Saturday night’s game at Penn State is important in the Big Ten standings and for getting into a quality bowl game and all those things, of course.

But it’s also important for the Iowa football program in one other respect: Recruiting.

The Hawkeyes have made an effort to open some new recruiting territories in the East the past few years so any success they can enjoy against the highest profile Eastern power is bound to help them in those efforts.

The Hawkeyes already have three of the best high school players in Maryland verbally commit-ted to sign in February. And another Maryland high school star who didn’t get into Iowa academi-cally this fall – wide receiver Stephane Ngoumou — is now in prep school at Milford Academy in New Berlin, N.Y. (the same prep school that produced Shonn Greene) and apparently is planning to enroll at Iowa next fall.

The three current recruits from Maryland are more highly regarded than many of the Hawks’ previous East coast signees. Greene wasn’t necessarily a big-time recruit (although he turned out to be a big-time player) and Ngoumou was a true sleeper.

But running back Marcus Coker of Hyattsville DeMatha and defensive tackle Travis Ferguson and linebacker Jim Poggi of Baltimore Gilman all are three-star prospects. The Hawks beat Penn State in a head-to-head battle to get Ferguson.

And getting Coker sounds like a major coup. The 222-pound back rushed for 392 yards in 24 car-ries and scored five touchdowns in a game against Maryland’s No. 2-ranked team last week. The only bad thing: He did it against the Gilman team that includes Poggi and Ferguson.