raymon a Hoops Scholarship?

John Raymon was the subject of rumor last week after he posted on his Facebook wall a message that said he may be looking to transfer. Since that post, Hawkeye Report's Tom Kakert cleared the air via Twitter, reporting that Raymon will stay at Iowa and not leave camp.

That's good news. The Hawks can use the depth at DLine and perhaps Raymon can work his way on to the field in 2012.

Now, about this hoops scholarship. I came across this video on YouTube of John getting his baller on. Raymon, shown going Shaq on 2017 prospect Griffin Murphy (5'7" 124 pound point guard), displays slow feet and a terrible jump shot. I'm kidding people, but watch the video, it's kinda funny. And it's good that Raymon is still a Hawkeye.

New T-Shirt Available | Show Your Love for the Cy-Hawk Trophy

I've added some new products and pricing in PSD's T-shirt shop. Below are some examples:

Which includes this image I carefully crafted after countless hours of hard work.

Spreadshirt has all sizes and colors. Happy shopping!