As he announced via Twitter Monday evening, 2024 three-star OT from Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois, William Nolan has committed to Iowa.
Between his 19 offers, he chose the Hawkeyes over other top schools Minnesota, Iowa State, Indiana and Vanderbilt.
A couple of things stuck out to Nolan when it came to Iowa during his recruitment, as he discussed with us ($) a little over a week ago. For one, his high school offensive line coach, Chris Riley played under Iowa OL coach George Barnett for a short time at Illinois State in the early 2010s.
"Coach Riley is a big proponent of me playing for Coach Barnett," he said. "He played for him for a year and a half; that gives me a whole lot more confidence. For Coach Riley to say that this guy would definitely be worth it to play for after being with him for just a year and a half -- that definitely gives Iowa a big boost in [my recruitment]."
The sentimental feel of playing in Iowa City factors in, too.
"I really love the Children's Hospital right by the stadium," he said. "The campus is nice, they've got great academics, the practices are intense and when I imagine myself playing in Kinnick Stadium it gives me goosebumps."
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Nolan is the eleventh commit overall and the fourth offensive lineman to commit in the Hawkeyes' 2024 class. The others are Brevin Doll, Xavier Williams, James Resar, Derek Weisskopf, Cam Buffington, Preston Ries, and Drew Campbell with Cody Fox, Josh Janowski and Bodey McCaslin as the other OL.
Nolan's commitment is a credit to the Iowa coaching staff — but also to connections made during the recruiting process. McCaslin, who committed to Iowa last Wednesday, told Go Iowa Awesome that Nolan had floated the idea of teaming up after receiving his own offer in April, asking him, "Hey, you want to be Hawkeyes together?"
Less than two weeks later, the banter has become a reality for both of them.
