Scheelhaase headed to Illinois
Four-star dual-threat quarterback Nate Scheelhaase, an Iowa legacy, just announced live on Kansas City TV that he’ll attend Illinois in the fall of 2009.
Wow! What a blow to Hawkeyes fans.
Scheelhaase had his college choices narrowed to six — Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. Rumors early this week had him headed for the Sooner state, which, I think, is a choice most Iowa fans could have lived with. Oklahoma is an elite program the Hawkeyes likely won’t see on the schedule. But Illinois, ILLINOIS!!!, that’s a different story. That’s a direct slap in the face to an Iowa program that sees itself as far superior to its Orange and Blue rivals across the Mississippi River.
Seriously, though, why, other than the fact that his father, Nate Creer, played at Iowa in the mid-80s, would Scheelhaase, the No. 2-ranked dual-threat QB in the Class of ‘09, go to Iowa, where he’d be a square peg pounded into a round hole in offensive coordinator Ken O’Keefe’s drab offensive system. At Illinois, he’ll have a year to study under dual-threat prototype Juice Williams before competing for the job. And, at Illinois, he’s joining a program that appears to be on the rise coming off a trip to the Rose Bowl. Iowa, meanwhile, is 19-18 the past three seasons, including an 11-13 mark in the Big Ten, and, right now, there are not a whole lot of reasons to believe the Hawkeyes are on the upswing.
This is a blow to Iowa’s Class of ‘09, which stands at two commits, West Des Moines Valley lineman David Barrent and Ohio running back Brad Rogers. (For the record, Iowa probably only will sign between 12 and 15 players in February) I still believe Scheelhaase’s buddy, Mt. Pleasant wideout Jordan Cotton is Iowa-bound. His father, Marshall, played there, and the Hawkeyes have shown him by far the most interest. He told me last month that it would take a lot for a school to pull him from out of state. But Kansas still is in the picture, and Cotton and Scheelhaase were in Lawrence on Tuesday checking out the new football complex on the Jayhawks’ campus.
Cotton sent me a text message yesterday saying he expects to announce his decision next week. Losing him would be a bigger blow than losing Scheelhaase, who was considered somewhat of a long shot because of his national clout. But of the three major instate recruits still out there – Cotton, Cedar Rapids receiver Keenan Davis and Sioux City running back Brandon Wegher — Cotton is considered the most likely to pick Iowa. If he were to commit out of state, there could be a mass exodus – not to mention a major meltdown among the Iowa faithful. So far, Cotton has offers from Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa State and Colorado. Illinois has shown interest but has yet to offer. If Cotton were to follow his buddy Scheelhaase to Champaign, well, there may be a black and gold mob showing up at Kirk Ferentz’s door wielding pitch forks.
As I’m writing this, I received a text from Cotton saying it’s between Iowa and Kansas, so he will not be following Scheelhaase to Illinois (collective sigh of relief from Iowa fans).
As for Iowa landing a quarterback in 2009, there still are offers out to four others, including Jordan Reed, a 6-foot-3, 230-pounder from Connecticut who has family ties in Iowa. His father and most of his extended family live in Dubuque, and he grew up a Hawkeyes fan. But Reed, a 4-star prospect who some liken to last year’s biggest prep star Terrelle Pryor, has offers from Florida, Oregon and Penn State, among others. So, why would he come all the way to Iowa? He sounded lukewarm when I talked to him last month.
The other QBs Iowa has offers out to, according to Rivals, are Dolapo Macarthy (3-stars, Merrillville, Ind.), Darren Jones (3-stars, Harvey, Ill.) and Morgan Newton (3-stars, Carmel, Ind.). The Hawkeyes signed three quarterbacks in the Class of 2008 and still have incumbent Jake Christensen for another two seasons, but Ferentz has said, ideally, he’d like to add a quarterback each year.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Although I am not happy that Nate is headed to a competitive Big Ten school, it was not a big surprise that he did not pick Iowa. I think Iowa was a long shot at best and only was considered because his dad played at Iowa. I agree that it would be more of a tragedy to lose either Cotton or Davis. It appears that Cotton and Davis both have Iowa as their #1 choice. I think it helps that we now have Erik Campbell as the Wide Receiver Coach!
As for our quarterback situation, we will probably sign at least one quarterback in this class. We have a rather small class we can sign due to the sizes of the last two classes and the returning Jr College players we have returning back to the team. Don’t forget we signed two quality quarterbacks last year. A 4 star recruit and a top 12 quarterback and a 3 star recruit that has set every modern Iowa quarterback record. I feel comfortable that we will have a quality quarterback for the next several years.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Frustrating is what losing another good recruit is, and I highly doubt we get Reed. We just are not pulling in this kind of talent. On the other side I still have faith in this coaching staff: I think they can coach and feel they have their backs against the wall. They don’t seem to be great recruiters, but hopefully losing some bad apples will actually help this team. I think the team was in need of an attitude adjustment and I’m counting on it this year. We will know right away as we need to perform well even against out first two opponents and we’ve got to beat ISU! If we can start fast I think we will have a pretty good season. COME ON HAWK FANS: WE’RE DUE!!
July 17th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Well, given that our first two opponents are Maine and Florida Int’l, we damn well better start out 2-0. The ISU home game and especially the Pitt away game will begin to tell us whether it will be a painful repeat of last year or whether the Hawks might be taking us on a fun ride in ‘08.
It’d be nice to have landed Scheelhasse, but he really doesn’t fit well with Iowa’s system. I think that was probably a primary consideration…I still think Eric gives too much credit to the Illini for one nice season, and takes too much away from the Hawks for two bad ones. But Cotton is really the one that we want…let’s hope he comes!
July 17th, 2008 at 11:42 am
What’s the over/under on years before Zook gets Illinois in hot water with the NCAA?
July 18th, 2008 at 7:52 am
When I said start out well against our first two opponents I was not talking about just winning. Like Hayden would say, We have to look good doing it.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:28 am
It sounds like many Hawk fans are back to the days of settling for the table scraps. I’m not one of them. This kid is a huge loss for many of the reasons discussed. Keenan Davis is going to be the key. How many stud receivers come out of Iowa. Maybe 1 every 4-5 years. We can’t let them out. Otherwise you end up rolling the dice on some thugs like Bowman and Douglas and end up with the debacle we’ve had.
As for this season, it’s pretty much now or never for this staff. O’Keefe’s offense can’t lay another egg and think his job is safe. KF probably has 2 more years to right the ship. I can’t believe how far and fast this program has fallen.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I meant to say this kid is not a huge loss…
July 18th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I don’t like the direction the program has taken over the past couple of years but I don’t think it is all doom and gloom either. I agree with the other article the Eric has published indicating the problems seem to have begun with the recruiting classes of a couple of years ago. Bottom line, with our three (3) 10 win seasons we began to look at the number of stars versus the character and desire of the athlete. KF built this program on the likes of Sanders, Clark, Greenway, Gallery and many others that were not heavily recruited. We can not afford to lose the good quality recruits from the state, but we also need to do a better job screening our prospective athletes. A lot of the legal issues have come from players that we did not have access to several years ago and areas where we have not had previous success recruiting. There are good athletes that we can fit into our program that have the character and desire we are looking for!
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:55 am
BOO HOO Iowa fans Iliini scores again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!