Big 12 Classes of 2007: Iowa State

February 16, 2007 by Steve Hanway

Any time a new head coach is hired late in the recruiting season, you have to give them a pass on expectations of their first recruiting class. There's just too little time to assemble your own staff, assess the teams needs, assess the recruits available and willing to come to your school and pull it together into a competitive class. Iowa State needs that pass because they have assembled what I'd consider the weakest recruiting class in the entire Big 12 (Rivals.com and Scout.com each rate ISU 11th out of 12).

The weakness of the class is that fourteen of its twenty-five members receive only a two-star ranking from Scout and Rivals. The class is also heavily represented by junior college players (eleven in all).

The major standout is four-star junior college running back Jamicah Bass. Three other players would be familiar to Husker fans. Wideout Wallace Franklin was originally a member of the 2005 recruiting class before failing to qualify academically and heading to junior college. He was also listed as a commitment to Nebraska's class of 2007 before the Huskers withdrew their offer believing that Franklin was unlikely to qualify academically for the coming year. Omaha's Phillip Bates was the first commitment to Iowa State this year as a quarterback. Nebraska could not promise Bates he would be a quarterback in their program and thus he chose the Cyclones to stay at the position. Junior college cornerback Allen Bell was a player that Nebraska offered late in the recruiting process, but he chose Iowa State.

Twenty-one of the Cyclones twenty-five total commitments joined the class after Gene Chizik was hired. That might be an indication of his value to the program in luring players to Iowa State. Chances are his 2008 class will be better as so much of the process occurs before the 2007 season is played and thus even if the Cyclones were to disappoint on the field, they would be in a good position to assemble a quality class. Early playing time and a hopeful future would be possible lures. Cases in point, Nebraska's 2005 class and Colorado's 2007 class. Both came off bad seasons, but the first full recruiting seasons for the new coaches.

So the real recruiting begins now for the Cyclones and another eleventh or twelfth place finish will mean they may remain trapped in the Big 12 basement on the field for years to come.

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