Florida WR headed to Iowa
Florida wide receiver Adrian Falconer had the Iowa Hawkeyes at the top of his list even before his first visit to campus. This weekend, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Falconer finally had a chance to make it up to Iowa City and before leaving town decided that is where he wants to spend his next four years after high school.
"I just committed," said Falconer. "I had a long talk with the head coach, Coach Ferentz, and told him I wanted to commit. He was really happy about it. He welcomed me to the family right away and couldn't stop smiling."
As a junior, Falconer caught 55 passes for 714 yards and five touchdowns at Leesburg High School in Central Florida. Those numbers helped draw scholarship offers from Cincinnati, Marshall, Memphis, and Southern Miss, among others, but once Iowa entered the picture in May they stood out right away.
"Out of all the schools recruiting me, Iowa was the one coming at me the hardest, so I felt like they really wanted me here," Falconer said. "The wide receivers coach, Coach Kennedy, wanted me bad. He told me this morning he's bringing in two receivers this year and definitely wants me to be one of them."
The visit to Iowa City this weekend for Iowa's recruiting barbeque is what sealed the deal for the Hawkeyes as it gave Falconer and his mother, who made the trip with him, a chance to bond with the players and coaches he will be around every day in college.
"I spent some time with Tevaun Smith last night and just hanging out with him and seeing how tight the bond is with the team, I feel like it will be a really good place for me," said Falconer. "The campus and the city are great too. When I first thought of Iowa, I was thinking about a lot of cornfields and stuff like that, but when I got here and saw how nice the campus and the city were, I just fell in love with it."
As Falconer gets ready to leave Iowa and head back home to Florida, he said that he is relieved to have the weight of his college decision off his shoulders and looks forward to his senior year at Leesburg.
"It feels great," Falconer said. "Just finally getting the recruiting process out of the way, I know I got it off my chest and I don't have to worry about it anymore. Now I can just focus on my last year of high school."