Hawkeyes land #4 ranked player in Nebraska
 

right out from under the Husker's nose....

Hawkeyes land Omaha commitment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blair Sanderson
Staff

After landing a scholarship offer from the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday, it did not take long for Omaha Millard North prospect Jeff Tarpinian to make up his mind. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Tarpinian called Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz this morning and gave the Hawkeyes his verbal commitment.
Jeff Tarpinian gave his verbal commitment to Coach Kirk Ferentz this morning.
"I just called Coach Ferentz and I committed to Iowa," said Tarpinian.

Tarpinian, who ran a 4.55 forty at the Manhattan NIKE Camp, received the news of an Iowa offer on Saturday morning. He then called Reese Morgan, who recruits the state of Nebraska for the Hawkeyes, and talked to him about the offer.

"Coach Morgan had said to call Coach Ferentz this morning," Tarpinian said. "I got a hold of Coach Ferentz just a little bit ago and told him I was ready to commit. He was real excited and so was I. I talked to him and then he talked to my mom."

At Millard North High School, Tarpinian plays quarterback in Coach Fred Petito's option offense. At the Iowa camp earlier this month, the Hawkeye coaching staff had the chance to see the Omaha prep work at defensive back as a safety. The coaches have told him they could see him as a safety or maybe growing into a linebacker, but were primarily concerned with just getting him on board first.

"Coach Ferentz said they're not real worried about a position because he said I have what they want in a Hawkeye football player," said Tarpinian. "They could see me at a couple different places and he said that's a good quality to have."

Tarpinian has two former high school teammates currently on the team at Iowa in Seth Olsen and Adam Shada. In fact, it was an injured Shada who Tarpinian actually took over for at quarterback in his sophomore year at Millard North. That familiarity with two friends already in Iowa program helped make the decision a little easier the Omaha prep told us.

"Adam and Seth have nothing but good things to say about Iowa," Tarpinian said. "Iowa is just such a great program and great school. I'm just really excited."

Rivals.com ranks Tarpinian as the No. 4 player in the state of Nebraska this year. He becomes the second verbal commitment in the Class of 2006 for the Hawkeyes, joining linebacker Julian Smith.

For more on Tarpinian's commitment to Iowa, including comments from his coach, please visit the Hawkeye Lounge.

http://iowa.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=428462

If all goes well this season for the Hawkeyes, they could be playing for the National Championship. They are loaded.

This guy must not be any good. Alanm told us that Nebraska has scooped up every good player in the nation.

#4 rated player in Nebraska? Sorry if i'm not impressed. The midwest usually does not produce "highly rated" recruits. Besides, its just ratings. Lets see how he does in 4 years.

Easy Saul. Look what Ferentz did to Robert Gallery, Dallas Clark, Bob Sanders, etc. Ferentz knows talent when he sees it.

Kinda like a skinny kid from South Dakota who played safety and QB in high school, only to become the nation's top LB.

Nice East Coast bias there Saul :) Due to population concentration the majority of highly rated recruits come from the left and right coasts along with Texas and Florida. That is by no means an indicator that there is no talent in the Midwest. If you doubt that just bring your hoops shoes to the court of your choice in downtown Chicago.

Indeed...like I said, "highly rated", meaning the recruiting services on the east and west coast + Texas doesn't rate them very high. Terrence Newman was a 2 star prospect. :rolleyes:

Ratings mean jack shit. Show me your rating between the lines.

I know it is futile point that I have been trying tell people here in Chicago for years. Chicago is actually in the "Mid-East" of the U.S. It is an hour and a half flight to New York and a Four and half hour flight to L.A.
Illinois, Indiana and Ohio all claim to be Mid-West. WTF, get a map people! :cuss:

Any state not touching a state touching the ocean is the "midwest" according to most.

Hi Ed,
I'm from Iowa, I've been going to games at Wrigley since 1975, have a ton of relatives in IL (father from Wheaton), and am kind of familiar with Illinois although I haven't been there in three years. Illinois people. landscape, agriculture, etc. are all representative of the Midwest and I have always heard of Illinois as being part of the Midwest.
I have never heard the term Mid-East applied to anywhere in the US. Is it a term you hear a lot? You learn something new every day.

Hi Vail, always a pleasure!
Nope, I made it up. When I moved here, one of the advertising reps that I had dealt with at my previous employer in Kansas greeted me with: Welcome to the Mid West. Kind of started me off wrong! I told her that I had just left the Mid West, what the hell was she talking about.
It is just a geography thing with me. Here is how I see it:
Eastern Seaboard should remain the same, East Coast.
Penn to Illinois should be Mid-East, and of course the states North and South of them.
Minn on down to Texas should be Mid.
Colorado to Nevada should be Mid West and the states above an below.
Left coast should be West Coast.

It is so hard to change the world.

As far as Chicago being like Mid Westerners, are your light switches on the right when when you walk in a room, especially the bathroom?
Are your outlets put in the wall sideways instead of vertical?
Are you expected to end a sentence in a preposition?
Do you have four or five complete product lines of Pasta in the grocery store?
Can you buy Olive oil in a five gallon pale at the same store?

Oh well, just having fun. :) Wheaton is a very nice town, one village over from me.

ROFL When you put it like that it makes perfect sense!

Unless the kid can throw the ball Nebraska has no need for him. He's a option QB. Iowa and Iowa St. usually get a lot of kids out of the Omaha area. It's no big thang. :)

I forgot to add that commitments mean nothing until the LOI is signed.

BTW, KSU got a verbal commit from the #15 ranked player in Missouri awhile ago. :shrug:

Yep, I think the times zones almost have it right. I can drive for an hour and be in the Eastern TZ. I think it is about 700 miles or so to the end of Central time zone . If you changed Rocky Mountain to Mid West, all would make sense. :)

Thank you Taco for your unbiased assessment.

I just read in the Omaha World Herald where this kid will be playing defense. So far he's just a project. Now it would concern me if Omaha Central's I Backs were leaving the state. :cuss:

And going to the Sucklones of all places...

KU got a pretty good player out of Omaha one time. His name was Gale Sayers. Maybe you've heard of him.

Do you have any idea how wierd it is to hear a statement like that from NEBRASKA?
"We don't need an option QB, we need a long-ball thrower"?
Weird I tell you, just weird. That new coach of yours is changing everything in a grand tradition that has spanned 40 years. He is making a huge gamble that will either be feast or famine. It bums me out to see Nebraska chuck their heritage in an attempt to become a Pac10 offense. What have you heard from the Nebraska boosters and faithful so far; bitching about them, or taking a wait-and-see?

PS As the article states this kid will be a DB at Iowa or maybe OLB.

It's strictly wait and see. If he has a shitty year this season he will surely be on the hot seat. But all indications are that the talent is building. We should be vastly improved this season. Especially on defense. A lot of former coaches such as the former D coordinator Charlie McBride and Milt Tenopir O line coach and George Darlington DB Coach under Osborne have all come back to work with Callahan and the team sans pay. Just because of tradition. It all starts with the talent and it's flowing back to Lincoln in droves. :)

Um, you Nebraska fans don't want him? He's projected as the #15 safety in the country when the rankings come out by rivals.com. We'll take him!

It's going to be interesting to see. I can't recall ever seeing a program of Nebraska's caliber being completely revamped. That's cool that some of Osborne's main guys came back and damned wise of Callanan(sp?) to accept them. It probably will buy him an extra year just having the old staff on board.
Glad to see you are confident in your assesment of the talent coming into Lincloln; hope that translates into no more losses to Division II programs.
Good luck to the Huskers, I always enjoyed their style of play and the class they showed in victory or defeat.