Welcome, once again, to the recruiting mailbag.
As always, feel free to send me questions over Twitter or to [email protected]. I know I do the weekly call-out for questions on Twitter on Monday, but I’m happy take questions any other day of the week, too.
Let’s get to this week’s answers.
You all made history this week. Unofficially, I believe this is the first week since the invention of the computer that someone didn’t ask a question about Oskaloosa big Xavier Foster for the recruiting mailbag.
Well … you’re getting an update anyway.
I was chatting with Foster’s dad, DaJuan Foster, Monday night for a separate story you’ll see over the next couple weeks. He said Xavier is planning to announce his decision in the first couple weeks of November, with Nov. 11 as a target date.
Nothing is set in stone, obviously. But it sounds like Nov. 11 is the plan, as of now.
In other news, the Fosters’ Sept. 20-22 official visit to Providence went well.
DaJuan said they didn’t really know what to expect, but they were impressed with the city and the campus. And it was very clear that Providence is a basketball school.
“The school was cool. Being there — it was so small. And the resources are unbelievable,” DaJuan said.
Xavier Foster is set to take his final official visit to Iowa from Oct. 11-13, the weekend of the Penn State football game. Baylor landed four-star 7-footer Zach Loveday last week, which probably completes its 2020 recruiting class and pulls the Bears out of the running for Foster. DaJuan said they’re trying to work out final in-home visit dates with the schools in the mix, which, if Baylor is out, would be Iowa State, Iowa, Providence and Virginia Tech.
In case you missed it, Iowa hosted Milwaukee four-star forward Jamari Sibley and Pittsburgh three-star shooting guard D.J. Gordon for official visits over the weekend.
And the Hawkeyes are in solid position for both.
Following his visit, Sibley told Rivals that Iowa was one of his two finalist schools but he didn’t want to name the second. He officially visited Minnesota recently and is slated for an official to Georgetown this weekend. Clemson and Syracuse have previously been involved, and Sibley has consistently shown interest in Iowa State, too.
Although he now plays for Oak Hill in Virginia, Sibley is a Milwaukee product with deep ties to the area. And after talking with a source familiar with the Milwaukee basketball scene, it sounds like Iowa’s momentum with Sibley is legitimate.
Sibley is a versatile, 6-7 forward whose college position is probably the 3 or 4, so he can play alongside Foster. Iowa was in to see him Wednesday at Oak Hill.
Gordon is something Iowa needs: an athletic, off-ball perimeter player. After talking with one of his AAU coaches, it sounds like the 6-5 product of First Love Christian Academy is focusing on Iowa, Minnesota and Penn State. He has already officially visited Penn State, and he’s set for a trip to Minnesota Oct. 11-13.
Another official visitor to know
Iowa offered Massachusetts three-star big man Josh Ogundele on Sept. 26, and he confirmed with me that he’s planning to officially visit Iowa Oct. 11-13. He also has an official to Rhode Island planned this weekend.
Ogundele is a sturdy, 6-10, 240-pound center out of Worcester Academy.
It’s interesting that he’s set to visit the same weekend as Foster. They play the same position. And, unless Iowa sees Foster as a 4 or it wants to add two centers in the 2020 class, you’d figure the staff wouldn’t take Ogundele until it knows what Foster will do.
No need to freak out yet. Miyan Williams, the high-three-star running back out of Cincinnati, is still committed to Iowa State, and he could very well stay that way.
But, he is open to the new interest from Ohio State, which offered him a couple weeks ago. Sometimes, when a committed recruit receives a new offer, he’ll come out and say he’s still fully pledged to his school and the new offer doesn’t change that.
That hasn’t exactly happened here.
Williams is publicly saying that he’ll likely take an unofficial visit to Ohio State later in the fall, and that he still needs to learn more in order to make a final college decision.
For Iowa State, the relationships with Williams are there. And they’re strong. Strong enough to say the Cyclones may still be the betting favorite. Staffs have to be prepared for every situation, though. So Iowa State will likely keep an eye out for other potential 2020 running backs if Williams winds up a Buckeye.
Top-100, four-star tight end Theo Johnson is going to be confident he can earn a spot on the field no matter where he goes. If he thinks Iowa provides him with the best chance for success and an NFL future and all that jazz, that will matter more. Remember: Michigan, one of Johnson’s other top schools, also already has two tight end recruits.
So, I’m just not sure having guys already committed at his position is going to make a world of difference to someone as talented Johnson.
But he may need something far smaller than a world of difference to make a decision.
If we’re getting to the point where Johnson is splitting hairs, a crowded depth chart in his year at his position may not hurt … but it almost certainly wouldn’t help.
Iowa is competing with Penn State, Michigan and Georgia for the 6-6, 240-pounder.
I would want Iowa to go full Oregon Ducks. Full Seattle Seahawks. Neon on neon.
Give me a blindingly bright yellow top with “IOWA” in bolder-than-bold black letters on the front. Then, pinstripe pants with the same yellow and black to give anyone watching a delightful headache. For the helmet, give me a dark gray base with a slightly less dark gray tigerhawk on either side.
It would be horrendous.
But it would be unforgettable, and very much not the norm for Kirk Ferentz’s Hawkeyes.
Matthew Bain covers recruiting, Iowa/Iowa State athletics and Drake basketball for the Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Network. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @MatthewBain_.
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