There was a recruiting frenzy about two weeks ago now. It started with Derrick Mitchell committing to Iowa on June 21. The Hawkeyes then saw 5 more commits in the next 3 days. So it's time for me to catch up.

Andre Harris was the first of those 5 commits. He is a receiver from Kirkwood, MO (a suburb of St. Louis) and is kind of the typical unheralded guy that Iowa likes to find (Illinois was his only other reported offer).

High School

For Kirkwood High School, Harris had a decent individual year as a junior. On offense he recorded 22 receptions for 288 yards and 3 TDs. On the other side of the ball he had 29 tackles and 4 INTs. As a team, though, Harris had a great year. Kirkwood went through the regular season undefeated and made it all the way to the Missouri Class 5 title game before losing.

Quick Analysis

There were no videos that I could find of Harris and the scouting services don't have him ranked (Rivals, Scout, 247sports, ESPN). So it's pretty hard to evaluate him. It is easy, however, to guess why he was offered by Iowa: speed. It's something Greg Davis has talked about openly that he wants out of his receivers and it's something that Iowa doesn't really have at this point. Harris has been timed at a 4.42 in the 40, so the speed is definitely there.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Hopefully everyone is out with friends and family and enjoying the day.

With everyone out and about I figured it would be a good day to catch up on recruiting posts, since I missed the last 5.

Anyway, Happy Independence Day!

So we're going to have a playoff. Cool, right? You probably already know more about it than I do, but here's a quick refresher: The playoff will have 4 teams that are decided on by a committee who will weigh teams' win-loss record, strength of schedule, conference champion status, and head-to-head record.

I like it. I am a big fan of the conference champion component and would have liked it even more if it was a requirement rather than a suggestion. In a sport where relatively few games are played, and most are played against regional foes (especially when you look at how little the SEC travels), it is very difficult to judge who is better when who across the country with having them go head-to-head (thus the playoff).

We do have a good mechanism for determining who is the best team among a group of 12 or so...the conference champion. It works especially well for conferences with divisions. You play a round robin in your division, plus a few other games to determine the best team in the division. That team plays the best team from the other division and we figure out who is the best team in the conference. If you're not the best team in your conference, you are not the best team in the country. So, do you want to find the "best four teams" for a playoff, which is really, really difficult, or the best team in the country? I say the best team in the country. And there are 114 teams that I know are not the best team in the country because the were not the best team in their conference. So this is me saying...a team's conference champion status should be a major factor in determining who makes the playoffs.

Iowa picked up its tenth verbal commitment yesterday from Derrick Mitchell, Jr. He is a jack of all trades, but was recruited as a receiver by Iowa. But we could see him go down the John Wienke route; Mitchell has played quarterback and punter (and receiver, linebacker, safety, kick returner...) for his high school.

High School

Mitchell reigns from St. Louis and attends Vashon High School. Last season Mitchell helped the Wolverines (an unfortunate mascot) to a 6-4 seaon that ended in a first round playoff loss. He had a pretty amazing statistical year: 808 passing yards with 10 TDs and 7 INTs, 20 receptions for 277 yards and 2 TDs, and 60 rushes for 518 yards and 3 more TDs.